I'm with Jan!
I think part of the point of charging full price for the materials is to help offset the fact that we consistently undercharge for our labor. But the business rationale I've heard for it is that if you sell a quilt to one person & get all the fabrics at a 50% off Labor Day sale, you might be able to sell it for $200. Then, someone asks you to make them the same/similar quilt a month later when there is no sale. So, to cover your costs, you ask for $250 but then they think that's not fair because you just sold the exact same quilt to X a few weeks ago for $50 cheaper & there's "no way your quilting skills got that much better in such a short time".
To be honest, I think $50 plus materials -- even if you did get her to pay you for batting, backing, binding, thread, rotary blades, machine needles, starch, electricity/water/laundry soap/etc, etc, etc -- is insultingly cheap. People will do what they will, but I always cringe when I see a beautiful quilt that someone clearly spent 10-20 hours making being sold for the same amount of money my mom spends for an hour at the nail salon getting a no-chip mani/pedi that lasts 2 weeks at best. It's insulting to me when someone tells me my time and skill as an artist is worth less than a Vietnamese immigrant with a 4th grade education whose work lasts 14 days when mine can easily last 14 years.
Carol Bryer Fallart suggests that quilters should charge at least as much for an hour of our time as we would pay a cleaning service to come clean our home for an hour -- and that's assuming we don't have any real skill at sewing/quilting. I know I've been sewing for more than 25 years. I've taken classes, studied techniques, bought books & patterns until I was skilled enough to work without them... I belong to 2 professional organizations (NQA & TAS) in my industry and much of my work is done by hand. I've spent time researching what others in my area with quilting businesses charge & set my prices accordingly. I charge $0.05 per square inch for the machine quilting (I'd drop it to $0.03-0.04 if it were an all-over design). I charge $3/linear foot for binding (that includes basic, solid colored material for binding -- if they want a print or something special, they pay a premium for that, but I've yet to have someone upgrade). I charge $10 for batting (if you don't already buy batting on a roll, I'd buy a Queen-sized W&N at JAF with a 50% off coupon. I keep the difference to cover miscellaneous/unforeseen expenses like laundering quilt, rotary replacement blades, needles, spray starch, time spent washing quilt/cleaning & oiling machine, removing starch from iron sole plate, etc). I charge $15 for quilting thread (I need approx. 1200m for a baby quilt & use Aurifil). Because I do applique, I use a lot of colors for piecing/applique, but unless it's a really funky color, I usually have something that will work so they don't have to buy a whole spool. That tends to run another $15 total. I expect the client to cover the cost of all fabric. If they want to run out to the store to buy it, they can use whatever coupons they want & pay that price. Otherwise, I charge extra & count the difference to pay for shipping or for my time, fuel & mileage. I will meet a first-time client ONE TIME at the fabric store for a free consultation. After that, I work $15 into the cost of the quilt for my time. For all cutting, piecing, sewing, applique or design work, I charge $18/hour.
So, for a basic baby quilt that isn't heavily appliqued (mine are -- so I tend to get $600-800/baby quilt), I would want the client to buy the fabric. I would insist that the fabric is NEW and of decent quality and assuming those things, I would ask between
$200-250 (depending on how many hours it takes you to cut, piece, sew & baste -- if you can do all that in 2 hours, charge $200; if not, add $15-18/hour for each extra hour. Do not include quilting or binding in the number of hours because I already counted that time in the sq in/linear foot rates).
Remember that part of that cost is the fact that I already have invested money in a cutting mat, rotary cutter, sewing machine, seam rippers, an assortment of pins, various types of scissors, marking pens, wax, glue, hoops, and so forth. One cannot reasonably be expected to produce a decent quilt without a certain number of notions. I spent a LOT of money on those things, and they need to be replaced/sharpened/serviced from time to time. Another piece of it is that I have spent time & money learning how to sew over the decades. I don't have as much experience with quilting in particular, which is why I don't charge more, but I get 6 even stitches to an inch with the machine & 8 perfect stitches to an inch by hand (I have15 years experience doing hand embroidery & applique), so my quilting is not terrible, I just have a limited number of designs I can offer.
I'm all for doing things for friends, but if I need a haircut or a massage or a medical check-up, I don't expect my friends to provide those services at cost. If she's a REALLY good friend, I'd probably just make her a gift & get reimbursed for my costs. Otherwise, your art is worth a fair wage. $200 for an heirloom quality quilt is still a crazy good deal. Not everyone can afford beautiful art, but just because I couldn't afford to spend more than $50 on a painting, doesn't mean I expect my friend with a sofa sized Jackson Pollack to sell me the painting for that price. Believe in yourself, believe in the art of quilting & know that when you put as much care into your art as I'm sure you do, it's worth a lot more than a manicure.
