Jump to content

Selling Quilts Question


Recommended Posts

As a courtesy to the designer and to side-step any copyright issues, get permission from the designer. Put her/his name on the label as well as yours.

If your quilts are simple, use graph paper or EQ to design your own patterns. That way there are no copyright issues involved. Nobody owns a nine patch. Or an Irish Chain. Or any of the classic blocks. Some of my favorite quilts use only light/dark half-squares. Those can be arranged in gorgeous ways.

Good luck with your sales!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Linda, I am so glad you said that. I met some new cousins over the holiday in Mississippi and one wants me to make her a quilt. Soooooooo, I need a pattern that "can be arranged in gorgeous ways", yet not be too complicated. She wants moss green, butter yellow, tan/beige and white. I can't pick fabric because I can't decide on a pattern. Aargghh! (I'm a visual person; hard to picture in my mind.) Can you expound on that a little more for me please, with maybe some examples. Thanks in advance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Janice! Please visit

www.quiltville.com

which is Bonnie Hunter's web site. She is perhaps the most generous and nicest designer in all quiltdom. Her forte is scrappy quilts and she has dozens of easy, colorful quilt pattern for free on her site. Scroll down the right side of the main page and click on a title. You will find a photo, yardage requirements, cutting directions and piecing info. I have made Boxy Stars in repro fabrics as a baby quilt.

As for the half-squares versatility, I made a king size as a gift using four inch squares with greens on one side and sunflower yellows and oranges on the other side of the square. I arranged them with a green center medallion and arranged so the diagonals were all green/all yellow. It was striking and simple to piece.

Here is a photo of an easy quilt design--all half-squares and four patches. Both easy to piece.

post--1346190471338_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's another two-block pattern. Made with four patches and blocks made like a snowball, except only two opposite corners have a triangle. It looks so complicated, but is very easy. You could use the lightest color as the background (the X's) and the rest in the yellows and greens.

post--13461904713583_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Linda. That last pattern is one I had considered, so I'm on the right track, I think. I hadn't thought of quiltville. I'll check them out. This quilt is for someone who buys her quilts retail and knows nothing about quilts. From looking at the two she had on her beds she likes traditional, or that's all available in the store. (small town, no major stores) She mainly wants something neutral that matches the green walls and pictures on walls, and the second biggie is to go to the floor on queen size bed!!!! Which of course is a king size.:mad: She wanted a quilt to the floor for a king but I said not me. Oh! and she wanted to know if she could have it before Thanksgiving.:P

Thanks again for your help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by JBQuilts

Oh! and she wanted to know if she could have it before Thanksgiving.:P

Thanks again for your help.

This made me giggle...sure if she makes the top herself and all you have to do is quilt it....and then MAYBE. ;););) that's what would have been my answer.:cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Bonnie

Originally posted by JBQuilts

Oh! and she wanted to know if she could have it before Thanksgiving.:P

Thanks again for your help.

This made me giggle...sure if she makes the top herself and all you have to do is quilt it....and then MAYBE. ;););) that's what would have been my answer.:cool:

And my answer would be "Thanksgiving of what year??" :D:D:D

Good luck with your quilt making.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cindy and Bonnie,

Did you talk to her also?:P:P:P And I just met these distant cousins! I wanted to take her to a fabric store so she could choose some fabrics and kind of give me a start. I don't like picking for other people because I'm never sure they will like it. I know what I like; that's why I quilt for me. I don't have to stress over "will they like it? Is it what they wanted?" etc. I so don't want to do this! My sister says I'm worrying too much about it. If I can just settle on a pattern I think I'll be half way there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hi Gable,

I'm no copyright attorney but I'd like to share a few thoughts. I like to sew, smock, and quilt and sell the stuff I make. I was intimidated, for YEARS, by the copyright warnings on many patterns. Like many of us, I believed I could NOT use a purchased pattern to make stuff to sell.

Then I found the Tabberone website. This website explains what copyright actually protects. Copyright protects the printed pattern and instructions. Useful objects, like dresses, quilts, etc, are NOT copyrightable. Noone can tell you what you may do with your own sewn article, made from any pattern you have purchased. You can sell, it, burn it , or give it away as you wish. You may NOT make copies of the pattern or instructions to sell, or give away. Many patterns will have a "copyright" statement" saying buyers may NOT sell things made from the pattern. This is hogwash and not legally binding. The designer/publisher does not have any right to tell you what you may do with your own sewn articles. Take a look at the Tabberone website...I think you will enjoy it.

Karen in La.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Karen!

I know you have posted this info before and I visited the site and gleaned some useful information about copyrights. Check out the site if you haven't already.

It has been explained to me that the copyright gives the designer ownership of the printed matter--her/his instructions exactly as printed. No one else can PROFIT from their intellectual material--no copying and selling or their actual printed stuff. What you make from it is yours--no matter what the disclaimer on the pattern says.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by PeggyB

check www.quilterscache.com and look under quilt blocks galore she gives very clear instructions, a drawing of what the quilt would look like and pictures of blocks

I have wondered about this too. I have seen many quilts for sale here that use the colleges fabric and logos for sale. These were at a local quilt shop. Anybody have an answer?? I could make lots of $$$ making and selling these.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always wondered what the heck they expect us to do with all this "licensed" fabric anyway.........just buy it and look at it. :P If it wasn't to be used for public/personal use, then don't put it out there. I think the license part means you cannot make the same fabric, but what you do with it is your business if you pay the big $$ for it. Maybe I am wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by quiltmonkey

When selling quilts, I think it's a nice gesture to reference the pattern name and designer's name (and web site) on the label.

I've always done this on quilts I've entered in competition, but not sure I would if I was selling. I agree, it seems like the right thing to do, but also think you might be inviting trouble if the designer is alerted by your acknowledgment and is one who believes you have infringed on her copyright. Could cost you some money to defend, even if you did nothing wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...