What would you charge?
 

i know there has been alot of discussion on the board about what to charge for making a quilt for someone but this one has me stumped. I got a call the other day asking if I would make a lap quilt for her mother. She has the fabric but wants me to come up with a design. I'm thinking about a simple nine patch. she making the quilt from her daughters' dresses and i would think she would want to keep the blocks large to show off the prints. I can't figure out what to charge and I don't know how many hours it will take me. of course if I have to purchase anything that will be added to my time. Any idea what to tell her?

I made a very simple 9 patch, when I made a lap quilt for my grandson out of my husbands shirts and pants. First determine the size, my current lap quilts are 36 x 48 +/- perhaps cut the squares 4". I would guess you would add borders (additional cost) and I added sashing and corners stones around each 9 patch. So you have your time cutting the squares, sewing them together, cost of sashing, borders, batting and backing, then the time to quilt the top. Your time is not free (no matter what a lot of people think) and the cost of fabric today is expensive...I would quote her some where between $200 to $400 and tell her you will keep track of your time and expenses for a final bill. She may be thinking closer to $50, and then it would not be worth your effort. As discussed many times on this board the average person just does not have a clue of the time and materials that go into our craft. In my humble opinion if she really wants it she will be willing to pay for it....

I think first you have to know what the fabrics from the dresses is like; will it involve a lot of cutting to get enough fabric. What will the pattern be? I would ask to see everything she's giving you and decide on the pattern before I quoted a price.

I have a friend who runs a business which includes making T-shirt and memory quilts. There's no price listed for the memory quilts like you describe, but for T-shirt quilts she has a rough pricing of $20 a shirt with 12 shirts making an oversize throw / almost twin quilt. So, that's about $240.

Agree on the need to see and know exactly what she wants.

The dresses may be lovely cottons .... or perhaps velvets, polyesters, slinky fabrics, etc.
How much wear is showing?

And remember ... this is not like taking yardage and cutting strips and squares. You will have to do a LOT of prep work to get the clothing into fabric that's ready to cut for the project.


As a simplistic and lower cost approach ... maybe she'd be content with a total scrappy look, like an adult I Spy!!