In which I am not a Chinese sweatshop worker

[SongsOfDragons]

From my experience, hand-made stuff is more often than not more durable than some commercially-made stuff. When my parents were preparing to move to their retirement bungalow up north last year but one, we found a sealed box from the loft had a load of my baby clothes in it. These fabrics would be about 23 years old at the time of unsealing. Most of the commercial clothes had patches of mould, discolouration or sprung stitching; the stuff my mam hand-knit and cobbled together herself was still practically pristine. ^^ Some years before that she got back into knitting and used up all her 20-year-old baby wool to make me a lovely pastel multicolour scarf.

[Jester]

I've tried that, the only real problem is that the mass market ones that sell for $25 at the discount stores and $100 at the department stores are handmade. Handmade by small children in 3rd world countries, but still handmade. Because I am a quilter, I can see the huge stiches, the poor quality fabric, the sub-par craftmanship. Many people just see "WalMart Handmade Quilt - $25" vs "Kanalah's Handmade Quilt $150" and think they are the same thing.

Allow me rephrase....

CUSTOMER: "Why are the hand-made quilts so expensive?"
KANALAH: "It might have something to do with the fact that they're painstakingly hand-made locally to the highest quality."

If they still don't realize the difference between your stuff and the stuff they can buy commercially, well, fuck 'em. I'm quite sure other customers who know the difference will purchase your goods if these fucktards won't.

"You buy walmart quilts and mark them up and say you made them. You're retarded if you think anyone will fall for that!"

"Look, lady, I don't come to your job and tell you how to scare children and ride broomsticks."

[Kanalah]

Okay I think you guys need to come visit and help me work the booth.

Also I should learn to not have a drink next to the computer.

[dalesys]

Also I should learn to not have a drink next to the computer.

The computer was thirsty, so mommy gave it a drink and a smoke.

(I have quilted... drafted by my mother... Kneedle and pfhtread...)

[Seshat]

Handmade by small children in 3rd world countries, but still handmade. Because I am a quilter, I can see the huge stiches, the poor quality fabric, the sub-par craftmanship.

Ahhhhh!

From my experience, hand-made stuff is more often than not more durable than some commercially-made stuff. When my parents were preparing to move to their retirement bungalow up north last year but one, we found a sealed box from the loft had a load of my baby clothes in it. These fabrics would be about 23 years old at the time of unsealing. Most of the commercial clothes had patches of mould, discolouration or sprung stitching; the stuff my mam hand-knit and cobbled together herself was still practically pristine. ^^

The issue here is not so much 'hand made' vs 'commercially made' as levels of quality.

Clearly, your mother worked with long-staple, tightly-wound yarns of high grade fibres; and was skilled at knitting with them.

Kanalah's quilts are (I'm assuming) made from long-staple, tightly-wound yarns* of high grade fibres; with the woven fabrics being a high thread count, the stuffing being appropriate to the chosen outer fabrics, and the stitch length appropriate to the task.

(* using 'yarn' in its broadest sense, to include threads as well as flosses and yarns)


Durability ultimately comes down to quality. And quality comes down to choosing the correct raw materials and using them well.

[RootedPhoenix]

I even had an older lady one year at Really Big Craft Show yell at me about "You buy walmart quilts and mark them up and say you made them. You're retarded if you think anyone will fall for that!"

Lately I've been saying 'Handmade Locally' since people have started to get into a kerfluffle about shopping locally. Some times I am tempted to tell people that by buying the 3rd world quilts they're supporting child labor, but I'm not that evil yet.

The lady needs and . Does she really think Wal-Mart is the only place to get quilts and that no one else makes them? Twitwidget.

And honestly, I would tell them about the child labor. But I am that evil.

[AyreBiskits]

"Look, lady, I don't come to your job and tell you how to scare children and ride broomsticks."

you should make an app so people can have witty comebacks for idiots like that.

[XCashier]

"Look, lady, I don't come to your job and tell you how to scare children and ride broomsticks."

