qltnbe Posted December 10, 2016 Report Share Posted December 10, 2016 I have this customer quilt to do and am pretty sure that I want to do feathers in the ivory rows and most likely SID with the C's in the half-square triangles. I was just wondering if you thought it was necessary to SID (actual) between the rows. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaC Posted December 10, 2016 Report Share Posted December 10, 2016 I love the definition of SID, but is your client paying you for it? If not, then don't do it. It will look better if you SID the long diagonal seams so the edges next to your feathers are tacked down and not puffy and wobbly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InesR Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 It seems deciding what to do can take as much time as the doing. I've seen your other quilts, so confident what you decide will be just what it needed. ") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zora Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 I agree with Lisa , but your customer must be willing to pay for SID. Don't start giving away your work. The customers will be happy to take advantage of you . .forever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qltnbe Posted December 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 You are so right about making that initial decision about a quilt. I fret over that sometimes longer than what it really takes to do it. Thank you for your vote of confidence. I am in the process of chalking my design decisions on the quilt top right now. The back and batting are loaded on the machine and no matter what I decide, the customer is willing to pay. I just need to get it on the machine and get busy. Thank you for your ideas and like I said, your vote of confidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IQuiltToo Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 Faye, that is a beautiful top! Can't wait to see a picture when you get it finished! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindasewsit Posted December 26, 2016 Report Share Posted December 26, 2016 On 12/10/2016 at 3:55 PM, LisaC said: I love the definition of SID, but is your client paying you for it? If not, then don't do it. It will look better if you SID the long diagonal seams so the edges next to your feathers are tacked down and not puffy and wobbly. LisaC, If I may ask, what do you charge when you do SID on a quilt? I usually do it on most of my quilts. The hardest thing I do is figure what to charge!! Is there a minimum you have when you SID ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qltnbe Posted December 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2016 I have to admit that I took this quilt off the frame so that I could get a Christmas tree skirt done that I was making for a Christmas gift for my daughter-in-law. It will be going back on the frame as soon as things settle down around here. As for charging for SID.....I am not sure I am the one to ask. I am sure I am undercharging big time, so hopefully others will chime in here to give you a better idea. I do charge .02 for anything over a panto. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cagey Posted December 27, 2016 Report Share Posted December 27, 2016 Linda G: I say you have to charge a livable wage for you quilting skills. As you have to buy the machine, thread, pay your 7% SS tax, pay your employer 7% SS tax, you come tax, maintenance of the machine, I for one believe you have to charge $20 per hour to cover all your fees. Otherwise you are probably better off working somewhere else and just quilting for fun. Purely my opinion, and yes I quilt for fun. Next time you work on a customer's quilt, track every second you work on the quilt using a stop watch. That is to say, track your time considering what you are gong to quilt, loading it, quilting it, unloading the quilt, fixing any issues, reloading if needed, and hanging it up for pickup. Once you are done, you will have the total time you spent working on the quilt. Divide that into what you charged, and figure out if you are making more than minimum wage in you area. If not, you need to price accordingly in my opinion. Good luck. Let us know what you figured out, as it is a common question on the forum. Cagey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RunningThreads Posted December 27, 2016 Report Share Posted December 27, 2016 I agree with most of Cagey"s post except the minimum wage part. Quilting for hire is a skilled profession and needs to be priced accordingly maybe not like a Doctor or Lawyer but certainly more than a Walmart Greeter. One of the quilters I know who keeps very accurate time she spends on each quilt told me her custom quilting rate starts at 3 times her pantograph rate and goes up from there. Needless to say she makes a good income from quilting and you never hear her complain about making minimum wage or less on a job. Nigel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InesR Posted December 28, 2016 Report Share Posted December 28, 2016 Sure your daughter in-law loves that tree skirt. I think it is gorgeous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cagey Posted December 28, 2016 Report Share Posted December 28, 2016 Nigel: I agree with you, quilters are skilled artisans and deserve just pay. I made the minimum wage comment, because from talking with many quilters for hire in my area I am not sure if they earn that with what they charge to quilt an item. I believe many quilters do not track the actual time they spend on a piece, and end up selling themselves short in the compensation department. In the end, I believe it hurts every quilter as customers do not truly value the real cost of the artwork and workmanship. Cagey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaC Posted December 30, 2016 Report Share Posted December 30, 2016 On 12/26/2016 at 2:22 PM, lindasewsit said: LisaC, If I may ask, what do you charge when you do SID on a quilt? I usually do it on most of my quilts. The hardest thing I do is figure what to charge!! Is there a minimum you have when you SID ? Linda, I don't quilt for others, but if I did I would certainly charge by the hour. If you are accomplished at SID and using your ruler then it really speed things up. If you are not good at SID; you will be when you are done with a couple quilts. I, for one, would pay for SID because it makes everything neat and tidy with no wobbly seams. It's worth it in the end; and I've already expended a lot of money and, especially time, in piecing the quilt top. If you show examples to your clients they will be more willing to pay for it. Above all, never give your work away! I owned a quilt shop for 10 years way back and my father used to tell me "You are not Santa Clause, you don't give things away". LOL..... he was self employed his entire life and he knew! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiltmonkey Posted December 31, 2016 Report Share Posted December 31, 2016 I don't do SID on customer quilts unless it absolutely needs it. SID takes a lot of time, and is expensive for customer. Plus, I don't think SID is necessary for most quilt tops. It all depends on the quilt. Applique? Yes... Sew around outer edges. So, for your quilt top, I say yes to the CCs and sure, have fun with feathers! It will look pretty. Share a pic of your quilt after. I would love to see it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qltnbe Posted January 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 I don't know how one can charge by the hour when you have no idea how long a quilt will take, thus you can't give the customer a good idea how much it will cost. The tree skirt took me 7 hours to quilt; and yes, the SID is what took the most time. By the way, my DIL loved the tree skirt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zora Posted January 1, 2017 Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 When I was quilting for others I did not charge by the hour. I charged by the square inch, between a penny and 5 cents an inch depending on level of quilting. I kept track of the time spent on each quilt and aimed at making $20 per hour on average. That gave me a good indication of what to include in each level of quilting so that I could average my $20 goal. SID was always between 3.5 and 5 cents depending on how complex the piecing was. I could discuss the level of quilting with the customer and give a quote based on square inches and level of quilting. It doesn't happen ivernight. You have to develop it over time with experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.