Debating what to charge for a different request......

[quiltaholi_518]

Hmmm, I have a client that I have quilted a bit for before, and she's very nice and will be okay with whatever I decide (sometimes that makes it even harder). She has a Double Wedding Ring, that for her own reasons wants to hand quilt flowers in the open areas. It's a gift and I think she wants to be able to say it's hand quilted. But rather than having me baste it, she wants me to SID around the curves ONLY. In other words I do not have to do the individual little pieces in the "arcs". We spoke about thread and my preference to use invisible and she is fine with that.

My question is what should I charge? I can't charge what I would to custom quilt it, but it will have it's challenges. My thought is to see how long it takes and calculate how much time I may have spent doing an allover, and if I spend more time than that, I am thinking about $20 an hour for the overage and see where that puts me. I would like to email her a ballpark before I start, but I guess that's impossible. I guess I can say, more than $125 (allover price) and less than $300 (custom), but that's a pretty big ballpark.

ANY THOUGHTS ON THIS ONE????

[Ferret]

I think it is a fair ball park though. Estimatimg is a pig, and we can oly do our best. If she pushed for you to close it up a bit I would bring up the bottom end some, but really you aren't going to know until you do it.

I had actually come on intending to comment on a very similar thing. I am finding estimating really difficult. I have price bands and they mostly work but at the moment I am working on a applique quilt and doing fairly dense quilting. I charged it at my higest set rate (last stop before hourly) thining it is a meander I am prety quick at and not too much SID. Well I have 11 hours in it so far, and I am pretty sure I will go over 20 before it is done. I will stick to my estimate, but I will make maybe 1/4 of my normal hourly rate on this one.

I was going to ask how to get better at this, but I suspect there will always be tricky jobs and I guess we just have to make our best guess right?

Thanks for asking, you answered my question, hope my answer is some use to you.

Ferret

[PattyJo]

Is there some way to say that it will be at least $??? but you will be keeping track of the time and if it goes over that amount you will let them know as to what it looks like but be sure & them it is only an ESTIMATE and not actual? Just a thought

[Quilting Heidi]

For estimates I would always add 25% to my estimated time on a quilt. I never guess right so I'm learning to go high! Customers will never complain if you tell them they owe you less!

Heidi

[fabric007]

Funny thing, I just pulled one off the frame...what a pain...It wasnt put togehter very good...yikes....anyway..she had marked the center with a very easy pattern, so I did that and went around each circle. the quilt was 96x96...took around nine hours I think.. had lots of problems with this one..she wanted a really thick bat, used a poly / cottonsheet....I had skipped stitches up the wazooo.....the four corners didnt match and some had not even been sewn together. I think the invisiable thread will be good, and just go around the circles wont take as long as you think...unless nothing matches...I am so worn out.....

[JLM]

Estimate high, and if by some miracle it takes less time, you can come in with a lower price, or not:P

Janet Mohler

Colorado Springs

[kellysuequilter]

SID is a type of custom work especially around curves. You should charge accordingly.

[Patch]

Pat, every time I see that pic of you now, I just want to go where you are!

Caron, I'm glad you asked this question, as I'm learning so much from reading what people post. I think you should estimate high, as was said above, adn Judy is right in my book (not that I'm ANY kind of expert... yet), SID is custom work. I've done that much, anyway, and boy was it custom when I was stitching through the night on my Virty (DSM) to get it done for the BASH last spring!! Charge accordingly, I say.