How do you price your quilts?

[djohns]

I live in Northeastern Pennsylvania and I was wondering what most of you charge for pantograph quilting and what you charge for custom? I am new and not ready to charge anyone but I just want to get ready. Do you use a order form when a person brings their quilt? How do you do this end of the business?

Thanks for the help.

Denise

[nora123]

I charge 1.5 cents an inch for edge to edge and custom starts at 3 cents an inch and goes up to 8 cents.

Nora

[Bonnie]

Denise...its all based on your area....or I should say what your area can handle...some of the more depressed areas are cheaper than those of us who live in urban areas that seem to not be effected by things.

I don't have quilt customers anymore, but when I did I charged by the square foot rather than the inch...some seemed to think they were getting a better deal with the "Foot" scale than the inch one...I started out at $2.50 a square foot for most stuff and went up to $4.50 for heavy custom quilting. I didn't do heirloom style quilting.

You will need to ask around your area to see what the average is and then go from there.

[quiltmonkey]

Good advice by Bonnie! Yeah, each region can differ; just depends.

I also wanted to add that pricing your quilting (in your local area) is a somewhat of a delicate matter. Because sure, you don't want to over-charge your customers and make them pay too much, and (IMHO more importantly) you don't want undercharge your customers by giving them too much of a good thing because this could be viewed by your fellow local longarm quilters as undermining/undercutting their prices and stealing customers away. In some areas, longarm quilters have guilds and meet together. It's like a network for support. I am lucky I have that support network up here. I consider my longarm quilters not as competition but as a resource and way to network for support when needed. They are my friends and I hope to never take business or customers away from them, especially if this is their sole income. But in saying that, it is nice for the customer to have options (styles, designs, time commitments) when they have several longarm quilters in their area to choose from. I think most longarm quilters have a price sheet or web site.