What would you charge
 

My mother in law just retired and opened a country craft shop. She asked me to make a couple of lap quilts for her shop since she is getting requests from customers. This quilt is 59 x 59. What would you charge. I was thinking 150 before I finished it. Now that I am done, 150 barely covers the cost of making it. What would you charge. ( My dear husband thinks 150 is way too much ) Really???

I personally feel that 150.00 is to cheap....but it really depends on your demographics.. people these days dont want to pay a ton for quilts....although you do run across a group of people who do appreciate handmade quilts. I know I have lost customers based simply on the cost of supplies.. lovely quilt btw

You should use her tax id to get fabric whole sale than see if it's worth it....Once again people who don't value what it takes to make a quilt say it's too much. I think 150.00 is too little. Maybe make place mats. by the way the quilt is beautiful, great job!!!!

$150 sounds really low to me. However, you have consider your market. What kind of customer comes to the shop? Is the shop in an affluent area where price isn't an obstacle for her customers? I would probably put a higher price... even as high as $300 (rule of thumb - double your material cost) and if a after numerous attempts to close a sale, no one bites, your MIL could discount 20 or 25%. Buyers always love buying an item "on sale". It's just psychology! In the end, your customers will drive the price point you can reach ... then you can decide if it's worth your effort. Good luck to your MIL... I envision myself doing something similar in about 10-15 years :-)

I totally agree with the ones on the board 150.00 is way to low. Your time and all the work put into the quilt is worth more than 150. You need to up the price quite a bit hon.

A lovely quilt made in America by an American . Thats a point right there. Calculate all materials and the cost if you had it quilted. Then how many hours it took to make it and charge what you would like per hour i.e. $20.That will be your total. Look at it and decide if that will be a good price. Sometimes if the price is too low people will think its not worth it. You could raffle it too.

Sorry but your husband did not do all the work.

Depending on the geographic location, quilts can be a really hard sell. Shoppers are looking for Walmart prices. I agree with the poster who said to estimate the number of hours in the project. Then realize that there's no way you will even get minimum wage :confused: When you add in costs of materials, and estimate $75 just for the quilting, you are in the stratosphere!
That's why people just take the NON SALE cost of the fabric, batting & thread and double or tripple it.
I would provide the hours worked and the material and quilting costs to your DMIL, and tell her that unless she feels that she can get the big bucks, the large quilt will be a one of a kind, but you will love to make smaller quilty things, like placemats or totes until you see what sells. You might be pleasantly surprized!
If forced to come up with a dollar amount, I would think the 200 to 300 dollar range.

I know there are math formulas to figure it all out but my general rule of thumb is to at least double what I spent on ALL materials used to make the quilt then add about $30 handling fees. For the quilt you have pictured I wouldn't go lower than $175-200 then if you feel like you need to put it on sale you could go to $150 but that is a steal of a price. Just because it is a hobby for you and you would do it if no one paid you doesn't mean your time isn't worth anything. I would definitately try to use your mom's tax id to purchase materials at wholesale--of course only on the material that you are going to use for selling quilts ;-)
Good luck on your adventure

it's a gorgeous quilt. as the others have said, worth more than 150, but only if you are in an area where folks will pay that much.