I'm still pretty new at this quilting thing. I am still consistantly amazed at how much money I end up putting into my projects.

Well, I'm in the process of making a double wedding ring with batiks so I'll keep track and let you know! :D

Don't know, and not sure I want to know LOL
I would say it is around at least 150.00 but that is just a guess.

I buy most of my fabric and supplies on sale and use scraps a lot so it's hard to tell the cost. I enter a quilt once a year in a local quilt show and that quilt usually cost me more to make as I buy all new fabric for it. Once you get a large supply of fabric, books, pattern, and tools, the quilt itself seems to be the least expense.

I'm sure some people keep track of the cost. But do we really want to know.

NO! And neither does my DH! :shock: :lol:

I'm making a quilt, bedskirt, shams and valances. It is over $300- but- it's more than just a quilt. It's my room. And I haven't bought anything in 10 years for that room. The bedspread is from the Salvation Army in the early 90s and the sheets were from my DD at college. So I think it's OK- divide it by the next 10 years and it's about $30 a year- so that makes it feel better. :)

My "Danbury" (queen sized)

Top fabrics 116.36
stamps and money orders 2.06
batting 31.80
backing 43.39
thread (about) 4.50
electric (for light, iron, and Singer)- unknown
gasoline - unknown

All told, it looks like close to $200.00 but it is hard to pin down, when trying to factor in things like electric.

Glad I don't own a business.

I just spent $26 at Joann's yesterday buying halfprice clearance fabric to make Linus Quilts. I figure that was at least the backs for about 12 quilts. I am going to another Joanns today and look for more bargins. By the time I add batting and a top I will probably have about $10 per quilt. Never mind the cost of my machines, upkeep, electricity etc. etc. I always try and do as well anytime I buy fabric. I occasionally pay full price at a real qult shop. Just think of it as theropy. My husband dropped $350 for a set of "used" golf clubs which I believe he has actually played with maybe a dozen times in ten years. He also has a Harley. Enough said.

I just signed up for one of the the Fat Quarter Shop's block of the month quilts, and by the time I'm done with it, I'll have spent at least $400 on fabric and shipping. I know I've spent at least $150 on each king size quilt I've made, and at least $80 on a small (but intricate) wallhanging.

And yeah, if you want to compare with the 'other half'... he has two airsoft rifles (at least $300 each), paintball stuff ($800 min), motorcycle, RC truck (also about $800), and the list goes on. At least what I spend money on *everyone* gets to appreciate!

i dont price it i just enjoy it i did find a bargain there was a sewing factory that closed down and i bought 97 yaards of light biege material 63 wide for $20.00 a roll of course i bought 2 and bought their thread on 6,000 yard cones for .50 a cone i bought 4 of every color obviously so i geuss you could say i am going to have a lot of neautral backing quilt lol

Depending on the cost of the fabric it can vary alot. Of course if you add in the cost of your notions, machine etc. You are paying a fortune for your hobby. I have spent thousands.

The joy you feel when making your quilt has to factor in somehow and reduce your cost...don't forget about that. That is one of the first things I bring up when comparing costs of things with DH.

So true! I'll have to tell him that next time... not only do I have the joy of making it, but you have the joy of staying warm in it!

Why do we compare, anyway? How juvenile are we?!

I get everything on sale or clearance. it takes alot of patience for me to wait long enough to collect everything I need this way, but it is soooo worth it to be able to make three or four times as many quilts! I just finished a king size with joann/hobbylobby supplies for around 85$. my baby quilts I can do for around 10$ to 15$

I LOVE being able to show DH how much money I SAVE and move the focus from the spend over to the REWARDS of making a quilt :) and show him how HAPPY it makes me to be able to enjoy the making of and the giving of such an amazing gift!!!

We won't even go there..lol

My Visa card screams for mercy when we go to Jo Ann's or Hancock Fabrics. Although I did manage to get out of Jo Ann's the other day for less then 10 bucks.

I had this terrible habit of never walking out of a quilt shop without fabric. Now I have a room full of fabric (no kidding) and I never kept anything to tell me what a quilt top cost. If I buy now I usually just have to buy the main color yardage. It's the machine quilting that kills me. I love to hand quilt but my fingers don't.

I would say an average of $200.00 for a queen if I but new stuff, which I usually do, I don't but much "just because" but try to buy plenty to have 1/2 yd left over for scraps. So top, batt and backing,( I have my own mid arm quilter set up) so I think that's a good average, when I was having them quilted you could add $100.00 for quilting and $20-25 postage.

DH recently bought himself his mid-life/retirement crises Corvette that hasn't seen the light of day in months. I guess it doesn't matter what I spend.

I would be afraid to know sometimes. I just spent $350 on thread for my long arm! But at times I am thrifty and try to use the left over bits in something new. I mostly do baby quilts or wall hangings, so I average around $100 each.

JJTRIPLETMOM - I sure don't want my DH to see this. He never says anything but if he really knew he'd probably have a heart attack. I buy almost all my stuff at the quilt shops: fabric for the quilt top, backing fabric, batting, thread. Then add to that the cost of my sewing machine and cabinet, my quilting books and magazines, and the HQ-16....well, suffice it to say that my hobby ranks right up there with golf or fishing.

I give alot of quilts away so...no...I don't keep track of how much it cost.

