Is free a good thing?

Here's an age-old dilemma. How much free stuff is too much?

Let's take the instance of quilt patterns. Lots of fabric companies will have their staff or an outside designer design a "free pattern". In this instance, free patterns will always use a specific fabric collection. The idea is that you, the customer will like the pattern, download it and then search out that fabric and make the quilt. There's a cost to the fabric company of having the staff design and write the pattern (they could be doing something else) or they will pay a fee to the outside designer to write the pattern.

In addition, these free patterns can then be used by the quilt stores so they can kit a project using the free pattern and the fabric collection. This keeps the cost to the customer down and the free pattern is like a marketing expense.

Another example is the quilt store that will put together their own free patterns with the hopes that you'll like the pattern and buy the kit from them. I think eQuilter is a big promoter of free patterns. But with a twist - they sell a lot of panels and almost all the free patterns are "custom" designed for a specific panel.

Then there are designers themselves who will offer free patterns on their website to get you interested in their style of design and then hopefully you'll buy the bigger more complex designs.

Don't get me started on people who GET A PATTERN FOR FREE and bitch and complain because the pattern has mistakes or isn't their style. Then DON'T TAKE THE FLIPPING pattern!!!!  Breathe - breathe!!  I agree - that if a pattern is going to be made and given away for free, then it should be done right, but don't complain about something you get for FREE.

Then there is the plethora of other FREE stuff. Could be tips, could be tutorials (like the stuff that I produce on QUILTsocial. A lot of the information that I put on that website, other people are writing it into books or videos for which you need to pay money to get access to.

And how many Youtube videos are out there - TONS of free stuff. Like Missouri Star. But those "free" videos are their main marketing tool and they sell millions of dollars of product to all of you who watch them and then decide to buy from them. Way more than what they sell in their shops.

So at what point does free become too much and while it works for you, the customer, what about the people that are trying to make a living by selling information or patterns. If no one wants to buy patterns because they can get the patterns for free (or they copy the pattern from a friend), it's very hard to make a living in this business.

Here's an industry article that discusses the value of "free".

One thing that I'm not in favor of is people "hoarding" all this free stuff. I've seen people who have copied patterns from their friends (because it's FREE) and then never use the pattern. Why bother to copy it? Each time a pattern gets sold, someone makes money on it - that MONEY is their bread and butter. How much - not much, but if people keep copying patterns, the designer will no longer be producing patterns.

How much "free stuff" do people amass and then never read. Material that you pick up at a trade show or things you download from the internet?

Part of the problem is that there are many people out there who are great teachers or great makers but do NOT make a living from this industry. Quilting is their hobby so they can "afford" to make stuff and sell it for next to nothing or they can afford to write up instructions and not care if it gets out there for free. The other thing I'd be cautious about is that not everything you get for "free" is going to be well done. Patterns are often not well written, or instructions/videos are providing incorrect information (that's NOT a generalization - lots of free information is extremely well done). "Buyer" beware!

Lots of bloggers will have giveaways or ads on their blogs to attract readership. Seriously, if I can only attract people to my blog with a giveaway? I don't want those people reading my blog. They have ZERO skin in the game. They're just there for the giveaways. Instagram is the worst for this - I see giveaways all the time and people have to tag others in order to be included in the draw and I get tagged all the time. Sorry - it dies with me - I will NEVER tag someone in a giveaway!  It's a form of bribery! Reminds me of those pyramid schemes and those chain letters.

Unfortunately what this does is that it sets the industry up for failure. We want everything to be free, we want coupons for everything, we want discounts on everything. What we need to do - is learn to buy what we NEED, use that up and buy more. But to buy for the sake of buying? That's a mental disorder and we need to figure out what is missing from our lives that we need to "buy" happiness in the form of more fabric. Oh god - I'm a Debbie Downer this morning!

Anyway, that's my little soapbox story this morning. It's an interesting conversation and we all need to look at what we are, what our buying habits are.

Speaking of buying habits - I bought ONE thing at the CreativFestival yesterday. I must say that I like being in a sewing machine booth. There is always something to do with babysitting the sewing machines. We have four embroidery machines in the booth and keeping the bobbins full, changing threads and chatting to customer and visitors (Hi Joyce!) well, it's pretty cool. I've got something special to work on today and I'll share some of the stitch-outs with you. I've got loads of projects to figure out with those stitch-outs.

I investigated the other item that I wanted to buy. Oh boy - it's a wee bit more expensive than I originally thought. OK - it's a lot more expensive. But I decided that I'm worth it and if I don't learn to use it properly, then I'm just going to have to shoot myself. The salesperson said - I just need to check out the YouTube videos and I'd be a pro in no time.

I'll fill you in when I get it home in a month.

On that note, I'd better run. I've got to finish getting ready. Today is the last day for CreativFestival. I have one thing to buy and one more item to check out for my knowledge. And one person to visit with.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!