Anniquilter Posted May 9, 2013 Report Share Posted May 9, 2013 I haven't been posting a 'Fantastic Thursday' post but I just finished this quilt. It is # 4 of a series this customer brought me. She made them all at Jinny Beyer's studio so mostly hand pieced and they are all a similar size. At her request the first one was done with a complimentary E2E, the 2nd with a mixture of a panto and freehand work and the 3rd was all freehand. She decided she preferred freehand/custom and didn't have any problem when I said I would have to charge more than my minimum of $95 for freehand/custom because they took so much time to do (Minimum price since they would all come to less than that if I charged by the square inch). She requested simplish custom but with the quilting disappearing into the fabric patterns. I don't know how to charge for this. The quilt is about 52" x 52" and took me about 18 hours to do. Don't look too closely - I don't consider myself skilled at ruler work or any kind of freehand work but charging $95 doesn't seem enough for my time. What would you advise? Do I have to accept charging this amount since I'm still developing my skills or is it reasonable to charge more and how much more? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delld Posted May 9, 2013 Report Share Posted May 9, 2013 If you charge by the inch at $.05 it would be about $135. That would be about $7.50 an hour for your 18 hours. It may good tell your customers a price per square inch ahead of time so they have an idea. I have a sister in law that lets me "play" on her quilts and I charge her a set SIL price! no matter what I do. She gets a great deal!!!! LOL I 'm not an expert here so let them chime in here to help you! BYW there have been some post here on the forum about rates. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne from Guam Posted May 9, 2013 Report Share Posted May 9, 2013 I would start by telling the customer that you WORKED on her quilt for 18 hours. You deserve at the bare minimum, $10/hr. This is a small project and you are new to custom work, so the minimum applies. But you did an EXCELLENT job!!! This is a tough area pricing your work. But you have to assess what your time and talent are worth. Be honest!Most of us would never pay what we charge our customers because we CAN DO IT OURSELVES! But don't assume your customer only wants to pay x number of dollars. You don't want to end up doing custom for free...Decide on your rate for custom and put it on your price list and then say it out loud to your customer. They will respect you for it. As you get more experience you will quilt faster. So to start out in custom I would charge by the hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gail O Posted May 9, 2013 Report Share Posted May 9, 2013 Anne, you are selling yourself short; financially and the critique of your work. You did a fabulous job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandmaLKB Posted May 9, 2013 Report Share Posted May 9, 2013 Anne, your work on that quilt is wonderful ! Get what you are worth ! Don't sell yourself short. I spent the day at my Quilt Group. We got 7 nice size throw quilts finished and ready for quilting. They will go to charities as needed. I brought home 3 to quilt on the long arm and others also took some home. We have 4 long armers in our little group, so that makes the work divide up well. The others in the group are glad to do the bindings, so we all get a job along the way. Some of our ladies are no longer able to come to our meetings, but we send things home to them to work on......sewing squares together into 4 patches or 9 patches and they send those back and we assemble them into quilt tops. Some of those "at home" ladies also like to whip down the bindings. They feel useful still and helps all of us out. It was a fun day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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