Jess Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 I am wondering what everybody considers 'allover' or 'basic' quilting and where the line is between that and "custom". I do almost everything freehand and usually include a separate border quilting in with an allover type design for my basic quilting price (which will be going up July 1 - by the way) yet usually if I can go pretty much all the way acrossed without stopping too many times I also consider this 'continious' or 'allover' quilting. I wonder if I should be considering more of my work as custom, since they are all unique to that quilt and usually involve adding some artsy touch to the clients' quilt. This just happens to be where my niche is. But, I think I might be charging too little, especially when I have several clients who tell me that I need to charge them more. Hmmmm......what do you guys think? I've attached a quilt that I would charge 'basic' rates for. What looks like flames at the top of the picture is actually part of the quilt that is sunrays that radiate out from the center of the quilt in all directions, then the swirls radiate out from that getting larger and larger. The smallest ones are about 1/2" diameter and the largest are about 3" diameter. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks, Jessica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyL Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Jess: A whole lot depends on what your "basic" right happens to be. While I certainly am not a pricing expert, I have categories of overall. (1) The least expensive is a fair sized overall meander. I don't do it huge and there's a lot of quilting. This rate is .012/square inch. (2) The medium priced overall is more quilting . . probably similar to what you did and more dense pantos like Daisy Swirl and the rate for this is .018/square inch. (3) Really small meander or any type free motion design that's on the small scale can go up to .025/square inch. My custom starts with stitch in the ditch . . even one little section and the whole quilt gets priced at custom. My preference is custom work. I do like stitch in the ditch and motif work . . I know . . it's not the easiest way to make $$ but I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherri Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 My custom rate also starts with SID. Like Judy, if any part of the quilt has SID, I price the whole quilt at that rate....beginning at 2.5 cents per square inch. I also have what I call "semi-custom" which has quilting specific to the piecing, but without SID. My overalls (whether freehand or panto) do not take the piecing in to consideration....except maybe sometimes something different for a border. They are priced by the complexity of the design...beginning at one cent per square inch. Most of my work is custom, too - I usually don't mind SID, even with my old machine that didn't have SR. But I have a feeling it's gonna get alot better now that I have my new machine!! Sherri Dolly Millenium delivered yesterday!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted June 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 From both of your responses it looks like I need to raise my prices a bit at least. I like the idea of semi-custom, which is probably the best description of where most of my client-quilting falls. For the pictured quilt I charged $.01/sq inch, which is what I charge for most. But I would really feel better getting $0.015/sq" for most of my work. When I do stencils with stippling and some of my more artsy quilting I usually charge btw .02 - .03/sq". I started to wonder when I was reading some other lists and it seemed like almost everyone was charging in the .03/sq" range for almost everything. I know that some of what I do is really special and not everyone can do that, but the thing is I can't do that everyday either. It's not because I don't have the business for it, but mentally and physically it's really taxing. It doesn't leave much creatively for me at the end of the day. When I am working on an art piece I will usually work straight through 10-12 hours in a shot because I need to keep the same mind set in order to draw with the machine in a way the lends continuity to the piece. But then I generally take the next day off or do some simple quilting so that I can 'refresh' my mind. I'm sure this sounds really weird, but that's how it goes so I really need to have that wide price range, and wide range of clients as well. I'll post something that is more of the artsy that I'm talking about. If anyone wants to give me an idea of what they would charge that would be great. Jess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeri Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 Hi Jess, I don't have a clue about the Chicago area but from what I've seen prices for quilting vary across the country. Here in the Kansas City area they are less than both coasts so I tailor my pricing to the area. We've had our machines about the same amount of time and I also have trouble with charging a high enough price, I tend to estimate them at a lower price category than I really should. I like that semi-custom idea, I just might have to use that one. jeri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfrost Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 Jess, your work is absolutey gorgeous! So artistic! Thank you for sharing with us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted June 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 I don't even know if a difference in rates between coasts and midwest really applies in my case since only a handfull of my clients are local or even in the same state. Because I do mostly the more artsy stuff, my clients are from all over the country. The problem lies, if you can call it that, is that some of them are very loyal and send me everything from their most artsy stuff to things that they want a simple meander on. While I really like the artistic freedom to do whatever I want on their quilts, this is what I usually get, "Do your thing, but this one is a giveaway so if you could keep that in mind that would be great. Let me know what I owe you." Now to me that means, " I want more than the most simple thing you can do, but I don't want it to be very expensive." Then when I suggest something and a price to go with it, they will tell me that I need to charge them more. My best bet has been to come up with a few choices that I think will work well with the quilt that vary in price and let them choose - although sometimes they just won't pick one. They continue to encourage me to do whatever the quilt tells me to do, or what's best for the quilt. Also coming up with several plans of attack takes a lot of time also, when usually if they actually will pick something it is generally the first thing that I came up with. I suppose that just reinforces them with the idea that I will know what to do with their quilt. Jessica J. Schick / Diversified Designs Custom Quilting & Artwork www.jschick.com jessica@jschick.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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