The randomly selected winner of the PDF patterns from the last post is:
Koye Hendrix. Please email me at hmulder@wecnet.com to receive your patterns!
It was interesting to read all of the comments from the last post. Though I didn’t count, PDF patterns clearly win! Many of you mentioned that you loved the fact that there were no shipping costs and you could get the pattern instantly.
Several of you mentioned a couple negatives of PDFs – like having the cost of printing the PDF pattern yourself or paying the same price for a PDF as a paper pattern. This was one things I wanted to talk about briefly. A while back I was reading a Facebook post on PDF patterns that got me a little upset. Some of these comments were nasty – like calling the pattern designers “greedy” for charging the same price as paper patterns. Their reasoning was that the main cost of the pattern is in the printing, so they should be cheaper. I realized that there are a lot of misconceptions about PDF patterns and the business in general, so I thought I would share a couple of thoughts on that today . . . . .
In reality, printing is a very small part of the cost that goes into the pattern. The other costs include fabric, machine quilting, writing the pattern, drawing all of the diagrams, proofing the pattern, marketing (blogging about the pattern, making and paying for brochures, sending out email newsletters, promotional info that goes out to the distributors, etc), the time involved in designing and sewing the quilt (in my case, there are usually several size options that are made for the cover), and the cost of having the pattern tested. These costs far outweigh the cost of the printing. The time involved to do all of these things is huge. In addition, the service that sends out the PDF also charges fees that you don’t have with paper patterns.
But, despite all of that, one of the other main reasons that PDF patterns are the same price as paper patterns is that our distributors dictate that the price is the same. It has to do with the more boring business side of things, but it is an important factor. Our distributors and the shops that carry our patterns invest lots of money in buying and storing inventory (the paper versions of these same patterns and books). In fact, about 95 percent of our business comes from these distributors and shops. If we undercut them in price, we are not being very supportive of the people who support us and keep us in business! In fact, our distributors dictate that if we sell our PDF patterns for a cheaper price, they will no longer carry our patterns. As a business owner, I would quickly go out of business without the support of these distributors. Without me being in business, there would be no PDF patterns to buy in the first place. As you can see, that type of scenario doesn’t work! We aren’t trying to be greedy – just stay in business 🙂
I will get off my soap box for today. I just wanted people to know the other side of the story . . .
Now onto something more fun – Do you remember when I said my husband was going for the Husband of The Year award? We are redoing our room and after looking at lots of beds, he decided to build us one.
We were inspired by a couple of storage beds at Pottery Barn.
My issue with these beds was that the drawers were only around 15″ deep. We needed way more storage than that. Plus the cost of $2000 for the bed and $700 for shipping, it just didn’t seem worth it. For that price, I would like to design it myself. Joel offered to make my thoughts a reality!!! (Really – I didn’t ask him to do it!)
First he made the units that would hold the drawers. That part looks like a bookcase laying on its side.
Next, he made the headboard and footboard.
After the parts and pieces were assembled, and after many, many hours of sanding, we had them painted. We hired somebody to spray them and it was money well spent. The finish is beautiful. There is something about that sprayed finish that can never be achieved with a brush or a roller.
Here are a few shots of the bed in the room. (Sorry about the quality of the photo – they are just iphone photos. I will get better photos after the room is totally finished. )
The drawers are a whopping 30″ deep. Perfect for someone who has lots of hand-knit sweaters!
We already had the night stands and I have repainted the room. The bed is in place and I am working on the pillows. (in that I have the fabric, but haven’t started sewing)
The large floral you see in this photo is my inspiration for the colors in the room.
We are both pretty excited about the bed. It turned out really nice and makes our room seem so much bigger. I am anxious to make the a quilt made for the end of the bed and add the other finished touches. Below is a shot of how our room looked before. Click here to see the blog post about it and the “befores” before this one.
Joel requested something a little more “manly” this time around. No more hot pink and yellow!
I just want to say a BIG thanks to my BH for making this for us! It is one of my favorite pieces in the house and that much more special because he made it. He spent at least three full Saturdays making it, plus several nights, so he put a lot of time into this. His furniture building skills are probably what led to us dating in the first place – which is another story for another post. Napoleon Dynamite wished for nunchuking skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills… “You know, Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills”. I happen to think furniture building skills works too!
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