Granted, I am a beginner at LAing. But to just load a quilt, backing and batting on takes at least 2 hours. This includes measuring both back and top to find center and ensure neither is too badly out of square. The quilting itself, even a freehand all over pattern like a meander takes more than a couple of hours too. You need to reload bobbins and recheck tension and this time frame is assuming everything goes smooth and you don't have any issues.

Before I got my LA I sent a quilt out to be done by Green Fairy. This was a custom quilt job so I paid 3.5 cents per s/i. When I got it back I was so thrilled and asked her how long did it take as there was so much detail quilting and a lot of SID ruler work. She said she estimated it had about 40 hours in it but couldn't be sure because of interuptions by kids etc.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news to your DH but he is grossly under-estimating the amount of time it takes to quilt on a LA when you figure all the time besides actual quilting time spent on any quilt. You got a very fair price with batting included.

It does take a lot longer to load a quilt then people. Then it there are problems with the top or back longer yet.I don't think that is too bad. Even for a simple panto.

It is like any other business, there is your time, electricity, the cost of paying for the machine, maintenance, threads, computer programs for some, classes paid for/more in the future, batting, pantograms, other supplies, etc....

After factoring all of this in, it is no different than any other business in the way they calculate their prices :D:D:D

I quilt professionally and even after doing it for 7 or 8 years, I rarely finish anything in 2 hours (maybe a simple large meander on a table runner size LOL)! On a larger quilt it takes 1 hour or more just to prep and load. For a simple larger allover quilting design on a full to queen sized quilt would take at least 4 hours total. That's if all goes right and the quilt doesn't have any 'issues' like full borders, open seams, etc.

One thing to remind your DH is that even if it seems like the hourly rate is high, that is NOT what the LAer earns. Lets say a quilt takes 4 hours and the charge is $100. That seems like the LAer is earning $25/hour. However, from that amount she needs to take out taxes, insurance, supplies, machine payments, training, etc. I've heard to figure only 1/3 of the hourly rate actually goes to the LAer. So in this case SHE would only be earning about $8.33/hour. Not much for a job that takes practice and talent to do well.

Thanks for all the help, Ladies. The husband is having humble pie for dinner and he says he tips his hat to you. (If he wore a hat. LOL) Thank you for all the hard and beatuful work you do and the wonderful quilts that everyone here makes. Love being on this board!!!

The other thing that has to be taken into account is the huge investment for a LA machine!

Thankfully, that's one thing I have no interest in... I'm more than happy to have somebody who knows what they are dooing quilt my tops. Between the machine, their time and their skill, I think they earn every penny!

It depends on the quilting and the size of the quilt. For just the quilting, with a medium density edge-to-edge, it takes me about 5 hours to do a queen sized quilt. That includes loading time, quilting, taking the quilt off the machine, serging the edge, and tidying up strings, fuzz, etc.