hsquiltingmom

Hi everyone,

After 3 failed attempts to get a full time position at my current job, I am contemplating starting a business of selling quilts. I would like to know how those of you who sell your quilts, figure out the pricing structure. Do you base the cost on the full price of the fabric? I buy all of my fabric on sale. I am going to figure the price of quilting at .01 per square inch for meander and .02 per square inch for custom quilting. That is in line with one of my local quilt shops.

Any help that you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jingle

Sorry, I don't think you would make enough money to help you out. Just my opinion.

Lori S

Oh I think you really need to sit down and evaluate making quilts for a living. Write down ALL the expenses , fabric , patterns , thread, batting, backing, machine needles, machine maintienience etc....then add ALL of your time... Remember when you are on an "official" payroll you are making contributions to social security and covered under Workmans Compensation. The long term effects of a hobby as a income really need to be completely reviewed.. especially when it comes to long term impacts. I think you will find you can make more money working at the local convienient store.
I am sure others are going to chime in with more details of a "home" business.

Scissor Queen

Go look at the prices on quilts and bed in a bag at Wal-Mart or Target. That's what people expect to pay. You'll end up spending all your spare time sewing and make pennies an hour because you can't get your costs low enough to compete.

QuiltingByCourtney

Some people say double the cost of fabric some say triple it, as I have researched the prices are all across the board and it also depends on your area, like my area, you could never charge more then $500 per queen size quilt because ppl around here just can't afford it, but if you live in a fancy area where people have money to blow you might be able to get more per quilt...For me if I could make $200 a month net I would be ok, just enough to pay for groceries...but I have a hubby in the military so yeah I just need a tiny extra cash...and its fun to quilt...I want to start a quilting business from home and just quilt not to (start to finish quilts) but its been slow so I am just doing start to finish quilts on my spare time for friends and family and just double my cost of materials because I am mainly just trying to get my name out there and hopefully one day people will bring me their quilt tops and I can focus more on just long arming... hope this helps some.

francie yuhas

Check your local area for marketing..are there a lot of other LA s in the area. Can you check with quilt guild members? We have a couple of local,small town restaurants that will hang and sell wall hangings om commission. The quilters sells a lot for about the 30-40$ price range.check out the LQS: ors sells quiltson commission. We have lots of tourists. Good Luck!

PaperPrincess

In my geographic area the amount they want to pay for a quilt would barely cover the expense of the materials. Are there any consignment shops in your area? you may want to see if anyone else is offering quilts for sale and how much they are charging. You can also look on etsy and see what folks are charging (you can also look at their sales history and see if they have sold anything too!) I wouldn't quit your part time day job until you have done a lot of research on this. Good LucK!

ckcowl

selling quilts is one of those things---it takes time to be anywhere near consistant...you may sell 2 or 3 quilts in a week-then not sell another one for 6 months...unless you have a shop, a following (even the well known-famous quilters make their income from their books, awards, patterns, shops...and occassionally from the sale of a quilt)
i sell alot of quilts- but i also go weeks/months without selling any quilts- i shudder at the thought of having to depend on that to pay my bills. generally i keep track of materials- and time- then decide what the quilt is (worth). to double or triple the cost of materials, then add in quilting, then add in your time...you would be looking at thousands of $$ per quilt- even a baby quilt would be in the $300-$400 range...not very realistic for most of us...unless we have a (following) with a demand for our work (like the famous ones- and they have spent many years reaching the point of having that following.)
often i make quilts for someone then show them off--and someone will ask if they can buy it.
ive had quilts on the 'quilts for sale' website that have been there for over a year- then suddenly sold

ptquilts

I agree with the previous posters. I am trying to sell some on Etsy just to make more room, they are at ridiculous (for me) prices and they are not selling that fast.

Start your quilting business but do not give up any paid employment you can get. When you have 6 months worth of quilt orders backed up, THEN you can quit your day job.

hsquiltingmom

I should have mentioned that I would not be quitting my part time job. This would be something that I would use to supplement our income with, and maybe put some money aside for extra vacations and such. With the cost of things, I thought this might be a way to help. Thanks for all the suggestions.