pricing question

[mountainmanda]

You all have been a wealth of information for this newbie.

Thanks, I appreciate all your input.

Take Care

Manda

[countrystitcher]

I also agonized over pricing when I first took in customer quilts. From everything I read I decided on penny/half sq inch for basic like meandering/pantos and then up from there for block designs, stippling, etc. I figure a lots of starting and stopping gets charged more because it takes more time. The other long-armers in my area charged less and were more experienced , so before my first quilt, I backed down to penny/quarter. I figure in a couple of years after I improve I can raise my prices. Also I have a minimum price of $45.00, which gives cushion on a baby quilt. I'm terrible at math, so I used square inch because I can understand it and figure it easily. My customers seem to understand it better too! Even as a beginner I feel I will not back down on prices. My husband warned me that I would be too soft and give away the farm and so I need to stand firm on prices. Remember we are "professionals" so we need to charge for our time and talent.

[larryrr]

I wouldn't let the nice Lady's price dictate what I charge! MY charge start at .015 per inch. and that is a ...top to bottom ..end to end meander and if I use a panto I look at how complicated the panto is ...(some are very easy some are very difficult and use a lot more thread..more time...different panto for boarders..requires you to turn the quilt to do boarders on the side...). I look at how sq. the quilt is how well it's made type of fabric ( cheap or good).All this take time and if its a poorly made quilt.It is harder to to do !I have had panto's that i have charged .03 per inch..and the lady was happy as a lark..others that was shocked! I will tell them that this is what my time ..work..and machine.is worthand if they think it's to much that's OK...THAT'S the price... and thank them for coming by...custom start at .02 ..up to .05...Some people dont understand the time and MONEY that you have invested in learning how to do what yoiu do......SOOOO.. you should charge what you think is fair for YOU and your machine! If you lose some thats ok ..you will be a lot happer working on something that you feel good about doing..not somethig you dont like because you had to work to hard and to long on!....That's my .015....worth..LOL..

[Judi]

I start at $13.00 per square yard, that seems to be the going rate around

here for over-all freehand quilting. Yes, it goes up from there. The most I

have charged is $23.00 per sq yd. for a custom job. Unless you figure how

much extra you get on those little bitty baby quilts, where you have to have

a min. charge, and tend to come out pretty good.

If I am doing McTavishing I add more for a thread charge too - it really does

take alot! I go by how many bobbins I use. Good Luck!

[Grammie]

.015 per sq inch is fair in most parts of the country.

I kinda look at pricing differently maybe than others. I have found that QUALITY piecers do not mind paying Quality Prices for their quilt tops. With that being said they EXPECT Quality in return. I am slowly gaining my customer base and I must say that most are knowledgable about what they want. I think by sticking to a quality price, giving quality quilting you will get the piecers who really want their quilts to look special. With that being said I encourage Beginners to let me quilt for them. I praise them and in at least 4 cases I have had return quilts from them that showed improvement in their piecing. Soon they too will be quality piecers and well I will be their quilter. We build a relationship kinda like women do with their hairdressers. I know what they like and don't like after a few quilts and they begin to trust my judgement more and more. After a while they simple say SURPRISE ME and I do. How fun is that??? I just love to quilt for my customers.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE PRACTICE and only do what you feel skilled to do. Let your customers know what skill level you are at and be honest about you limitations. Many are happy to have their tops practiced on with ETE designs and Meander. If they make alot of tops thru the year they know your skills will improve. You will know this as the tops are going to be more difficult with time. They are paying attention to your skills. Trust me.

Your going to do so well Amanda. Your really are.

[mrsbishwit]

When someone would ask me (before I had my pricing figured out) what I charged, I told them that I was researching other LArmers in the area to determine my prices so that I would not over charge or under cut the competition. This satisfied them.

Then when my pricing was set I did get a couple of people questioning my prices (snow birds that were visiting for the winter) saying that they thought I am over priced, they would tell me that they had a quilt done back home for less etc....but with a little proding they fessed up that the other quilter's quality was very poor and that she didn't offer a lot of variety to choose from.

One thing I have learned is that it is in the human nature to try and get the best price and to try to negociate the fee...remember this is your business, you set your prices not the customers. The ones that have been using LArmers in the past know how much it cost to have their quilts quilted and don't complain...the newer quilters need to be educated due to lack of experience and knowledge (you will soon come to learn which customers are in it for the love of it, where money is usually no object and those customers who thought it would be an inexpensive hobby to keep them busy or to make "cheap" gifts for the holidays).

My pricing is by the sq inch and is as follows~

1) Basic- .015 (edge to edge pantos/ all pantos regaurdless of how tight they are) .

2) Basic Plus- .020 (same as basic plus 1 border design usually requires me to turn the quilt).

3) Custom- .030 (stitch in the ditch, echo quilting, individual block designs, multiple border designs, some loose to med background fills like McTavish, pepples, meandering etc..)

4) Heirloom (eventually I will add this catogory)- .05 (this will include micro stippling, trapunto, whole cloths, fancy freehand feathers etc..)

Most of my customers choose the Basic ( I have about a 100 pantos they can choose from) followed by my Custom. Very few ask for the basic plus.

Joann

[The Crafty Unicorn]

Caron,

Thanks for the semi-custom idea. I have a couple of customers who like to keep the price down but are very good piecers. I hate to see those perfectly flat borders just included with the E2E panto. This might give me a way to show them what I can do without breaking the bank.

Leslie

[quiltbuddy]

Very interesting comments from all of you. I am new and am waiting for my millie to arrive anytime next week. Do you find that a lot of people dropping off their quilt tops already have ideas of how they want it quilted? Or do they just bring it and wait to see what your quilting suggestions are? Guess a new quilter would suggest a panto or all over meander? I can't wait for my machine to arrive! Does it get easier to look at a quilt top and be able to decide what type of quilting to do where?

Janet

Wms Lk, B.C.