I was just given a link to a picture of a printed quilt panel. I drew the enlarged size to decide how it would best fit on a quilt, chose a font and then picked four different sizes for the different words. I hand traced all the words on fusible web, ironed onto fabric and then cut out each letter. I used a braided cord for all the orbit and sewed it to the quilt front. Next chose color and fabric for each planet and moon and added fusible web and cut out each of the graduated size of circles. I ironed both the planets and lettering to the quilt front and then zigzagged with invisible thread around each piece. Next I sandwiched with Warm and Natural and quilted a star pattern throughout the quilt. It was then bound with fabric that matched the fabric of the sun. The finished size is 42" X 58".
Mary
![](<a href="http://quiltinggallery.com/quilting-bloggers/" title="Quilting Bloggers"><img width="150" height="58" border="0" src="http://quiltinggallery.com/images/quilting-bloggers-150.jpg" alt="Quilting Bloggers Logo" /></a>)
22 readers left a comment:
I would charge by the hour plus materials ($15 an hour in my area). Was price discussed before you started?
If you want me to give a dollar amount I would say between $75 - $150 but I don't know your customer or what your area pricing is and this may be low.
In Australia our hourly rate for something like this would be much higher so I would not expect anything less than $200!
Our usual standard is 100% of all costs of all materials (at normal replacement value if you used your own). And then if we send it out for longarm quilting - full replacement value of that (if you quilted it yourself - we use the standard rate a long armer does - hand quilting is double), Then to pay yourself for time - 7 percent of that total.
Mary, I charge for all materials at full retail (regardless of what I paid, because shopping takes time, gas, postage, etc) plus $15-20 hour for my time. Not unreasonable, and this quilt is definitely worth getting paid for. Definitely wouldn't go any less than $250 (if it was me, that would not be enough)
It's adorable, btw!
I too have difficulty figuring out how much to charge for something. I want to make sure that I am getting paid for my time and skills, yet I don't want to price myself out of the market - especially since most people are used to Walmart quilt prices.
I have heard some people say that you can double the cost of the material, so the other half covers the time and profit. That doesn't always work, depending on the cost of the material, but it is a good ball park.
Another is to take the material, add the cost of labor by the hour (deciding how much is hard, but it should be more than minimum wage since you are bringing skills to the table and designed the quilt), and also add some for profit.
Rough guidelines I found a long time ago: a baby quilt $60-75; twin $75-125; double $125-200; queen $175-300 and king 250-500. Of course this all depends on how intricate the quilt is.
You may find this interesting -- it's long and has a followup post as well, but a good read. http://huntersdesignstudio.com/2012/11/08/whats-it-worth/
Rough guess $200. If I made it though and was planning on charging that while making it, I would feel resentful and like it wasn't worth it. So a price I would be happy with might be more like $350 but I bet it would hard to get that much for it. See if you can estimate your hours and pay yourself a fair wage. At least $20/hour.
I don't like the prices quoted above for quilts by size either, you can barely buy the supplies for a baby quilt for $60!
I agree to figure out what you have in it for materials, and then how much time it took you. Figure out what your hourly rate to pay yourself is, and add that to your materials. It will likely be a pretty high price!
In an art class, the instructor gave us a formula for pricing creative work. This works out on the low end, but at least it gives you a starting point. Start with the actual cost of materials (don't forget thread, batting, binding, etc). Calculate your time at minimum wage. The total is your base price. From there, add or subtract based on things like skill level and market. The most important thing on a custom piece, however, is agreeing on pricing at the beginning. You run the risk of alienating a friend by asking for more than they expected to pay, or becoming resentful if the friend doesn't acknowledge the value of your work. You don't want to be stuck with a customer quilt you can't unload if the buyer doesn't like your price. Good luck!
I like what Vrooman's Quilts said above. Full value of the materials (and on those small bits, even though you likely shopped your stash, charge for the minimum cut you'd have had to buy if bought new), don't forget to include the cording, then charge for the quilting at whatever long arm goes for in your area (a friend of mine charges around 2 cents/sq. inch, for ex) and then a bit more because of the design work itself (since you weren't working from an actual pattern). It's beautiful!
What a fabulous quilt! Not very helpful to your base question but wanted to tell you this is a great quilt.
I wouldn't change anything.
I would charge $200 for it, minimum.
No less than $200 - it's completely custom work and I would certainly pay at least that! Incredible job!
This is a wonderful quilt! I would charge at least $200. It is difficult to charge by hour with quilting...so many hours in it.
I love the quilt & understand your dilemma. I read a really interesting article on Etsy recently that talked about just this problem.
The main thing I took from this article was "don't under value yourself!!". It does you & any other artist no favours & people will wonder why your work is so cheap.
I like the idea of working out the costs & adding your hourly rate at $15 to $20 an hour. It is ok to cost in stuff from your stash at retail prices as even if you bought them on sale, you will have to replace them at retail rate. Don't forget power costs.
If you think the person will not pay the price maybe you could start by saying, this is what it would normally cost but I am giving you a discount & charging you $X. This will also cover you if this job leads to another.
Good luck & let us know how you get on.
Cheers
Lush
Worthing, UK
I have a hard time about it too. Of course I charge full materials cost. But I also mull over in my head what I think I would pay for it. Example: I made some earrings, simple, just a stud with a resin flower glued to it. Even though it is simple and does not seem like a lot of work, or very hard I do not want to under price. I sold them for $4.50. I felt like $5 was too much and that $3.50 was a weird number. Retail goes for about $4.50 for something like that.... make sense? I hope this helped. I would sell the quilt for $250ish + shipping
I always charge too little for my quilts so I am the wrong person to ask...good luck with finding the answer.
I would charge for the materials and then per hour on the labour! I would say at least $200-250!
Post a Comment