First the Good News... It's finished! Took me the whole year, and needed over 2 million stitches. I had the design and main silk for a few years and made it a resolution to complete this project in 2016.
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| My finished tapestry of gold metallic thread on dark green silk. |
I modified a quilt label from embroidery library and happily stitched the label for the back.
Now the Not-So-Good News... I now know how much I spent on it.
Do you know the cost of your projects? I recently went through the records I had for this project, and totaled up the cost. Time invested is priceless, but the material costs really add up too. I knew it would be pricey because of the silk and metallic thread. I must admit, the total was more than I thought, probably because I purchased some things before and had them on hand, so I didn't think about their prior cost. I also spent a little extra on purchasing gold silk samples in search of the perfect shade of gold border to match this project.
Here are my costs (rounded to nearest whole dollar). I tried to shop sales and uses coupons/codes where I could:
- Anita Goodesign Golden Tapestry Embroidery Designs - $74
- Main Fabric - Dark Green Silk Dupioni - 3 yards - $57
- Border Fabric - Soft Gold Dupioni Silk - 1 yard - $35
- Backing Fabric - Forest Green Cotton - 3.5 yards - $18
- Bobbin Thread - Brother 5-pack of 1200 yard spools - $38
- Embroidery Thread - 6 spools of Pacesetter Deep Green 1100 yard spool - $37
- Metallic Embroidery Thread - 9 spools of Floriani 880 yard cone - $126
- Fabric Interfacing - Armo Weft fusible - 20" x 10 yards - $42
- Batting for quilt top and sandwich - Pellon Nature's Choice Cotton - 90" x 2 yards - $11
- Stabilizer - Floriani No-Show Mesh - 5 rolls of 12" x 10 yards (double layer in hoop) - $70
- Quilting Top Thread - Sulky King Size Clear polyester - $7
- Quilting Bottom Thread - Gutterman 500 M Dark Green SewAll -$5
TOTAL MATERIALS COST: $520
Incidentals:
- Machine Needles - Schmetz 75/11 Embroidery - $15
- Gold Border Fabric Swatches - $27
My total material costs: $562
If you are looking to make this project and wonder what exactly I bought and from where, I have a PDF copy of my actual costs and resources here.
I don't usually track expenses for a particular project, but this one was such an undertaking, that I happen to save the receipts. Not sure I will do this again - I don't think I want to know. 😉 But this does show that hand-made quilts and projects like this are expensive to start - not including the time invested to create your masterpiece.
I totally love my Golden Tapestry and proudly hang it in our living room. I hope it will be passed down for generations to come.
Happy Stitching!
You created an absolutely gorgeous tapestry. You must smile every time you walk by and look at it.
ReplyDeleteI'm making the same tapestry except I can't figure out a way to finish it. Did you use spray-adhesive to glue on the backing then bind it?
ReplyDeleteHi Stella,
ReplyDeleteI pin-basted the backing on, then stitched in the ditch along the blocks with clear thread. Then finally sewed the binding on. Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Sylvia