sewingupastorm Posted March 9, 2007 Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 I have done quite a few practice quilts for people with a McTavish background. I even did one on a wallhanging for my guild challenge. We had a national judge and 2nd place was a lady that always gets a quilt in Houston (even won first place once), In any case my wallhanging got 1st place. I just finished a quilt yesterday for a lady in my guild. She is dyeing of cancer so I was given one of her quilts to do something special..................McTavish of course. I charged 4 cents a square inch but considering I got $100 and spent 10 hours I felt like the price was low. Here are some photos of my McTavishing in order from the first one I did to most recent: First attempt: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2995610420053837050ZVqzwY Next attmept: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2680856620053837050qyqzBQ Prize winning quilt for challenge: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2104712920053837050mXFRjC and another: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2640298090053837050JfWBMT And again: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2760647530053837050gHAley And the one I did yesterday: http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2708282880053837050lOLxnt Now for those of you that do custom stuff what would you charge for something like this. Is my 4 cents per square inch about right or should I charge a bit more. Thanks for an honest opinion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbishwit Posted March 9, 2007 Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 In my area custom starts at .03 per sq inch and Heirloom can start at .05 & up per sq inch. It really depends on the area that you live in. Joann Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingupastorm Posted March 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 Joann what would you call this: cutome or heirloom and what would you charge? Thanks for the reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Beth Posted March 9, 2007 Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 First of all....beautiful!! You have really come right along. I haven't attempted it yet, but I'm close Have you searched this site and then googled other quilter to see what they do? That is always a good thing to do. I check other web sites all the time to see what is happenin out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancingstitcher Posted March 9, 2007 Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 Enjoyed your web site Ami. The fish are great and love how you put the satin diamonds in there because the McTavishing really shows up nicely on that fabric. You can do double feathers in your sleep! And those swirls too. Your work looks nicely controlled, proportional, and creative. It appears that you have a nice group of clients. Are you backed up with too much work? If you are really popular, people are lined up around the corner to have you do their quilts, and you have done some time/value studies of completing one of these very lovely quilts and find that it takes longer than you want it to for the price, then you have probably answered your own question. Do you keep time sheets? Can you go through them and determine if you are faster at doing the quilts and perhaps are making more money? Vicki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingupastorm Posted March 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 Vicki thank you for the wonderful words about my quilting. I do try to do my best work on each and every quilt. I do keep very meticulous records (my science and med tech background I guess LOL). I hear that a good longarm quilter should make around $20 per hour for their time and I can make that on some of my allover designs but the custom stuff really only brings between 8-10 per hour. I just do not want to price myself out of people's price range but do want to make what my work is worth. I guess I might not be the fastest quilter either as I tie off all thread tails, take my time getting the quilt set up and pay attention to fine details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancingstitcher Posted March 9, 2007 Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 Your care for your work shows. I did some calculations on my last two quilts and if I were doing it for money, I wouldn't make much at the 4 cents rate. I made concentric circles on the first quilt and wouldn't make those for a client because burying stitches, like you said, is very time consuming. The second quilt is a wall hanging with lots of couching using Razzle Dazzle thread, again labor intensive. There is a quilter in Prescott Valley that increased her custom quilting prices from about $250 to $450 for a queen sized quilt, according to hearsay and I don't know the details of the level of stitching. She was backlogged by five months and increasing her prices was the solution for her. I haven't spoken with her to find out how the bump up in price affected her client base. How about setting three prices in the custom category? You could have photos of some of your work showing the different levels of custom and the price. Then do the same thing in the panto or panto with a mix of custom and on the other end do three levels in the heirloom. You might confuse your clients, but they may begin to realize how time consuming the custom work is and be willing to go down or up in the categories depending on what their quilt needs. Density and complexity become the determining factors to consider. Didn't Grammie Tammie say that she got $585 for a double wedding ring quilt done on her CQ? Maybe that photo and her story would be good to document for justifying pricing to your clients. Maybe it's valuable to do comparables just like in real estate. Homes do sell for more in certain parts of the country over others. Oh golly, this pricing is complicated. I think you are on a roll of providing excellent quilting to your clients and your reputation is serving you well. It would seem that the bulk of your clients will stick with you if you have