Stitching the Summer Flowers

Slowly, I am am adding hand stitching to both of my little summer flowers series.  The hand stitching slows down the progress of a piece, which brings up a significant dilemma.  My art quilts are all about a multitude of textures and details that includes lots of hand stitching.  It also adds exponentially to the time and therefore the selling price of the piece. This occurred to me as I started to stitch yesterday on these little flower quilts.  

Image and designs copyright RPS

One hour's worth of stitching on the day lily, fifteen minutes on the Joe-Pye-Weed.

I have been intending on having 8 x 10" art quilts as a more affordable option to customers at future art fairs.  The more hand stitching I add, the less affordable they are, but leaving out the hand stitching compromises the integrity of my vision for the quilt.  So far, I have worked on the Joe-Pye-Weed for one hour and 35 minutes and the day lily for two hours and ten minutes.  I could split the hour I spent piecing the bases, since I made two bases in that time, that would bring down the times for each.  The hand stitching is something I like to do, but it is going to wreck the cost factor.  Take a look at the Joe-Pye-Weed (the one on the right above), I have a long way to go!  

That day lily really needs some leaves...