A friend sent me this:

TRUE COST OF MAKING A QUILT
QUEEN SIZED, Machine Pieced, Hand Quilted
MATERIALS:
Fabric 12-16 yards @ $9per yd. $108 - $144
Batting $25 - $40
Thread $8 - $16
Total Money Invested $141 - $200

LABOR HOURS:
Piecing 20 to 60 hours
“Setting” (designing your quilt) 10 to 20 hours
Quilting 100 to 750 hours
Total hours invested 130 to 810 hours
TOTAL COST

Paying $1 per hour (Would you do this type of work for $1 an hour?!)

Materials $141 - $200
Labor $130 - $810
Total $271 - $1070

Paying minimum wage $7.25 (by law in 6/2009)

Materials $141 - $200
Labor (130-810hrs) $942.50 - $5872.25
Total $1083.50 - $6072.25

Paying skilled labor wage $20 per hour (Don’t you consider yourself trained and skilled in this craft?)

Materials $141 - $200
Labor (130-810hrs) $2600 - $16,200
Total $2741 - $16,400

....what about the costs of using your sewing machine? Maintenance, depreciation...oh my..so much else we could all be adding in!

Anyone want to comment with an estimate of how much you spend (not counting your labor) for various sizes of quilts you've made in 2010 or 2011?

At these prices I should be framing my quilts, not using them.

And when you tell a customer $2,500. for a king, you get the standard answer, "I'll think about it and get back to you."

In 30 years of making quilts for sale, only ONCE, has someone said to me, "that's all, after all that work!"

Thanks for sharing your calculations, it will certainly help me to stand on my price!

This has often occurred to me (and here in Aus we can easily pay more than 20 dollars a yard for quilting fabric), but I don't look on quilting as work, so I do not charge my time in that way.

I certainly would not be selling any quilts I make though, because then I would start to think about my time and what it is worth and then I would just start to feel bad about the whole thing.

If I keep the quilt or give it to someone I love, then the payment for my time is knowing they like it. Plus, I put a lot of effort into making things unique, so I know I have something no one else has in the whole wide world- pretty special.

If I keep it, I get to enjoy it and show it off, and that is worth more than any money to me.

People wonder why items are made overseas. If they had to pay for items made here in the USA no one would have money left.

I quilt for the love of quilting.

I spent nearly 600 hours hand quilting a 42 x 48" wall hanging for my daughter--it is reversible.....think I could have done a quilt in that time--it was very intricate!
The charity quilts I make are quickies, so I can make more, but the embroidered quilts I am about to sash and finish finish will have about 1000 hours of time in them...

But, don't we feel good about providing something from our heart for our family? I realize there is a great sacrifice for our talents but the rewards are everlasting

my quilting is for a hobby, and enjoyment not a paying job.
I figure my quilts are priceless.

I quilt for my own pleasure and can't imagine anyone wanting to pay that much for them. But, they're not for sale anyway. Interesting calculations though

I agree we do not count the cost of providing love----but when you tell someone who "really wants a quilt" the cost, they usually turn white and decline! :>)

I may print this out and put it with every quilt I have and send it to my 3 girls whom already have 2 a piece. When I am called 'home' one day they can look back and maybe appreciate my 'hobby'. I commented one time that it was cheaper therapy making quilts than it was going to a 'head' doctor and taking Xanex and Valium. I just maybe wrong about that.

lol and i wondered why no one in my area will buy quilts! and no one charges what they are really worth! boy... we could all be rich if we could selll our 'hobby' quilts at $20/hour for labor alone.

By brother keeps telling me I should sell them on E Bay. Um, I don't think so.

Yikes!!

That is very interesting, but i have never made a quilt for profit at least not yet. I make mostly gifts and donations. Every one is "one of my babies" and that to me is priceless. Maybe we should all post this in the local papers and maybe then non-quilters will appreciate the craft more.

And I have customers complain about $.03 per sq. inch to machine quilt. Amazing.

I don't make quilts for profit either, but it galls me when people ask me to make a quilt - AND say they'll pay me for my time - but the price they want to pay won't even cover the cost of the fabric.

I made one as a gift for my MIL, it was huge and beautiful and took a long, long time. She made light of it until my wonderful, sweet, darling husband told her to insure it for $7000, because that's how much it would cost to replace it. He did not pull that figure out of the air, either - he added up the cost of my time plus materials.

That is why I do not make anything to sell. I only make items as gifts of love. I like what Goosepoint wrote: "I may print this out and put it with every quilt I have and send it to my 3 girls whom already have 2 a piece. When I am called 'home' one day they can look back and maybe appreciate my 'hobby'." I totally agree!

In Canada we pay 16.99 and up per meter of fabric, so they cost a lot more than that here. I have been working on a King Size Quilt for the past year and I wish I would have kept track of how much it is costing me for the fabric, plus not to mention the backing, as I only use flannel on my quilt backs and it costs for that cotton. I've had people ask me about making them a queen size quilt and I told them it would cost at least 1000.00, and maybe more just for the fabric, and then add another 300.00 or more on because I would have to send it out to a long armer to be quilted, cause I can't do one that big myself.
I don't do quilts to sell, as I know that no one would want to pay what they are actually worth, I only give them away to people I love and know that they appreciate them.

Cindy, that is a beautiful quilt!!

I put alot of time and fabrics into my quilts, love making them. I give most of them away, just don't think about it. They bring alot of pleasure to the ones getting one, payment enough for me.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-62845-1.htm
Jan in VA

i think we should also be allowed to add in the hours spent shopping for fabric, threads etc:lol: because without those you wouldnt have a quilt!

