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Old 01-06-2016, 10:20 PM
  #7  
Bree123
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Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Illinois
Posts: 2,140
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If you ask this question to 100 different quilters, you will get 100 different answers. Some people don't mind making quilts for friends either for free or only the cost of the fabric, batting & thread. The very best way to know what to charge is to have the quilt appraised by an AQS certified appraiser.

Barring that, it really depends a lot on the size of the quilt, the details & skill involved in the design, whether it is an original or a commercial design, the materials used and if you have won any awards for your quilts in the past + how much past quilts have sold for.

I like nvb50's post. I break down my labor differently & while my fabric costs are less, the above list doesn't include anything for overhead (water, electricity, machine maintenance) or items like needles, markers, rotary blades, pins & thread that need to be restocked on a regular basis. That said, $800-1000 is about what my 65x65" baby quilts go for. I do a lot of hand applique, but usually not a ton of piecing. I've been fortunate that my local market supports that price for quality baby quilts. Not every market does. And the interesting thing I found was that while I can sell baby quilts for that price where I live, I would be hard pressed to find a buyer for a king or queen sized quilt at that price. There are some out there, but most often the larger bed quilts will only sell for $300-500.

Do your research to see what your local market will bear & go from there. Personally, I don't sell to friends & neighbors. They aren't in any better position to afford a nice quilt than I am and, other than my very best friend, I wouldn't find it appropriate to give any of them a $600 baby gift (i.e., only ask them to pay for materials & maybe "chip in" $50-100 toward my time). When people ask me to make a quilt for their child, I tell them very sweetly that quilts are so expensive to make that for the longest time my clients were puzzled as to why I didn't own a single wall/bed quilt. I explain that materials alone usually run me around $125-150 and then can take anywhere from 50-200 hours to complete. By the time I tell them that my baby quilts usually sell for $800-1000, they have already decided they don't want a quilt that badly. As for actual clients, I still love making quilts for them every bit as much as I enjoy making quilts for family members.
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