Charging Guild Members.

[jcox]

I am a fairly new member to a quilt quild in my area. one of the other members gave me four quilts One of the quilts she told me she didn't care what I did, because she was gong to donate it to the Womens' Resource Center, which is one of our local charities we do. My quiestion is, How do you handle Quild Work for Charty, Quilt for Free or Give a Discount or Charge normal Price? Thanks Joyce. ( I am for doing it free of charge, but don't want to always be responsible for doing them all. )

[Jeanette]

Do your 'own' charity quilts for free:-) Do an allover meander and charge her your low-end price. I got caught up in that 'charity free quilting' thing when first starting and got overloaded and then found out that some of the quilts were not going to charity afterall! One lady when found out said "Oh it was so pretty when you quilted it that I decided to keep it."

Don't undervalue yourself. I do my own charity quilts now and offer each year to do up to five small or one king size panto or meander which the guild ladies piece.

Just my two cents........

Jeanette

[mrsbishwit]

I agree with Jeanette, quilting for charity is great but some people may take advatange of you. If you are going to do some charity quilts for the guild (for free) then tell them that YOU will make sure that they get to the place that they are intended for when you finish quilting them (giving the piecers credit of course to the various charities). This way you will avoid the situation tha Jeanette had.

If they insist of delivering their own quilts to the charity then just discount your quilting no more than 25% this way if they do end up keeping the quilts in the end you won't feel as though you were taken advantage of.

There is nothing worst than the feeling that you feel that the customer lied just to get free quilting from you...it shows their bad moral character.

Joann

[SandraC]

I wanted to do something for my guild members (they are like family!!) and wasnt' sure of the best way til this year I figured something that makes me happy....

Any guild projects such as BOM quilts, mystery quilts, etc I give a discount on. We usually have a special exchange thru the year...like a nine-patch club, so any of those that came my way got the discount. I give 10% and people seem to appreciate it.

[jcox]

Thanks everyone. That really helps. I agree.

Joyce.

[victoriasews]

I do Quilts of Valor for free when done by guild members. I use CL Baptist fan or clams because they are so fast and easy. I also only promise 1 quilt a week. They just have to wait in line. Then I had a member bring me her QOV and she wanted me to do it all custom for free. That put me in a difficult spot. I have a really hard time saying no but I just can't put all that time in free quilting. I had to take a stand once before when I got QOV customers expecting me to provide the batting, too. I made an announcement at guild about that and I got tons of support and haven't had a problem with batting since. Now I just have to get the nerve up to say I can't do custom on those quilts.

[sewingupastorm]

Our guild is really large and they have a charity portion of the guild. I usually take these tops home and return them quilted and use them as my "practice or warm pieces". I never charge for these as all I supply is the thread and my time.

As for other things I will do them at a slightly reduced rate but I also have been burned on that one as sometimes like someone else said they get the discount and I find out the guild is not going to charity after all.

I will likley be putting an add in our guild newsletter (as soon as my machine is fixed.......................it has been broken several weeks and will be at least 3 more weeks before it is repaired.................this is another story). In the add I will give a coupon good for a discount on ONE quilt. So if someone has 10 the discount is only good on one................I do not want to end up with lots of work at little pay.

Bottom line if you do too much for free or discounted you can end up getting burned.

Another one I was aproached to do a comfort top in exchange for advertisement. I was asked for 50 cards and nobody has called from that one. Guess that is water over the dam. I had to pay for my cards as well so not sure what the lady did with those

bottom line you can do a little bit of a break here and there but be careful.

[ffq-lar]

I pay for advertising in our Guild newsletter and offer a 10% discount for the FIRST top a member brings.

I also offer another 10% off for referrals--only 10% on one quilt, not multiples of 10% for multiple referrals. Did that make sense?

Anyway, as far as charity top quilting, I do whatever I have time for which has been about 2 a year. My best friend/quilter will piece and I will quilt the tops. That way when I am approached by a member for free quilting I can say I am maxed out on the donation-quilting for the year.

They all seem to understand. We have 4 longarmers in our Guild and only two of us do any charity quilting.

You should not be criticized for wanting to limit the freebies--you are a business-person and a professional!

On another subject, every-other year my Guild has an auction to raise money for the Guild. All members donate lots of items such as decorated baskets either sewing-themed or not.

It is open to the public and great fun. We have a silent auction and also a traditional auction for the bigger items.

Every year my "team" asks me to "donate" a Queen-size quilting job for the big item for the auction. I tell them that as soon as they all donate something worth $200 to the auction, I will too!! (These are my good friends on the team so I can say that to them !!) Usually that shuts them up!

I have donated many hours and many dollars-worth of work to my beloved Guild and do not feel guilty at all! Just my way of doing things. You will find the way that works for you!

Linda R

[jcox]

Thanks you all provided great information

Joyce:)