Best. Comeback. EVER!

[tropicsgoddess]

She wanted to pay you only $250 for all that work?!!!! She's insane.

[Kiwi]

did she ever respond?

[Jester]

you should make an app so people can have witty comebacks for idiots like that.

I AM that app. And honestly, I don't know where a lot of my comments come from. They just jump into my mind a lot of the time, from nowhere it seems. It truly is a gift.

Best. Comeback. EVER!

Well, no...it isn't. Because I remember the best comeback ever, and it wasn't mine. Although the one above is a blatant ripoff of that particular comeback. (Hey, I'll admit when I'm not the originator of something, and I'll give credit where credit is due.)

Several years ago during Fantasy Fest, at one point we had our roof deck at capacity, to the point that anyone else going up there would have violated fire code. So, to control the influx of people, management put my coworker, The Wall (I think you can guess why I dub him that?) at the bottom of the stairs on crowd control for a little while.

At one point, one woman, who The Wall would not allow to go upstairs as she wanted to, started giving him hell about it.

Without blinking an eye, The Wall just looked at her and said, "Look lady, I don't come to your job and smack the dick out of your mouth."

THAT is the best comeback ever!

[XCashier]

Without blinking an eye, The Wall just looked at her and said, "Look lady, I don't come to your job and smack the dick out of your mouth."

THAT is the best comeback ever!

Okay, let me rephrase that. Yours is the best G-rated comeback ever!

[Sapphire Silk]

I just got a quote on a queen size quilt for five hundred dollars,

Wow. The quilt I usually use is a queen sized one I bought from a friend of mine for $70 (she'd made it for a raffle to raise money for another friend going on a mission trip to Africa; I saw it and bought it on the spot). The top was hand sewn, but the quilting was machine done. It's a lovely quilt . . . it never occurred to me I got it at cost. I'll have to take good care of it (it's my favorite)

Ah yes, "The Expert Effect" where-as when someone practises and practises doing something, an outsider in observing them thinks what they are doing is very easy and anyone can do it.

Yeah, my answer to that is always "if anyone could do it, everyone would do it."

I took four years of Home Ec in school and still can't sew a stitch . . . I took it for the cooking lessons (I can cook well when I actually put thought into it instead of just throwing someone on the stove like I do when I cook for myself).

I've tried that, the only real problem is that the mass market ones that sell for $25 at the discount stores and $100 at the department stores are handmade. Handmade by small children in 3rd world countries, but still handmade. Because I am a quilter, I can see the huge stiches, the poor quality fabric, the sub-par craftmanship. Many people just see "WalMart Handmade Quilt - $25" vs "Kanalah's Handmade Quilt $150" and think they are the same thing.

Ugh. I have a queen sized quilt I bought at Walmart that I'm pretty sure was mass manufactured in a factory. It's OK, and it was cheap. But I would never confuse it for a quilt done right, be it hand quilted or machine quilted.

I have a couple of quilts my great grandmother made. Well, technically they're not quilts because they were tied not quilted. But you can't see the stitching in the blocks, and you have to look to see the ties on my mother's old queen sized quilt.

Mom sent my baby quilt to my paternal grandmother for repair (she was in a quilting club at her church) and cried when she got it back. I'm not sure why this was done, but the blocks were taken apart and put back together, and the stitching is much more obvious. The ties were bits of material; they were replaced with pink yarn. It's really still a nice looking quilt, but it doesn't look as nice as it did when I was a kid.

Quilting really is an art form, it's time consuming, and takes a lot of work. If you want something nice, expect to pay a fair market rate for it.

[Jester]

Okay, let me rephrase that. Yours is the best G-rated comeback ever!

Thank you. Though I doubt anything *I* do is actually G-rated. PG or R, sure. But G? Me? No.

[Sapphire Silk]

Thank you. Though I doubt anything *I* do is actually G-rated. PG or R, sure. But G? Me? No.

Well . . . G string maybe . . . .