"The quilters who continue to buy fabrics for their stashes have gone by the wayside," she says. "These days, nobody has the time to dig through their stash to find enough of the right fabrics that might work for a certain pattern, and then maybe still have to go out and buy more. Instead, if you can provide them with an attractive kit and nice fabrics, that's what they'll buy."
Now I'm certainly not denying that kits sell well, and from a shop-owner's point of view (at least if it's the kind of shop that sells a lot of kits), certainly they have a vested interest in encouraging that, but still... nobody I know has stopped buying fabric for their stash and is doing kits instead. How about you?
(This is the same person I was talking about in the previous entry, the one who has the shop with no batiks. Obviously she and I just have completely different world-views.)
I guess I have to admit to being a snob about kits, to a certain extent. Not that there's anything wrong with using a kit, there's not - but the quilt you end up with isn't your quilt, exactly. Yeah, you put it together, but you didn't pick the colors or the fabrics - all the things that to me are the joy of quilting. Therefore, I don't really get the appeal. But that's just me.
12 comments:
I agree with you... the person who made that comment is living on a different planet than I am. I see that kit's sell ok, but it is not the majority. And there are those who don't want to take the time to choose all their own fabrics. But, I think more people seem to buy individual fabrics that they have chosen themselves.
I'm with you too. I'm a stasher or choosing my own fabrics for a quilt, not a kitter. Seems a strange remark to have made.
People who need kits of fabric to make quilts, in my opinion, rank right up there with people who collect "collectibles". That is to say, manufactured tchatchkas whose sole purpose is to sit on a shelf and collect dust. Either way, it takes all the fun out of it and makes it a chore rather than a creative exercise.
Sounds like this woman is trying to just convince herself!
I love pulling things out of my stash, clearly this person has no idea.
In some parts of the country, there are enough quilt shops in a locale that one can specialize in say, primitives or Things That Look Like Thimbleberries. And I suppose that kits are "safe"; someone else has already gone out on the limb to see if it looks good. Whether they don't like to choose fabrics on their own, or they are afraid to, kitters make quilts that look like someone else's. I'd rather be creative and choose my own fabrics. Besides, isn't a stash like an "investment"?? :)
I think kits are good for people who are afraid of making color choices, or for those who really like the quilt and want to make one exactly like it.
Personally I have making a quilt exactly like the one someone else has made. It takes away the whole point of making something unique.
There have been times when I changed a pattern or fabric just because I want it to be different, not because I didn't like the original.
What the huh? I just did an entry showcasing my latest stash additions, so I'm definitely not living on this lady's planet either.
I have bought a few kits--usually when I absolutely had to have one of the fabrics and no yardage was to be had--but then I've just taken them home and separated the fabrics to put them in my stash. Pawing through my fabrics is one of my favorite parts of making quilts.
I think Shelina's right about people being afraid of making color choices - I've never really been that way much but I know people that are. Some of them are very experienced quilters, too. But they still don't buy kits, they just ask for lots of opinions and agonize a lot over it!!
I do own one kit that my mother bought on sale and gave to me - I still haven't put it together but I guess I'll get around to it one of these days. (Ooh. It'd make a good baby quilt and I need a couple of those!) My mother buys kits occasionally from Fons & Porter - mostly, as Karen says, if she wants a particular fabric and doesn't think she can find it any other way. I don't know anybody else that admits to buying them! (Is it that people buy them and don't admit it, do you think, or that it's somebody else entirely - beginning quilters, maybe? Because somebody is definitely buying them!)
Like a few others, I have purchased kits. I am currently doing a BOM that each month comes with the fabrics, etc. I started it because I had a long hiatus of not quilting and I needed something to "ease me" into it. I also love the designer and have done a BOM kit from her before. However, I don't set the blocks like it is suggested. I make it my own by setting the blocks like I want to.
Oh, now somehow blocks-of-the-month are exempted from being considered kits - even if they really are. I don't know why they're different, but they are. In my mind, anyway.
(Somebody tell me why this is a perfectly logical way to feel about it, please! Because I feel like it is, only I can't quite back that up right now.)
she's clearly on crack.
i have a bought a few kits, but even if you added all their yardage together it would not even come close to the many many yards of stash. i loaded up more stash in portland this weekend.
One of the things I love about quilting the most is picking out the fabric for "my" own quilt, not somebody elses. It's kinda like a dog that has to mark its territory and say this is mine. I have no desire to buy a kit and probably never will.
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