JJS: This is well said. I pay a lot more than that prices quoted here for quilting alone. The work is excellent. I give my quilts away, no way could I sell them. One quilt was appraised for $1,800 and I donated it to a college for their scholarship fund raffle. Now I am mostly making "quilts for kids". They are fun to make, I can practice my freehand quilting and I know they are appreciated.There are many excellent artists and quilt makers/teacher out there and I applaud them. I just want to enjoy making them. If I had to haggle over the price and explain myself, it would take all the fun out of it.
I also did this with stain glass and sewing.

My LQS has some gorgeous quilts with beautiful quilting on them. A man came is at Christmas and wanted to buy one for $20. When told the price the man walked out shaking his head saying he would go to WalMart.

We no longer teach our children & grandchildren the art of crafting, they missed having have got the satisfaction of having created something....the world is in a cycle of "get it now..cheap". These people are to ignorant to see a hand crafted, quilt & its many layers of time & work to produce a finished product,& spend the $, & have something to pass on to someone else

It's so validating to hear all of your opinions! I am so relieved to hear that I was not out in left field with the estimates I just wrote up! :-) I think I will "charge" $10 an hour for my labor so that they see when I actually only include about $50-$100 for my labor they are getting a STEAL!

Hopefully the real customers out there will come to me...I just have to find a way to get my name out there.

Thanks for your awesome support!

I recently made a cheater quilt for a charity raffle. Many people loved it and asked me to make them a quilt. I did happen to find a gorgeous fabric by Fabric Traditions with gilding on it at Walmart for this quilt and it looked like it was pieced. I told them I would do it for $10 per hour labor, but we would shop together for the materials and here is the list I gave them with an estimate of costs they could expect to incur.

Supplies:
Cheater fabric, 2yds @$5 a yd at Walmart (no cutting, will be center panel)
2.5 yds each of two border fabrics @$5 yd each
$10 for batting on sale at Joanns (could be $20 as I will only use Warm and Natural)
5 yds @$6 yd for Kona Cotton backing/binding not on sale
$50 rental fee of Long arm quilting machine
Labor:
approximately $50 to make quilt top, wash, iron, cut, and sew top
$50 for 5 hours of quilting on Long Arm (my time and it's and estimate)
$30 for three hours of cutting, pressing, and sewing on binding by hand and final wash.

So, for $125 for supplies and $130 for labor, they can have a quilt for $255. EVERYONE CHANGED THEIR MIND. But of course I asked them if they would rather do a custom quilt with piecing for a starting price of about $800 if the cheater quilt was not good enough! LOL!

They will either learn to appreciate the value of what goes into a quilt or learn themselves to make them!

I make quilts with lots of love in them and for me that is what makes them priceless! I probably will never sell a quilt because I'm too busy making them for family as gifts, soldiers I want to wrap in love and appreciation, and worthy charities for fundraising.

Diane

There are some people out there that have some brains and wouldn't dare act like that. Just stick to your price and intelligent buyers will come along who appreciate your work and is willing to pay it without grumbling.

People do not understand how much it costs in time and labor to make things. My friend and I made small quilted items (pillows, bags, table runners, ornaments, etc) for the church fair. We price them ourselves and tell people who are running the fair NOT to reduce the price at the end of the day. We would both rather give them as gifts to someone than to sell them for less than they are worth.

judyjo

I agree Judyjo I much rather give it as a gift than reduce the price.

uh..dear you ARE giving them Walmart prices! Your pricing is VERY reasonable. Maybe you can have them come over for the pricing..bring their quilts and you show them what it is you are charging them for??! I don't know that I would give quotes over the phone. Not sure what you can do. You are not charging too much..that is for sure!~

IMHO, your price is low. You wouldn't really be getting much for all your time and hard work. Problem is, people think because they can buy an imported "handmade" quilt for 19.99 at Walmart, that we ought to give ours away also.

made in china is Walmart's motto and we the buyer enforce it with going in there and do our shopping.
buy less and buy american made, will bring jobs back to our people, pride in our products and our country might come back. also the landfills will go down as better quality products last longer and we will through out less goods.

Wow, you are actually undercharging yourself! Don't let those people upset you. They are the same ones who will go to a garage sale and argue over an item that is listed for a quarter or fifty cents.

I haven't read all the responses so if this has already been said, my apologies for repeating it again.

