I love to sit and do hand stitching on a binding while hubby watches TV. It gives us time together and I feel I'm doing something useful and not just staring at the TV.

I had a large quilt done by a LA and she charged $10. I provided the binding as I wanted it to match the quilt and always cut it first.

I forgot to mention this was done entirely by machine, I think hand binding would be more.

As a longarm quilter, I charge 3 cents an inch to attach the binding to the quilt by machine. It takes about an hour to do this on a bed sized quilt.

Figure out how long it takes and don't cut yourself short. Figure out an hourly wage. My customers know I will make the binding and attach it for them, but the handwork will take forever. You can also offer to attach the binding to the back and turn it to the front and stitch by machine. It is hard to do to keep it in the ditch on the back, so I use a decorative stitch to do so. It takes a lot less time and will make the binding more durable for baby quilts.

Pam T

Have you tried to do the binding yourself? It is not all that hard once you master the corners. I have learned to do my own binding & meter corners through instruction books and tutorials on You Tube. Eleanor Burns has good beginner books & will take you step by step on how to do a binding. If you have not done binding, try something simple & small like a pot holder.

What about shipping costs?

I have always done my own binding. I actually enjoy the hand part. I have never mastered making a machine sewn binding look nice on front and back. That being said my hands and especially my eyes are starting to cause me Real problems, to the point I may have to give up hand sewing eventually. so if I had a special quilt I would think about paying someone to do it.
I have a question. I see you talking about inches, linear inches and running inches. What is the difference?

I charge 3.00 a running foot. thats to sew down by machine and hand turn it to the back. I am not crazy for doing binding so, I charge .. If someone is binding for me in return for quilting I pay them 3.00 a running foot.

Interesting to see what you all think. I have been sewing bindings for a quilter friend who hates it. I charge her $30 a quilt. Most so far have been about 60" square up to 60" X 72". If she has the binding all cut and ready to go that's great but if she just hands me the fabric and I do it that's ok too. For me it's not only about the money. She's a good friend who has given me a lot or helped me in some way so doing binding for a low price is fine with me. I get some extra pocket money and she gets her quilt completed quicker. For me it's a win win.

Just adding my 2 cents worth....while machine sewing the binding material to the front is fairly easy, it takes me 5 hours to hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt....50X65" size. Yes, I've timed it numerous times and it always takes me 5 hours.

I wouldn't want to hand sew binding that someone else sewed on, you can't trust that they would use the right seam allowance or sew the corners and the last join just so. I'm toooo picky to have someone else do those critical parts :|