No, they really don't have a clue about quilting, I had that kind of discussion when I was talking to my best friend when she wanted me to do a completely custom quilt and after I finished designing it and I started quoting her how much everything was, she flipped out and we are talking the ugly kind.
After I calmed her down, I went through step-by-step why it is handmade quilts are so expensive and why hers was getting up in price so quickly. She wanted hand-dyed, throughout the entire quilt (back included)- that expense alone put her into sticker shock. I asked her how much she actually thought fabric cost and had she ever been in a fabric store before, the last time she bought fabric was over ten years ago and it was only a yard....at $1.99.
Then we got into the price for the thread, I only use Aurifil and she asked why it would be so expensive when I could get thread at $1.00 at Walmart. I told her I wasn't going to make her a Walmart quilt that might last two or three years, I was making her a quilt to last the rest of her lifetime and beyond. Then, she hit me with the one question that I'm sure every quilter on this board has heard....
"Well, if it's so expensive to make, why can I go to Walmart and buy one for a couple hundred?"
Maybe because they buy their fabric in bulk, maybe because they don't use quality, 100% cotton fabric, maybe they don't use quality thread. I again told her 'I'm not making you a Walmart quilt, you wanted a custom quilt, you won't be able to go to another quilter with the same ideas and demands and get it any cheaper and you certainly can't go to a Walmart and ask for a custom quilt.'
So after a complete re-design so I could drop the yardage amount down to something more reasonable for her, she was again excited she had a custom quilt coming, with no where near the amount of hand-dyed fabrics, but there's still some in it. She also has a new appreciation for what I go through to design and make a quilt. She'll be absorbing 100% of the cost, the only thing I'm getting in return is a fresh Muslin bolt because I told her it would be cheaper to buy it by the bolt versus yardage and the Muslin was my commission fee.