LibbyG Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 I had a call from a lady today who would like me to make a picture quilt for her mother. She wants one for a double bed. I would make it and quilt it. What would I charge her to do this? She is going to have someone print the pictures for her so I would only be making and quilting the quilt. What size is good for a double bed? thanks everyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewhappy Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 How many picts? what quilting pattern? Do you need to do prep work on this quilt? Are they ready to be put together? How long of a drop on the sides? I have found that alot of times the traditional "Queen Size" can really be ALOT bigger- do not charge by the size alone take into account the other amount of work that goes into a quilt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewhappy Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 I usauuly charge by the hour-I no longer feel awkward about my rates-They will either pay it or not. Those that believe you get what you pay for are my best customers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustSewSimple Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Check out how much the stuff costs for one picture on the fabric (if this is coming from your computer consider the ink cost). Consider the time it takes you to do all that printing. If you will then be stripping around each picture with fabric to make each block larger, consider how much fabric you will be using and if you have to shop for special colors etc. I have always refused to do them unless the customer prints out her own pictures. If she brings me the pics then it is sorta like making a t-shirt quilt without the interfacing. I am thinking at least $600. Others will have to jump in here. Oh, and I like 90X90 on my beds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LFQuilts Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Libby, Everyone has made good points. You also need to know if the client wants a 'comforter' sized quilt or one that has a full drop on the sides - this will strongly influence amount of material and time spent. Does the client want a few pictures worked into a quilt pattern or a hundred pictures arranged in grid with sashing? Regardless, you need to figure an hourly rate for printing/piecing, material costs (including printer ink, fabric, batting), and costs for quilting/binding. Depending on what the customer wants, Sylvia's $600 estimate may be low. Also, talk with the customer about whether or not they want or will allow quilting over the pictures. If not, you need to keep the picture size down to 3"x5" or 4"x6" max - and you will be doing a lot of SID most likely. This sounds like a fun project! I hope that your customer is willing to pay you a reasonable rate for the work. Lynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oma Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 I recently posted a photo quilt I made for my step-daughter. I was able to put two pictures on each photo sheet. There were 50 pics...so 25 sheets and allow for mistakes. If she uses 8x10 pictures then it's one pic per sheet. Find out how many pics she wants to use and the size. The average cost of the sheet is about $1. I have an HP printer and get a lot of prints per cartrigde. I put in brand new cartridges and didn't run out so figure at least that much charge for printing. I buy my ink at Costco and it's about $100 when I buy both cartridges. I also posted for someone how I do the photo quilts. I mentioned that I like to put a thin white cotton fabric behind each picture to stabilize it and to make the colors sharper. Personally I would have the person buy the photo sheets and print the pictures then bring you the pictures. If there is a problem then it's on her. If, however, she is unable to do that then I would use the above amounts as a starting point to charge. It's time consuming to print out pictures...be sure to account for that. Do a picture pillow or something so you get a feel for how long it will take you. I would only put pics on the portion of the quilt that is on the bed top and use borders for the rest. How much of a drop does she want? One thing I learned with my brother is people have different ideas when they talk about something fitting a full size bed. As I explained to him...quilts are NOT bed spreads! Bed spreads touch the floor on three sides of the bed and usually have the same amount of drop on the top to go over pillows and tuck in (like the old days). Quilts cover the top of the bed and hang over 8 or so inches. So if you fold it and place it across the bottome of the bed it hangs over each side. This is just my personal opinion. My brother wanted a quilt for his California King Size bed. I thought no problem...I make big quilts anyway. Well, I figured out that he wants it to fit like a bedspread . That is HUGE!!! He hasn't gotten a quilt from me yet. He will eventually I'm sure. Hope this helped a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharonG Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Once you figure this and agree on a price estimate, I'd suggest getting a down payment of at least half before you start. You don't want to go to hours of work to hear the customer say when you call her to says it is finished that her financial situation has changed or that's not what she expected or friend Susie says that's way too much money. I ask for the whole amount up front before I start and show them how I arrived at the figures (some people are interested in this and some not, but it's also a good thing to do in case a friend questions them later), give them a copy, which they have signed. And yes, you're right, I had to learn this the hard way, after I bought all the fabric for a log cabin quilt in colors I wouldn't use for my personal quilts. I kind of keep the fabric in a grouping instead of using bits and pieces of it to remind me not to do that again, but I'm almost ready to start using it now. I never saw the excitement about a photo quilt until I saw Oma's. Sharon G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anniquilter Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Libby I'm working on a quilt for someone now that I'm constructing and quilting. She was given 50 hand-embroidered squares she wanted incorporated into a large/long queen size quilt. I priced it in 3 stages - 1. Design time @ $25 per hour 2. Construction time @ $25 per hour and 3. Quilting which I charge at my normal rates. I had her pay the design fee & a deposit on the construction cost up front. I then invoiced her after the top was made and at that time she also gave me a deposit on the quilting. HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiltmonkey Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Hi Libby, When making up your estimate, keep this in mind: If "you" are to be printing out all of the photos (depending on how many she wants on the quilt) and you are printing these photos out on "your" inkjet color printer, keep in mind that it will use a lot of ink cartridges. Ink cartridges are very expensive. I suggest using either Printed Treasures or the better quality fabric photo transfer products out there. Printed Treasures is very expensive, too, but worth the cost. So keep those two things in mind. PS: I just quilted an absolutely stunning customer quilt that had over 200 photos on it. It looks like a collage. Each photo is individually framed (sashing) with different variety of fabrics. It is a queen size quilt. The customer did a spectacular job piecing and putting this together. A labor of love indeed, and she spent months making it. It brought tears to my eyes what she did when I saw the photos and read the scanned stories and recipes included. A really cool quilt. I did a stipple meander using SoFine off-white thread and avoided going through any of the faces. It turned out very nice. She was very happy with it. A rewarding quilt for me to help her finish it. Of all of the quilts I have done these past few years, this photo quilt will be something I will keep in my memory bank forever. It is extraordinary. I think it is a work of art!! (she is so proud of it, she wants to put it in the fair!! LOL! Cute!!!) I told her to go for it! It really is so lovely! Oh, and I think my new customer (Kelly) has actually become a "dear dear friend" to me. We are fast friends - our personalities... well, we just "clicked" Isn't that nice??? and we have gone out to lunch twice (Thai food) in the past week!! She had never eaten Thai before and she now she is hooked on thai food! LOL!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primitive1 Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Libby, I would so as Anne says, charge for the materials, (don't forget to charge for your time in going to get the materials), time to plan and assemble it, then charge for the quilting and binding as if she were another customer. I would give her an estimate so she is not surprised, and then ask for her to give you a good deposit so if she changes her mind, you aren't out the materials and time you've already spent. I charge $30.00 per hour when assembling a quilt (mostly because I'd rather be quilting but it still doesn't discourage some and they pay it). And again, I'd have her measure her bed and let you know how much of a drop for the sides that she wants. The good part is that you will have a well constructed quilt with borders that are correctly put on to quilt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April W Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 This is a quilt that my boss' sons had me make for their 50th anniversary. it's about 40" X 40" uses only two fabrics (plus solid white to line 18 pictures and I put crystals on the front. I charged a little over $200.00 three years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibbyG Posted May 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Thanks to everyone who responded. She's giving me the pictures on the material, so I'm only making the quilt and quilting it. Since I haven't done one I'm not sure how long it would take me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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