One thing I have done (and will do again) is keep track of the amount of time it takes to actually make the quilt. I then add that information to the label on the back. People are usually amazed when they discover the quilt I've gifted them with took 500 hours to make and I find their attitude quickly changes & they tend to take much better care of the quilt. If you keep track of your time, when someone inquires about your making them a quilt you can tell them it usually takes X amount of time for a twin, queen, or king sized quilt. Maybe that will help weed out those who think you are charging too much.

What a fantastic idea! I never thought about putting my time in the label! That is such a good idea, I'm going to start doing that! LOL

I think your price was more than fair. Only those who understand what time and material it takes to make a quilt will appreciate what you do. Don't fret about the others who are looking at Sears catalogues and seeing the prices for those factory produced quilts and expect home made ones to be the same price.

That's so funny about buying a quilt from Walmart and having it come apart, as this happen to a friend of mine. She asked me if I could fix it and told her I would, but only once.

That's why I got into quilting as I saw a quilt I loved but couldn't afford it and here I am. hee hee

I don't think you are charging nearly enough. And I agree that I would rather give my quilts to someone who will really love them than sell them for next to nothing. I have sold a few things and have come to the conclusion that some people are willing to pay for quality and some wouldn't recognize it if it bit them on the nose :? Have you tried contacting some the magazines about advertising? Good luck!

you people are so nice. iam 72 yrs old and don't let these people bother me. If someone wants a better price, i tell them i am not running a yard sale, or that if i wanted to give something away it will be to a charity. The one that really causes them the most upset is when I have a price plainly posted and they ask me the price, like i must be kidding, i camly say, 'you really can't afford my products because my time is very valuable'. Sometimes they buy just to show me. Then i smile all the way to the bank, otherwise i just smile because they are upset not me.

Was that a piece? You should be charging at least that & more. There is a lady in Irving, TX that makes Teeshirts quilts from your shirts & charges $800.00 for some of them. Don't sell yourself short. Quilting takes a lot of time to do.

I was just thinking as I read everyone's post. When I was still in the floral business, brides would come in & I would work so hard for them. Ask what their budget was & what we had to work with & then have them say it was too much money. They then go out of town to Tyler & pay twice the price I quoted them & think they were getting something so much better. We finally quit doing weddings. They got to be a real pain.

I used to do hand silk screening on fabric and went to craft fairs all over the north east and south. It was not uncommon for some dufus to come up an ask - did you do this? and upon replying Yes, they would say then I am sure I could do it ....

My idea of the ultimate craft fair is for all crafters to show up with only a coke vending machine, something that everyone could sell, everyone would buy and not argue about the cost.

I will never sell a quilt for the simple reason that the only people who truly understand the time and material cost in making a quilt are my quilter friends, and they make their own.

To those that think hand crafted quilts should be priced like a bed in a bag from WalMart...they truly don't understand, so they couldn't possibly appreciate the work we quilters do.

Don't ever feel that you are competing with WalMart. What they offer and what we quilters offer are worlds apart.

For those of you who have "lost" customers...you really didn't lose anything. Never sell yourself short. If you don't value the work you do, no one else will either.

Quilting is like any other art such as custom woodwork, fine art, custom clothing, etc. There are some people that understand the value of these things, and it is lost on others. My father is a watercolorist, and wouldn't hesitate to spend a sizeable sum for another artist's work. I don't hesitate to buy quality fabric because I want the end product to be a quality item.

Every project we make is one of a kind, and that alone makes it valuable. Do what you love for those that appreciate your skills and effort and don't give another thought to those who don't.

A doctor in our office asked me if I could try to repair some quilts for her. She bought some high dollar designer quilts for her daughters' beds (triplets!), then threw them in the washing machine, and they started coming apart!! I told her I would look at them, and I would keep track of my time and charge $10 an hour to repair them. She never brought them to me. Go figure...she'd rather, I guess, throw them out than pay to have the morbidly overpriced things fixed!!

Fortunately I do not run across this that much when it comes to me painting cars and bikes, just every once in a while like I stated earlier. Most of my customers just tell me to do it and they dont care what it cost, they just want it done. Sometimes I have transports dropping off cars or their bodies before I hear from the owners. All I will do is just push it to the back and wait on the phone call or email. :lol:

But I find it funny that when I bring a quilt top into my fabric store to try and match up a backing or a border for the quilt, I have all of these women saying "Oh you could make a fortune selling these". :roll: I just look and laugh and usually tell them that I am not good enough to start selling them. And after telling them the amount of labor that goes into them they are really amazed.

