old quilt
 

A friend of mine just recently asked me to finish a quilt that her mother started. The top is done, just needs batting and backing. What would be the charge for doing something like this?

Price of your materials plus your time. Are you buying the batting and the backing or are they?

Materials and time. what is your time worth? Quilting for friends is different than quilting for strangers.

I don't know where in NY you are but in my area the going rate for longarm quilting starts at around .015 cents per square inch and that is just for the quilting, it does not include the price of batting and backing and that is for an end to end all over design, not custom. Not sure what you should charge for completing the top. I am thinking because you did not discuss price up front and this is a friend I would discuss price before going any further. You may wish to ask your friend to just treat you to dinner for your work thus far and then settle on a price for the quilting portion. Hand quilting is even more expensive. If you tie it, I wouldn't know what to charge, maybe a per tie fee??. Then don't forget the fee for binding services. I believe those that charge for it, charge per liner foot but you would have to research the net to get prices for that.

I am buying the batting and material for the back and binding. She is reimbursing me for those items. I am going to tie it.

your time and friendship is still relevant. Tying a quilt is different than stitching. Ask yourself, what makes it worth taking on this project.

The quilt was her grandmother's and was and stitched small hexagonal. My friend is 65 so this is quite old and I thought it would be nice to finish it for her.

sounds like a gift of love. Definitely get the material cost if you take it on. Your time and effort is priceless.

tying is easy and quick. How good a friend? If it were a good friend of mine, I'd ask her to help sandwiching the fabrics, and help pinning and not charge anything for the tying.

I just did this last year. The friend covered the cost of all the materials and insisted on paying for my time, so we agreed on $10 an hour after searching on google for what skilled laborers make (a friend insisted that quilting falls under that category). As a friend, I charged her the lower end of that scale, which was $10, but ranged up to $20.

I AGREE with DebraK. I don't charge for helping my good friends with quilting something. I made a mug rug for a friend who is a board member here and I got TWO loaves of fresh baked bread for my effort. I would inform her of the cost of the batting, backing and DMC floss before you buy them. Sometimes non quilter's don't realize how the cost can add up rapidly.

Thank you all for your input! Much appreciated.

Since tying a quilt is not extremely difficult, why don't you make it a joint effort with your friend and then she can have the pleasure of working on the quilt along with her grandmothers original work. You might do it at the friends home and then she furnish the food or snacks and you would have some quality visits with a good friend while getting the job done.

The last one I did I told them I wouldn't start it for less than $100 plus cost of materials.

I like the idea of getting her to help you with sandwiching the quilt since it goes much faster when two work on it. I would also show her how to tie and then do it together. What a fun time would be had. I would probably make the backing larger and fold it over to the front so I could just fold and stitch on machine. Wouldn't be a big job IMHO.

While I agree with what ManiacQuilter says, I will suggest that you have your friend come over to help with the tying. That will engage her in the process and give her memories of both her Mother and you for years to come.

For a friend I may do it for free...but if i was hired to do a job I won't work for $10 hour...I think that is too low...

I would love to be able to have the friend help with the tying but she live 2 hours away. I do really appreciate all your input!

i probably wouldn't charge anything to tie it for a friend. Reimbursement on backing and batting.

I completely agree. I didn't want to charge her at all. She's been in my life for my whole life (she's my Grandmother's age and their family has always been friends with mine), but she wouldn't hear of it. $10/Hour was as low as I could get her to agree to. If this was someone else, and a hired job, then I would definitely charge more.