I remember when I first started quilting 25 yrs ago I was working on single Irish chain quilts for my sons. My FIL asked if I would make a quilt for a lady friend of his. He offered to pay $25. I laughed and told him to go to Mervyn's or K-Mart. Many non-quilters have no idea what it really cost to make a quilt, even a lap size.

I totally agree, however that doesn't stop me from having a coronary when I'm trying to guesstimate the cost of "material" alone and thats before the batting, backing, and LA quilter!!!!!!!But, alas, I will forever keep on quilting/creating....just dont tell my husband how much I spend......

:XD:

Having invested a large number of hours in an item does not automatically make that item more valuable, in either monetary or sentimental terms. When we quilt as a hobby, we are choosing to spend our time in a way that will seldom be compensated in the same way as time spent at a paying job. The same is true with time spent cleaning our homes, caring for our children, visiting with friends, etc. The disconnect comes when someone wants to buy a quilt, not understanding that it did not magically make itself. At that point, if you want to sell the already-made quilt, it is pointless to think about how many hours went into it. The question is just whether you would rather have the quilt or the money. If someone asks what you would charge for making a quilt, it's a different question, because you will know throughout the making of the quilt that it is for someone else, and you will be weighing the money against the time and feeling that you didn't charge enough.

Scary. I don't even want to think about how much money is actually laying around in bits of stash.

Gee i just want to sell a couple a year, at those prices, that would feed my fabric habit.

I see Jan started this same topic and quote in another thread. Jan says she found this on the internet in 1995 - we can add inflation to these numbers. I just read the other thread. There are some other really good points there also.

I have been asked to make quilts after seeing the ones I have done - I have sold 3 on commission and each went for over $1000.00. Of course, fabric here is much more expensive.

That is a very sweet, smart husband!

Compared to the garage full of unused tools - some still in original boxes - my DH has, quilting is a bargain!!!!!

Thanks - I never looked at it that way - I quilt a little here and a little there - after I finish work and try to quilt at least a full day on the weekneds if DH is involved in one of hisprojects. My 'work hourly rat is quite a bit higher than average - so if I took that into consideration - they would be museum masterpieces - but I quilt for ME - even if it is somehing I am donating!

Recently a friend asked me to make a quilt for her daughter for graduation from some antique blocks that she had found years ago in the attic of her family home that had been in her family since the early 1900s. I thought it would be a breeze, right? The blocks are already made so how hard could it be? Well, none of the blocks were the same size as she (the maker) had washed them after she made them. The only thing I could do with them was applique them onto squares of a background fabric. Long story short, I finished it, after about 150 hours of work. I got so attached to it that it broke my heart to actually give it away. I won't ever make a quilt for someone who asks me to. I get too attached to them, they are like giving away my children. I will voluntarily make them for family and friends but not because someone asks me to.

My niece sent me an email the other day saying she wanted me to make quilts for all 3 of her kids with their names on them and had very specific instuctions on what she wanted. I had made them baby quilts when they were born. I replied that the material would be around $75 or more for each quilt and if she bought the material I would show her how to piece the quilts on my next visit (this summer) then I would quilt them for her on my Long Arm. I still have not had a reply from her!

Let's put it this way.If I made one quilt at your prices,I would be spending in excess of $1,000 anyway you look at it. If I didn't make the quilt, I would, alledgedly, save that $1,000. But where would it be, but where would that $1,000 be? hmmmmm.

In addition to that, even if I spent for the materials, etc that it takes to make a quilt, if I didn't make it, I would loose some of the most precious things upon this earth. That being thanks, smiles, complements and self satisfaction and thanks to God that my quilt came out acceptable, not perfect.


Which would you rather have: The $1,000 or the happiness that come along with making a quilt. I prefer the later.

Thank you for reading: I remain, a mother, a grand-mother, a great-grand-mother and a faithful friend. I'm not asking for more. Thank you, God!

I enjoyed your calculations b/c MDM made a dble sided KS quilt for MDS and DiL for their wedding. She spent 2 yrs making it with lots of love. It has NEVER been on any bed in the soon to be 6 yrs they've been married. She went with my mom into a fabric store and asked a clerk about how much a KS quilt would cost that was hanging up and was shocked when told between $250 - $300 or more.... (It's like she thought it was a cheap way to give a gift if you made it yourself!) My son recognizes that Mom probably is hurt so he told me he wraps up in it at least 180 days/year...small consolation. I had done a counted cross-stitch that was professionally framed. MDS made a point of showing that they had displayed the picture in their 1st home. A yr later they moved and it is not anywhere to be found. Lesson learned: Be sure your handwork will be appreciated! You don't expect that you would be compensated for the labor, but would like it to be loved as you spent sooo much love making it...

That is the very reason I quit sewing cloths for other people. No one wants to pay what sewing is really worth and that is the reason people buy quilts from over seas.

This is a real 'eye-opener' subject this A.M. - but SO TRUE. I think we all do it not only for the love of quilting, but for the love of those we do it for. This is the REAL reason quilters are such SPECIAL PEOPLE - WE CARE!!!

In the 80's, while having a booth at a Country Peddlers Show, I bartered w/2 different fellow vendors who made BEAUTIFUL hand made carved/toile painted furniture. For 4 quilts, I got 3 hand carved/painted hope chests for 3 grand dgtrs graduating, a custom gun cabinet for late hubby & hand carved entry bench for dgtr.

I considered it a good swap, the other vendors were true artists in their work & I think we all appreciated the time/work that went into our pieces.

Have a blessed day & may all your quilts be filled w/love. :lol:

And don't forget to add the backing material. Your figures are very realistic. People don't realize the costs that go into making a quilt, let alone the time. Kind of an expensive hobby but I love escaping into my own little world doing it.