An associate and I construct t-shirts quilts from start to finish and quote a per shirt price which covers all labor and materials. If they don't want to pay that price, they say they'll just do it themselves, but two years plus after the occasion they needed it for, it's still in the planning stages.

We charge for a reason....we get it done on time.

Also, I think we're very reasonable compared to some price quotes I've seen on websites, but it's better to have the business at what the market will bear than no business at all.

The one time I quoted the relative of a in-law a price for a regular quilt, including material and labor, I never heard another word on the topic.

I was in the crafting business for about 10 years. I had the same problem with selling quilts as everyone here knows. Too little money for the amount of dollars spent and time spent. I did make a good income of selling Quillows (quilts folded into pillows) although they weren't pieced and they were tied quilted. I made some that sold for $50, with $20 worth of fabric and 1 hour of time. I got out of the business and am now very content making quilts for my family. My inherited son is getting married in May and his wife likes butterflys. I am making a quilt that is so springy in colors, it makes me crazy but it is soooo cool.

Dear Debbie,
I lived in Woburn MA for about 3 years (and belonged to the North Parish guild in Redding) and have been to the museum in Lowell several times....is that where you mean?
But, Many Many Thanks for the idea! I live a little more than two hours from Houston....
Jeannie

Hi Jeannie,
Yes The New England Quilt Museum has all kinds of quilty things for sale on consignment.

The carpenter or plumber analogy is a good one. Just ask someone if they had a carpenter do some work on their house and he worked for 5 full days with a materials cost of $200, how much would they expect that job to cost them? $600? $800? $1000?

I figure that a very simple queen sized quilt top, I mean REALLY simply like Yellow Brick Road or something like that, could be done in 3 days. Then another two days to quilt (if you have a longarm) and bind.

A Quilt-In-A-Day pattern is probably based on a smaller size and who really gets one of those done in a day? :P

Quilt in a Day orginial book took my Mom 3 months to piece and another 3 weeks to hand quilt. Maybe Gram telling her to NEVER tear the fabric made it take longer. Mom could only tear the strips after Gram was asleep.

I work with a couple of women that only think about how to make a buck. They always want me to put my items in craft shows, yard sales and list on etsy....they have even suggested that I make up fabric yo yos out of scraps and sell those. They don't know the diffence between my JOB and my HOBBY and that I don't want my LOVE to become my WORK. It is nice to know that they think highly of my skill and that my projects would appeal to buyers, but I don't need to make money that way. At this point in my life I would rather make what I want and gift to those that are deserving. They don't understand my way of looking at it ---- they think I'm sitting on an untapped gold mine and not raking in "easy money" LOL They probably think I'm either lazy or crazy --- or both! Oh well....

I have sold about 10 of my quilts but most are given away. I have taken payments as many of the young women buying mine were minimum wage employees. I never have a problem getting $200.00 or more for a lap quilt and I am by no means an expert quilter but I love what I am doing so much that it is just an added bonus to get a little money and kid myself into believing that I paid for some of my materials. I am currently doing a crazy quilt/memory quilt for a young lady's grandmother. She is taking resonsibility for taking care of doing the copying of the pictures onto the fabric sheets. I am looking forward to it. It will be mostly pinks, purples and butterflies. I will buy nothing for this as I have a big stash. It is fun to make something unique made with someone's special interests in mind.

So I'm not alone in this . . . see what their hobby is & see if they want to start selling it??? When I tried to get my friends to teach bridge or golf they did not get my point. Hobby means no profit. enough said right.?

Our chruch group raffles a quilt every year. The quilters have gotten older and are getting tired, not to mention several of them have health problems in the family. So they are kaput! I'm doing my best to get a queen quilt done for summer. A very simple snowball pattern, a few blocks embrodiered by a 90+ year old. I've picked the fabrics and design, doing most of the piecing and I mentioned at a recent meeting that I was going to see about having it machine quilted since I HATE HAND QUILTING. After about 3 of them sucked all the air out of the room, one declared there was no way our group was going to have machine quilted quilt--------------"you can get those at Wal-Mart for $39.95!".

I haven't told them yet, but since I'm doing most of the putting together I'm going to be chosing a machine quilter to finish the quilt off.

$39.95, indeed. I've got more than that in just the backing.

(this quilt is very simple, but pretty, I think. I just get side tracked on all sorts of other stuff to do! May be ready to send out by the end of the week)