Charging for Charity Quilts

[Brrrr]

For those of you who quilt professionally, what is your policy on charging for quilting charity quilts for others?

Do you quilt at a reduced price?  Do you quilt them for free?  Do you charge full price and ask the customer to take the charity deduction for their quilting charges?

Becky

[Sharon Deming]

I quilt charity quilts free - but limit the number I do per month, and limit the size to a Quilt of Valor size (about 60 x 70)

[Sandra Fusco]

I finish Charity Quilts for free and limit myself to a certain number.  However, I have had special requests for mid-custom work, i.e. Quilts of Valor, and for those I do let them know I will charge my regular rates, since my regular service for those charity quilts are only E2E.

[LibbyG]

If it's a customer, I give them a half price quote, only because I don't want to do all their quilts for charity.  Non customers are full price.  For my guild, they're free for our service projects, if they are my customer.  I've had members ask me to quilt their charity quilts, and then pay someone else to quilt for them.

[Robin]

I had a very good customer ask if I would donate quilting on a quilt of valor quilt she was doing for her guild.  She also had one for her brother who is a veteran which she expected to pay me for, but I donated that one too.  She was tickled and so was I.  I like to contribute once in a while. 

[lkl]

Becky
I will stitch one free charity quilt, per customer, per year, provided that the quilt is being made for my local guild comfort quilt program. I only provide E2E stitching and I pick the panto. Batting and backing is provided by the guild.  I'd hoped that the other LAQs in the guild would follow my lead but that hasn't happened yet.  I will donate quilting to other causes on an individual basis when I have the time. 
Leslie

[FloridaMissy]

I also quilt for free on charity quilts for my guilds.  I will limit the # I do per quarter.  I do not want this to become my full time job.  I provide the thread and they provide the rest.  

I was very interested in doing Quilts of Valor until I found out that they wanted me to provide the backing, batting, thread and my time.  On top of that they want you to pay for the shipping back to them.  I am retired and on a fixed income and could not justify that kind of expense.  I told them I would do a few if they delivered them to me and provided the back and batting but they were not interested. 

When doing charity quilts I reserve the right to pick the type of quilting and thread.

[quiltmonkey]

about 90% of the charity quilts I do are free, or I just charge $.01 per square inch. I work a full time job so quilting is very spare time for me, speaking of time... this is my most valuable asset and I don't have a lot of $$time$$ to spend doing quilts, let a lone charity quilts, but I try to do what I can. 

[AnnP]

If someone gives me a charity quilt to longarm, I charge them the same, If my quilting bee or I make charity quilts NO CHARGE. Quilts of Valor, as we all know, NO CHARGE!

[loraquilts]

A very sweet lady that attends the monthly sewing group has been making quilts to send to Japan for the last few years.  She said there is still a huge need for recovering tsunami victims.  Someone in the group suggested that the group make and donate 50 quilts to this effort. I volunteered to quilt the quilts for free, but the customer had to provide all materials and do the binding.  There are a couple of other quilters in the group who later also volunteered to quilt for free, so that lessened the burden on me.  I ended up quilting 15 quilts in a three week period.  My hope was to generate some new customers down the road.  That was in July, so we'll see, but it's not looking hopeful.  I also suspect that not all of the quilts that I quilted for free ended up going to the tsunami victims.  I say this because of the total number of donated quilts did not quite match up to the number of quilts that were quilted for free.  This kinds of makes me rethink my position on quilting for free.  I'm not opposed to supporting a good cause, but I don't want to be taken advantage of either.  IF (and that's in all caps for a reason) I ever do something like this again, I will charge a small fee for binding the quilt and then I will take the quilts and make sure they get turned in to the donation center. 

[Kwiltr]

I'm not in the business of quilting for others, but I have volunteered to quilt for a local group that make Quilts 4 Kids that go to the Sick Kids Hospitals in our area.  I donate my time and thread and spray basting if I do it on my Sweet 16. I also make quilt tops, that I finish with their batting and backing and my quilting and binding for the cause.  I don't have any concerns with these quilts not ending up where they're supposed to.  If I did, that would be the end of that relationship.