to make a reasonable increase in price for some of your services. Maybe leaving panto prices where they are gives them a nice option, while you bump up your custom. And you have justification for doing so since you keep such good records. Good luck Ami. Hope this all works out well for you. Vicki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennan100 Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 Ami, I've heard about documenting your progress as you practice techniques, ie, keeping your practice peices to compare then and now. This is the first opportunity I've had to see anyone's progress in this way. I have to say you've done so well and come so far it's just amazing. Anyone else have something like this to share? Using all the same technique is great, the changes really stand out to a newbie like me. You are doing excellent work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingupastorm Posted March 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Thank you Alvin. There were actually three more quilts that I did not post as I figured that it was getting kind of much. I do keep records and one of the things I record is time to finish a quilt plus the size so I can calculate the design for a different size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLM Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 This is just my crabby opinion, FWIW. Custom quilting is more expensive per square inch than pantos, but pantos make more money. Custom quilting requires skill and experience to execute. Why would anyone want to do custom quilting for customers who don't want to pay what it's worth? Janet Mohler Colorado Springs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countrystitcher Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 I agree with Janet, most of the time the customers I have just want it done - they don't care how so I do a panto and they are happy. If they want custom work, they know my prices and how much it will cost them. I'm getting so I just want to save the time and custom work for my own quilts; and I can have creative freedom on my own quilts. If I screw it up, it's my own and not a paying customer!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbishwit Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Sewing up a Storm; My definition of custom is as follows- 1) stitch in the ditch 2) 1/4" in from the ditch 3) echo quilting 4) simple background fillers 5) simple individual block designs My definition of heirloom is as follows- 1) Mctavishing used as background fill 2) formal feathers (like the ones Sherry does) 3) other advance bacground fillers like pepples/rocks, rays, crosshatching, basket weaves, etc... 4) Nicole Webb's amish circling feathers 5) Myrna's art like quilting she does with her Hartly fence Basically heirloom is when the long armer puts her or his heart & soul in it and makes it a true showpiece that will be treasured for generations to come. And custom is extra attention & thought put forth by the long armer but stops short of the WOW factor. Also reputation of the long armer should also be considered into the price...for example Sherry's showstoppers should bring her .06/.07 per sq inch easily because she puts her heart & soul into the piece she is working on and her reputation precedes her in the quilt wolrd. An unknown just starting out and who is in the process of building her/his rep may get .04/.05 per sq inch for heirloom. Where I live in AZ we have a lot of snow birds during the fall & winter months, they belong to their quilt clubs and alot of them are first time quilters so they want the nicest quilting for the least amount of $. 98% of them will choose pantos for this reason (they also want a quick turn around as well). Now the locals they appceiate the custom and heirloom quilts (just like the snow birds do) but they prefer the price of the pantos so they can buy more fabrics and do more quilts. I agree that when building your business you are better to do pantos to make the bills. You can do more of them in the same time that you can do the customs or heirlooms and make a larger profit and keep your turn around time lower. But there is a part in all of us that dreams of doing the beautiful work that is known as heirloom unfortunately the average quilter is not willing to pay for the quality and time. I hope this helps. BTW your Mctavishing I would charge in the .04 per sq inch range (your skill has really improved since you first learned it and it is quality work) but mctavish alone will not bring you that extra wow factor that Sherry's or Myrna's quilts will because they offer multiple techniques in their quilts. Add some special border designs like the formal feathers or sherry's basket weave technique and you will have that WOW quality that they have. Joann Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Beth Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 Thank you Joann for that explination. I have been waiting and watching for an actual amount and definition...This helps alot, I copied and pasted your message to save for reference. Thank you, thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highlandquiltgirl Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 What beautiful work you do. I love the McTracish look. I have clients that are just now starting to ask for that in my area. So I have been working on mastering the technique as well. But I think your pricing is just right for the amount of work that is involved. Keep up the wonderful job, and keep sharing pictures. I love to see what others are doing! Helps keep me inspired! Heather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k8 Posted April 3, 2007 Report Share Posted April 3, 2007 Very nicely done - I especially like the cats! Your price range seems to be pretty much in the mix, but perhaps your speed will increase as you do more of this technique, thus getting your $/hr up a bit. We do mostly custom (ie. no pantos and very few overall meanders). We find the McTavishing style fills to be very cost effective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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