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Old 05-09-2016, 07:39 PM
  #32  
Bree123
Super Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Illinois
Posts: 2,140
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My personal experience is that unless the person is already an art collector (any art -- quilts, designer clothing, paintings, sculpture, etc) or is used to commissioning work, they are not going to be willing to pay anything remotely close to what your time is worth. I really wouldn't even bother to look at anything unless when I told her "I typically never receive less than $800 for any of my baby quilts" her response is "okay, that's probably less than what I would spend".

But that's me. I feel like if I want to be generous with my time (other than with family or my very closest friend), I will either donate a quilt outright or will sell the quilt for full price & donate part or all of the profits. I just don't get the mentality that somehow quiltmakers owe it to the world to work for slave wages. If the people who asked me to make them a quilt for $100-200 with 40-50 hours of handwork (and I am quite quick with hand applique & embroidery because I've been doing it for over 20 years) plus design time, light piecing & 1" custom quilting are likewise working for $2/hour or less, I wouldn't consider it so offensive a question. But it's usually the ones pulling down $50K salaries (i.e., $25/hour) that expect me to work for 1/10th what they earn.

So, as politely as I can manage, I tell them even I can't afford my quilts because they start at $800 and can take up to 200 hours to complete so they might want to consider learning to make their own ... if they seem interested, I'll give them a few websites to check out.
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