Rant: Your response when people see you quilting and say stupid things to you.

[noturavggeek]

I grew up in the boonies and when you can go days without electricity in the winter, you start finding things to occupy your time!!! My Mom has always crocheted and sewed most of my clothes when I was a child, so she taught me as a way to cure the "MOOOOOOM, I'm sooooo bored!" complaints. That spiraled into me learning just about every other craft I can manage to afford 

Now as a not yet 30 year old adult, I get teased incessantly at work because they know I crochet, sew, knit, can pickles, make candles, etc, etc. Yet they always want to know "Where did you buy that purse!", "That hat looks so warm and soft, where can I get one!". Duh....I made it, you watched me crochet it during lunch. "Oh, that's right, you're Amish, that sort of thing is embedded in your DNA." Right...I'm Amish, working at a global corporation...with computers...

Or my favorite: "Why do you do all that crafty stuff, you know you can just buy it"
My response: "Because I sit in front of a computer for 9 hours a day, when I go home, I don't want to sit in front of another screen mindlessly doing nothing. Plus, handmade is almost always better because I know where it came from!"
Them: "Oh, I'm the same way, when I go home I don't want to sit in front of a screen either."
Me: "Okay, so what do you do at home after work?"
Them: "I play x-box til bedtime"

*Facepalm*

[Antidigger]

I always say that I'm a cheapskate and if I make things for myself I can afford a XXXX later (I make sure my XXXX is something that they couldn't dream of affording but still really want).

[jnicodemus]

The stupidest thing I can remember right now - for both me and the girl at the fabric store - happened several years ago when I was buying backing material for a blue jean quilt I made.  I finally found a blue fabric with little daisies that would be just perfect for the friend I was giving the quilt to and I asked the Cutter Girl for 6 yards.  She began to unroll the bolt and asked:

Girl: What are you going to use the fabric for?
Me: It's backing for a quilt I made.
Girl: It sure is a long, skinny quilt.

I then explained that I would cut the length in half and sew the long sides together so it would be wide enough for the quilt.  She didn't seem to get it. 

Unfortunately, this conversation left me a little dumbstruck and when she told me that there wasn't a full 6yd piece on the bolt - only smaller pieces I gave up on it the material and went to find something else.  I ended up buying some different fabric that I didn't like so much, but would work and it was only after I had washed the new material  that I realized that I could have just bought some of the 3yd pieces that were on the daisy bolt!  Dumb!

[lyns quilts]

I was sitting at my quilting frame working on a quilt when a relative came by my quilt shop(it's in my house). She actually looked at me and asked if I was working on a quilt. That was one comment so silly I didn't have a answer for it. I also have friends and relatives who tell me that they will "let" me make them a quilt. That's when I tell them I will let them pay me for doing it.

[waggonswest]

I found this thread yesterday and read all the way through it.  It cracked me up. 

1.  My only peeve about fabric cutters are the few who are careless and cut crooked.  A poor young thing cut my quarter yard piece so badly that it was only about 7 inches wide at one end.  It would have been useless for the project which called for 8 inch blocks.  She was outraged that I asked her to measure it and then cut it again.  While I LOVE the shops that roll off an extra inch or two to make sure your cut is the right size, I don't expect it.  I do expect to get the amount I am paying for.  Mostly I love talking to my fabric cutters.  The ladies in the "old school" shop really know their stuff.  The young 'uns in the chain stores are usually curious enough to keep it interesting.

2.  Speaking of crafting in public, you would not believe the double takes, questions and funny looks boy blacksmith got when he started doing demos at 15.  It is definitely not considered a kid craft! 

[edelC]

Well apart from the people who say 'oh make one for me'..yeah right...My mother has said to me a couple of times, after admiring my latest creation (I have only made about 10 quilts in total and a few of those have been given away) 'What do you want to make any more for, you have enough now'