I just enjoy it.
And enjoy smiles that I get from them

If I use the fabric from my stash it's free, right? lol

Honestly, I have no idea, nor do I care. Sometimes I go shopping for a project and buy everything in sight "in case" I want to use it. So factoring in the "what if" fabric makes mine really expensive.

depending on the size and how i feel it could be 'free' or it could be the mortgage. LOL! if good batting is on sale, i might buy 6, also backings. if i have a coupon for 50% off, i make copies and spend what i shouldn't. i really never kept track.

I don't want to know. I rarely buy fabric that I know what I am going to make, I just buy it cause I have to have it.

The quilt I am working on right now, I spent 45$ and that is the most I have spent on a quilt.
My dh would faint if I spent 200-300$ on the material batting and backing.
We have money he just does not consider my hobby to be a worth while expenditure.
Maybe I should show him this thread and kiss him sweetly and say see I am not so bad? lol

(p.s. I do have to see his point. I have lots of hobbies and this is the newest one. So combine all of my "stuff" and it can add up. Plus I dont always stick with something. I bounce around on what I am interested in lol)

The only quilt I have really kept track of the cost was a lap size I made for my DD's Track coach at the the high school. The whole track team was pitching in to cover the costs. I had a white on white square for each of the girls to sign, the quilt was done in the school colors of black and red with the white. It turned out beautiful. It cost $145.00 I think each girl pitched in 5 bucks.

I couldn't give you an accurate amount on what one quilt costs me, and I don't want to admit what I spend a month on fabric. :-D :-D :-D :-D

Oh Lord! Since I buy just because I like it, I have no clue how much I spend on a quilt. And I really am afraid to know.LOL Lets see, if I can count a trip to the Houston Quilt Show, those expenses for 4-5 days, all of the loot I purchase while there, I think a quilt could be quite expensive! LOL No, I don't really want to know. Some things are best left unknown. IMHO

One special quilt I made cost me $350.00, just for the fabric and supplies.I found the picture of the quilt and I wantd to match it as close as possible.I spent 2 years just searching for the fabric.When the quilt was completed it was beautiful and I kept it for our bed. My husband say if we can afford it, enough said.We don't check what each other spend.But I did havescraps left that I've used in other projects.

My grandfather's quilt was the most expensive, not only because I used quilt shop fabric, but because it cost somewhere between $10 and $20 dollars each for each of the twenty or so photo transfers. So, the whole thing probably came close to $1000.

I took a course at a LQS a few years ago - and you needed to buy everything at the store for the course...it was for a Machine appliqued table runner...not big......by the time I had bought the fabric, paid for the course, etc. it cost me almost $150.00 to make that table runner......

Ahh, but if we had to have psychoanalysis sessions? $$$$ for years and years. So this is cheaper . . . lol

DH has his toys and hobbies. Quilting is mine.

You hang in there with that kind of thinking. We all need our vises to keep us sane and if quilting is yours,well at least it's not something that will make you sick. Besides you could be a beauty freak and spend all your money on make-up and such.

When you make a special quilt for a loved one, throw caution to the wind, money wise.That is, if you can afford it. The love you receive in return, for that specal gift will affect you all your life.It's called making special memories.

I try to buy quilting materials on sale too but I like batiks and Early American and 1920s/1930s reproductions and while Joanns carries good fabrics not a lot those so I end up in the quilt shops.

However I try to buy end of season or end of bolt fabrics and can save 20 to 30 percent that way.

Also if someone is giving a class and it's in a fabric store sometimes they give a discount on fabrics if you buy something during the class.

I have spent as little as under $50 and as much as $150-$200 depending on size of quilt and sale vs. full price.

I also have joined a quilt guild and they have a "fat quarter raffle" on a monthly basis - if you donate fat quarters they give you one raffle ticket per fat quarter you donated and then they divide up the fat quarters into four or five piles depending on how many were donated and throw the tickets into a bowl and pick one for each pile. We have a large guild and sometimes people donate more than one fat quarter so there might be 10 to 15 fat quarters in each pile. I have won several times in the past five years and ended up with either enough to make something or enough to fill out some other projects. Also made some nice scarves and some small baby quilts and splurged for the backing and batting and donated them to the guild for the next Christmas when they take quilted donations to the local shelters/food pantries.

And you have something nice when you finish.

Isn't it interesting that guys have plenty of "hobbies" and we feel guilty for something that gives others as well as ourselves so much joy.

I just spent $500 to repair my sewing machine and nearly choked when they quoted me a price (the circuit board that controls the stitch regulator was fried). However, it would have been much more expensive to buy a new equivalent machine and I use mine a lot so it was well worth it but when you factor that into the cost of your hobby...

Since I buy 99% of my fabric from Wal-Mart then I could stop and fugre out how much one costs but then there goes the fun in making it. I certainly would not want to know that I have $100+ wrapped up in fabric 'cause I would be nervous the whole time worried that I'd screw it up somehow and have to spend even more money to get it fixed.

I try not to keep track. I am the biggest bargain hunter around! I will wait to get many things on sale... sometimes really low closeout sales. I also do alot of web shopping and have several places that have low prices, just as I am sure many of you do.
Believe it or not, one of my favorite places is the Goodwill. I am usually looking for antique finds, but I also find some great fabrics. Recently I found a bag that had 6 coordinated 1/2 yard pieces of beautiful fabrics.... and I seem to always get bags of scraps there. You can't beat 50 cents a yard.