Grace MooreLinker

I also give my quilts for gifts, Making them for $$$"s would make it like work and take the joy away.

Snooze2978

Jingle, I also make and give my quilts away as gifts. Yes, my time and money is worth a lot but the joy I give to others when I hand them something they had no idea was coming to them makes up for all the sweat and sometimes tears I spent creating it. True I decide the colors and pattern I try to match up with the recipent's style. Months in advance I ask questions so I have an idea how to go about it so by the time they finally get it, they've totally forgotten I had asked them anything.

A quilt I started for my mother 4 years ago in her colors is now going to someone else on my list as my mother's colors have changed since then but another quilt I had made just to try out the pattern she decided she liked so no loss. The 1st quilt fits the colors for the 2nd person so again no loss. This person will be getting her quilt at the end of the month when I finally get the binding sewn on.

MargeD

I have made quilts for friends, mostly baby quilts, but also bed size, and I usually charge for the cost of fabric. I once made a log cabin quilt for my best friend and I think I said I would do it for $100, as it was also a house warming present, but that was over 10 years ago. When she asked me to make the quilt for their new log cabin, I told her I had seen just the right pattern. On the cover of a Traditional Quiltworks magazine was a log cabin quilt, with a center of a pieced log cabin, with pieced mountains along with a few maple leaf blocks in addition to the log cabin blocks in a barn raising setting. I still think this was my best quilt ever, instead of piecing the center (which I did, but ripped it out as I didn't like it) I appliqued the log cabin with a stone fireplace, stone walk, with shrubs, bushes and mountains. I used a wood pattern fabric, with one inch strips for logs (it didn't occur to me that I could just use the wood fabric and quilt the logs - LOL), which I quilted by SID. I was showing a fellow quilter the quilt at a meeting, and when someone asked what I would charge to make another one, I quickly said $400, and she decided that was too much, however, the quilt was a lot of work and even $400 was cheap. My friend loved it and it still hangs off the balcony of the second floor next to their stone fireplace. Will I do another one like it - probably not, but as I said it was made for a very dear friend.

Pat M.

No matter what you think, Charge $1000. Your time, effort, etc. is worth it. Do not sell yourself short. If you work, charge what you get at work and then double it. Make sure you keep your hours, costs, save ALL receipts from the fabrics and threads. AND make sure you get a deposit, at least half of the costs.

jcrow

Marianne Fons said that she thinks a qualified quilter should get $2,000 for a king size quilt. Not her asking price, but the price any quilter who knows what they are doing should ask. She said we are worth it. If we painted a painting that size, we would surely ask a lot more than $2,000. We are artists, just like painters. I just snowballed 27 blocks and it took me quite a while from the beginning (choosing the different fabrics, cutting the fabrics to 4 1/2", drawing a line down the middle, sewing them to each corner, cutting the excess off, and ironing the fabric over) to the end. If someone wants to buy this quilt, they won't realize how much work went into those snowballed corners. They don't look like much work, but they are. In fact, quilts don't look like hard work, but they sure are!
Finding the fabrics that look good together takes skill. Finding the right pattern for the fabric is also a skill. All the ironing, cutting, measuring, sewing, quilting, etc. takes so much skill and patience. We get frustrated and make mistakes and parts of making a quilt are very boring and other parts are very challenging. And few of us can work on it from start to finish at one time. We have to do it around our family and jobs and housework. Some of us have to put everything away at the end of the day and then get it back out the next time we're able to work on it. We are very special people!!! We are awesome people!!! We are quilters!!! We deserve a heck of a lot of money for our artestry.

Jingle

I am very flattered since we sell abrasives. Seems quite appropriate, doesn't it?

I just read a thread about charging $200.00 for a quilt that was quilted with a meander. Most everyone thought that was too high. A quilt made for $1000.00 is absolutely ridiculous.

I stand by my above statement.

Jingle

I said it in a very nice way.

I work full time, keep a clean house, take care of three cats, one dog and a pet bird. I get paid enough through my job that I can afford to give to kids, Grands. Great Grands, friends and some people I don't even know. When I give a quilt to someone and they cry at my generosity that is payment enough for me. I am working on my 125th quilt. I sew on weekends, a few hours in the evening. Since quilt making is a hobby, and I intend to keep it as such I would not do it for money.
This is my opinion and I am as entitled to it as everyone else is to theirs. Sorry if some don't like my opinion.

IAmCatOwned

Ladies, she asked how much to charge. That was the TOPIC.

Grammy, you aren't really giving enough information, so I will try to be more general. A commissioned quilt usually involves some choice by the customer. The first question I ask someone who wants me to make them a quilt, I ask what size? I then calculate the costs of the fabric, the batting, the yarn (if tied), the thread (additional if quilted), plus tax for all of these items, and tell them that the materials cost alone would be at least X and that would have to be paid up front. I use only quilt shop quality fabric with only the rare exception of a good quality novelty fabric. Giving them that price will chase away all but the person who understands the cost of making a quilt. Most people think you are going to make a quilt for the same price that they can buy it at Sears ($50). Even with Joann's fabric, you would be hard pressed for the materials costs for a full sized quilt to be under $50. I've only managed to do that with a tied quilt backed with Joann's Snuggle fabric (bought during that big annual sale after Thanksgiving).

Don't base your charges on a 'size' either. What is the customer expecting? The complexity of the pattern not only increases your sewing time, but also your materials needs in both fabric and thread.

You need to be sure to get your materials' costs up front. The person commissioning the quilt may never pay up otherwise, having changed their mind, not liking the colors THEY chose or simply disappearing. Then you are stuck with a quilt you didn't want at YOUR expense.

For what it's worth, most people who have asked me to make them a quilt (or a sweater) have never followed through either giving me money for the materials or buying the materials themselves. Only those who make handmade stuff themselves follow through - they appreciate both the costs and time it takes to make such things.

My last commission used mostly leftover novelty christmas fabrics (quilt shop stuff) to make a simple square and sashed twin sized (about) quilt with a flannel back. It was meander quilted. I based my materials cost on CURRENT costs of fabrics, not the fact that they were leftovers. You end up buying something even with a scrap quilt, maybe just the sashing or binding and thread. Don't short yourself. I asked for $200 above materials costs. The woman who commissioned it gave me $75 more, she was so thrilled. Given that there are a number of quilting hobbyists at the hospital, she was well aware of the costs and time involved but she didn't sew herself.

I do very few commissioned quilts just because my health is such that I can't guarantee when or if I can complete within a specified time period.

Jan in VA

Good for you. That's *your* decision and works for you but certainly does not represent everyone.
I consider myself a skilled laborer/artist with years of experience in my craft; and expect to be paid surely as least partly as well as a skilled plumber. Or tree trimmer. Or house painter, for Pete's sake, without demeaning criticism from fellow quilters.

I purely hope this new member to the board searches for other topics on this very subject which are archived here, and does not end up feeling the need to diminish her worth as a quilter/artist/sewist.

Jan in VA

Candace

Applause , Jan. Perfect.