The best advice that I have to give to this dilemma of "How much would you charge" is to use my favorite saying........

"If you have to ask how much, then nine times out of ten you cant afford me"! :mrgreen:

Billy

This is a very interestng thread. I do hand quilting at my church and our prices are way too low. But we are not fast, and do it for fellowship. If you are willing to wait, we will do your quilt. We have older quilters and sometimes the stitches are not all the most perfect. We have some demanding customers and we don't mind if they don't return. We can only do what we can do.

Heck, $10 easily. What is the minimum wage now a days??? Tell the person that minimum wage, for UNSKILLED LABOR is XXXX. If they have an issue with asking you to work for minimum wage, then they too should be able to make the quilt, no?? After all, THEY are unskilled at the art of quilting...

Here's an idea... :idea:

Send them this posting in it's entirety. Then give them smelling salts :lol: :lol: :lol:

Stick to your guns. Don't stress yourself Why should you work for someone else for nothing. (Even Wal Mart pays $10 an hour in most localities for labor.)

This is why I retired from that hell hole I was working at. I am a very skilled floral designer with 30 years experience & the b boss owner wouldn't pay me more. After 25 years with her I still only made 7.50 an hr.

i had a customer wantesd a wedding ring quilt i quoted a price of 400 she said she would pay it when the quilt was done she came to pick it up said she only had 50 dollars so that is what she was going to pay i did not give her that quilt i sold it on ebay for 1500 dollars than i showed her she said she had watched the sqale and felt bad about it and want me to dfo anopther one for her when i said it haed tyo be pre paid because of the last one she didnot return

Good for you!

I was just at Target today and saw that they had their quilts on sale for $25 any size. In fact they had the vast majority of their bedding on sale and I ended up picking up some really nice king sized flat sheets in various colors for quilt backs.

Now these quilts were nothing close to what we make but just the fact that they are sold as "Quilts" the average Joe public will think we are off of our rockers for trying to sell them fo what they are really worth.

Billy

I was at a craft show in Nov. and had a woman insist that I would make her a King size quilt, just like the one I had on display (crib size). I didn't want to do it because I don't have the room to do a king size. I told her that I couldn't take the order, and she called me the next day and demanded that I take the order, for Christmas delivery. I finally agreed. Then she backed down when I explained to her that the price that she saw was for the crib quilt, and that a king size would be 6Xmore. What a pain in the neck...and she was wearing diamonds and carrying a large Coach bag!

Minnow895, I would never do a special order unless they paid at least half of price for a down payment. Then at least if they back out you are covered for the materials & some of your time. Also it is nonrefundable. Make them sign a contract saying what they are getting for what price & how much it cost & down payment. Got to cover all your bases.

I completely understand. Some of the ladies at work wanted me to make them quilted purses. However they were not willing to pay the price. By the time I purchase fabric, thread,batting, and the work I put into it, it all adds up. So I did not make the purses. The same thing happened years ago when I decorated cakes.

Like I posted before. Get a deposit to cover your expenses.

Excellent advice!

yes, they go...expect you to sell for $39.95, just like Walmart. You are also too cheap. To make a quilt from the ground up my price for a twin starts at $500 and up...a queen/king, $1000.00. Stick to your guns. There is way too much work, time and money involved to sell yourself cheap. Let them go to Walmart, they will be buying again in a few months. One sit on the quilts from Walmart and they are done. The "hand made quilts" from China have stitches 3/8 of an inch long and will pop in no time! The laymen just does not get this.

I feel your pain, I have been there.

Another thing, I get calls all the time where they pick my brain, ask prices, go on and on and on, waste my precious time, and I never hear from them again. It is an unfortunate part of the business. I figure they are either lonely or starting their own business.

I'm feeling your pain. Most people have absolutely no idea what's involved. They just see comforters on sale for $49.99 at WalMart and that's what they use for their baseline comparison. Maybe you can take a little comfort in that she probably isn't getting those quilts done anywhere. Sometimes you see something beautiful and you want it until you know how much it costs - then you just live without.
Oh, and if she does get them cheaper, would you really have wanted to make it for less? I'd have resented every minute of the work knowing my time wasn't valued enough. Be happy she didn't call!