Thread: What Should I Pay for This Custom Long-Armed Quilting?

Long story short... I made two quilts that I really loved, but I didn't know how to quilt them. I found a long-arm quilter that does beautiful work. I pretty much left it up to her how to quilt it because I had no clue. My only request was that I wanted the blocks to stand out from the background on the first one (first two pictures). She said that she would "try" to keep the cost below $200. We never discussed the price on the second one (third and fourth pictures).

That was last June, and she told me not to expect them back until December. The only correspondence that I received from her was in November saying that she would start my beautiful quilt soon. After 11 months I received the quilts in the mail with this note:

"...Your quilts are finished & I think turned out wonderful. Because I have had them so long there w/be NO charge for the quilting - I was so busy this past year that I didn't know whether I was coming or going - and they got put on the back burner - My apologies for the delay..."

No way will I let her give me the custom quilting for "NO charge." The first one is 55 inches x 76 inches, and the second one is 47 inches square. What do you think is a fair price to pay her?

I think I would send her at least the $200.00 & tell her that it is a donation for her work. It was really nice of her to not charge for being so late getting them back to you. I have known a few that have kept quilts that long & still charged the regular price for quilting them. Beautiful quilts by the way.

'valleyquiltermo' - I am not new to longarming, in that I have used many to do my quilts over the years. But, I am a new longarmer and I appreciated your comment and am going to print it out for my "notes".

I am currently still learning how to use my machine and have been very lucky to have a group that feeds me all their charity quilts to "practice" on. I have done about ten of them for them. I am also very lucky that they don't have any deadlines associated with them - only the ones I give myself.

I have been on vacation quite a bit since they came to me so I am looking forward to my life slowing down some so I can get them all done.

Originally Posted by valleyquiltermo

I'm a longarmer and if I'm late getting your quilt to you I deduct 5% for every month I'm late and a 10% discount on the next quilt I do for you. By the way I am not usually late unless I get sick or my machine goes down. Then I call and let them know what is going on.
Your quilts and the quilting is lovely.

This sounds fair to me. It was nice of her to say "No charge", but she deserves something for her beautiful work. The quilts are beautiful!

Norma