Quilting price comparison

[JenniferBernard]

I finished a gigantic quilt today for a good friend. I crunch some numbers to see how my pricing in Iowa compares with others. Everyone does what works for them and what is good in their area.

100" X118" free hand over all with 1 separate border worked down the sides as I went

I charge $15 per hour and keep track of my time using a kitchen timer.

I uses 17 bobbins of Sew Fine and charge by the bobbin for thread and charge for batting

The quilting alone costs:

6.2 hours of quilting time X $15 per hour = $93 for the quilting

Or

$.0078 per square inch (less then a penny!)

$1.135 per square foot

$10.22 per square yard

$5.47 per bobbin

I used to charge $.01 per square much for an over all. This quilt was 11,800 square inches so the quilting would have cost $118 to quilt which was $19.03 per hour. Sometimes I was earning $20 to $25 per hours with this pricing. Then a bad per square inch guess on a custom job would get me $5 an hour and a lot of hair pulled out! That's why I went to an hourly charge.

[ffq-lar]

I think most longarmers agree that overalls/pantos are the best money-makers. Standard of the industry around here (west coast) is 1 1/2 cents per inch for large-to-medium density overalls and pantos. The computer-guided girls charge about the same, but one locally charges 2 cents and has lots of business.

I advise my customers that I usually charge by the hour for custom, because it's so labor and time intensive. I charge $25 per hour. Then I do the math (heavy custom at around 6 cents per inch) and charge them whichever is less. No sense giving them a heart attack before they have a chance to pay! This has worked well, as the hourly can take into account any time taken to think up new quilting designs just for their quilt.

 

Analyzing your prices and your talent, I think that your hourly charge isn't enough. But you make that decision based on your local economy and competition.

 

If you look at the amount of bobbin thread used, my cents-per-inch rate on overalls and light custom (no thread color changes or lots of starts and stops) almost always works out to about $25 per bobbin. I use BottomLine pre-wounds with 110 yards per bobbin. I can quilt about 45 minutes to an hour going steadily stitching an overall. If I use 4 bobbins, it's usually $100 for the quilting. If I used 17 bobbins of BL like you used on your friends quilt (not So Fine as you mentioned) that charge should be closer to $400! That's a lot of thread and a lot of stitches to get paid less than a penny an inch!

[RunningThreads]

The pricing debate was touched on briefly at one of our longarmers meetings last year.  I was in the camp that said our rates should generate 40-45 dollars per hour.  My IQ doing pantos @ $3 /sq ft can do that.  Don't try to be the cheapest in your area, you have the best equipment and good skills don't be afraid to charge for them.

 

Nigel

[Bonnie H]

With the cost of the long arm machine itself, threads, and tools, not to mention the time it takes to get good enough just to quilt a simple panto or a full out custom job, why are we short changing ourselves? $15 an hour is nothing once Uncle Sam gets his piece of the pie, not to mention the electric company's take, the insurance company's take, and the cost of the square feet that it takes to store a long arm. Fabric is like $12 a yard at our LQS. The fabric and batting alone for that quilt that the customer paid $93 to quilt cost at least double that. We are artists, ladies! Well, some of are, me not so much. LOL I think we should be PAID accordingly.  $25 an hour easily, without even batting an eyeball  Most non-long armers would have palpitations if they knew how much money we have invested in "the business." Seriously.

 

This year I decided my body is just too old and hurts too much to quilt for McDonald's wages.

[Bonnie H]

In our guild, some of the ladies charge $20 an hour to make a quilt, PLUS the cost of supplies! All THEY need is a $100 sewing machine, not a $15,000 machine!

[o2b Quilting]

I charge by the square inch unless it is custom.  Custom is $20/hr .  The square inch price varies from .0175/sq in, .0225/sq in. and .0275/sq in depending on how dense the panto is.  Price includes all thread. I am computerized but might do a quick freehand all over which is priced at the square inch.  Some people will shop around for the cheapest quilter but most are looking for quality and a reasonable turn around time.  Edge to edge quilts are almost always back to the customer within 21 days of the time they drop it off.  Custom quilts are told it will take longer than that...   I also have a minimum charge for those small projects.  I refuse to load anything for less than $25 (but I might throw in the batting if I have a scrap to use up).  My customers know that if they want something like pillow shams, placemats, etc done I will charge the $25 fee for each backing I have to load...

[JenniferBernard]

I thought this would be an interesting topic. Look at the different ares of the country we are posting from and even Nigel from Canada! I know Iowa quilters do not charge enough because some of them are only at $12 per hour. I am glad that I am semi retired from quilting and Bly quilt for a few nice clients that don't want anything fancy. I have time to do my own competition and family quilts. I keep my skills up with a few friend and client quilts.

[Sheagatzi]

There are many rental long arm programs popping up in our area.  They charge 25-30 dollars per hours to rent the machine, plus the 150 dollars to get acquainted with the machine.   I'm thinking that if I'm doing the work,  I should at least charge that, if not more.   

 

Now to get the guts to actually do that.   

[JenniferBernard]

I just laugh at the rental programs and tell them that they could just hire me to quilt for them for a lot less money!

[LindaSteller]

Jennifer - I think you may need to raise your prices a bit.  As someone who has been at this for ten year, I can tell you that eventually you will really regret that you worked for so little.  I charge .0175 psi for overalls.  I have a computer and do fairly intricate designs for my customers.  If it were something really simple, I might drop to .015, but generally, they want something fancy.  That takes more of my time (even though the computer is driving) and it takes a lot more thread.

[Primitive1]

Here where I live we are averaging about 1.5 to 2.5 cents for an allover, if that quilt were mine, I would charge 2.5 cents for a med to dense panto (no computer, and I am thinking I can do it in about 6 hours to do a panto) and add a $10.00 thread charge which would come to $305.00 for an e2e quilt that big...which comes out to $49.00 per hour for me...I'm happy with that.....(if I can get it done in 6 hours!), of course the longer it takes the less I make...

 

On those thinking about renting a machine, they don't know how much of a learning curve it is...I have let a few people try out my machine and they come away saying it was much harder than they thought!

[Busy Quilting]

Retired or not I still think any quilter should be charging more than Maccas wages or your local cleaner.

I know my charges end up about $35 per Bottomline or Glide Classics bobbins. So that quilt would have been close to $300 for me to quilt it since So Fine only gets about half of what the Magna Classic bobbins hold.

[JenniferBernard]

Very interesting information from different parts of the world now! Hi down under. I had a roommate at MQS 2 years ago from the Netherlands. She had a shop with 3 long arm machines and hired gals to quilt on them. The Neatherlands has a 25% sales tax on everything. Their quilting, fabric, and thread costs way more than ours does! She also went shopping for Levi blue jeans for her husband that cost over $100 at home.