How much to charge
 

Just a question here. A young lady brought me a big bag of baby blankets, swaddles, etc that she wanted cut up and turned into two separate quilts.. I decided to make rag quilts from them. I managed to get 390 6 inch squares from them. I used up my scrap batting for the middle layer, and cotton from previous projects for the bottom layer.
I'm making each row 13 squares wide, and 15 squares long How much should I charge her? I have no idea, but it's been a lot of work! Thank you!

Before you go further, I highly suggest you talk with her about what her price expectations are. What are you going to do if she balks at the price after the fact?

You should have established the price first - she might be thinking it's going to be only $25 and you could actually have several hundred dollars of work ahead of you that you aren't going to get paid for.

Totally agree on all points!!!!!!!!!!

Always establish price ahead of time.

Good advice but the ship has sailed. Now... personally I have never done this type of work, but I my own ruminating I thought $10 per block to be a fair price for this type of work. After all, it's time, talent, batting, and scraps. That said - it's a almost $4000 project by that metric....steep for a memory quilt. Perhaps $$2000? Still steep, but perhaps other quilters who do commissions of this nature can chime in with an educated voice. I think a lot but actually know diddly -squat.

This may turn into one of those "learning experiences" that you will not want to repeat.

I also totally agree with the other comments that price should have been discussed before proceeding.

This also sounds like something you have not done before, so how would you know how much to charge?

Is this person a friend of yours? relative? any idea of her financial situation?
Anyway - you are where you are now -

In my limited experience, people that do not sew think you can charge less than Walmart for anything sewn -

And when I have agreed to a project, most times it has taken way longer and been more complicated than I anticipated.

Good luck.

if you didn't have to spend much on the materials, I would suggest $600-1000.

I am sure that my views on this matter will not be accepted very well, but I think that it is a side of the discussion that needs to be addressed. Since the issue of price was never discussed at the time the project was given to you, it is my opinion it is now a moot point, as you will have to accept whatever she is willing to pay. You lost control of the situation when you continued to work on the quilts and never expressed your concerns about time and costs to the gal. The prices that have been suggested may seem reasonable to other quilters, but to someone unfamiliar with quilting and unprepared for the bill, they are outrageous and shocking. You need to sit down with this person and talk this over to reach a price, and as bearisgray suggested, chalk it up to a learning experience when you get paid much less than you feel you deserve.

It was suggested by a friend of mine $1.25 per square. If she isn't happy with the price, I will give her all the squares back for the second quilt and she can find another quilter instead. The idea of this project just appealed to me as a fun project. It truly has been that. Although, a lot of work too. I told her I would be reasonable when she asked how much I would charge her. Truly, since I have managed to use what I had on hand that kept her from having to buy anything extra. The batting was all cut from scraps I had on hand. 4 1/2 yards of scrap cotton fabric for the back, from my stash.
All in all, I just wanted to price somewhat fairly. Thank each of you for your input. Actually, I don't have plans to repeat this process! I have to many other sewing projects of my own to accomplish. Just want to help out a local girl from our small town

Sometimes, I don't consider the cost of my time. Sometimes the project is just a labor of love. Sometimes it just feels good to make something for someone else. Sometimes, that "feel good," is payment enough.

If you charge very little, others may come around and want the same thing done for them for the same price.

You could make it a gift - and as it was a learning experience- call it a "prototype" - so if any other people want the same thing, you would have a better idea of what is actually involved.

I consider what it would cost me to replace the scraps with yardage as "fair game" in pricing a project.