Chocoholic Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 I have a customer who wants me to change threads several times in the course of quilting the last quilt she gave me. It has a piecing design that is done so the colors show up as diagonal stripes on the quilt and she wants those emphasized. This would mean changing threads once on the first 'row', twice for the next few rows and then once on the last row. (A row being the distance between rollers when I can quilt before I have to advance.) How do you go about charging for this? I have had a customer who wanted a different color on the borders, so I just waited until lat to do the borders, so only had to change thread once for the whole quilt, but this will be many changes so I have no idea how to charge for this. TIA for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merryjo2003 Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 I charge $3 per color for thread changes, first one included with the quilting. So 4 different colors, 3 thread change charges equals $9. I have the extra thread holders, so changes are fairly quick, but it does solow down the whole process. Might as well get paid for the extra work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chocoholic Posted August 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Thanks, Merry. I was wondering if people charge by the number of colors or the number of changes. I see you charge by the number of colors. In my case, there are only 3 colors, but about 12 changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeri Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 I've only read the first post. I never charge for thread changes. I do have a $$3.00 per quilt thread charge due to state tax issues and have some extra thread cost cushion built into my pricing. What real difference does it make to change thread?? / Doesn't take much time. Doesn't change your cost you wil have thread invested anyway unless you are using metallics. Adds value in the quilt owner's eyes for return business. jeri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffq-lar Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 I was pondering something today--give me your feedback, please. How do we as professional longarm quilters raise our prices? I have had the same pricing in place since 2005. Starting prices with a panto or medium overall at .015 per square inch--since 2005. Most of us start at .015, then go up to .02, .025, .03, etc for just about the same techniques, excepting geographical adjustments where the customer base is difficult to maintain. I have no way to raise my prices except to bump everything up a half a cent. And my competition hasn't made this step yet, so I won't either. This is why I charge for thread ($1 a bobbin) and for turning a top, and for thread changes. I am not out to gouge my customers--just make a fair amount for the work I do. That extra $6 per quilt for thread makes a difference to me when I place my Superior Thread order. It gives me more to offer the customer and keeps me and my accountant (DH) happy! Any thoughts on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chocoholic Posted August 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Linda, we have a couple of quilters around here that have quilted award winning quilts at the national and international level. They have raised their prices accordingly and people still seem willing to pay it, or at least their customers do. That seems to be the way to raises prices around here, experience and awards. One gal started out at .01 per sq in for a pantograph, but now her cheapest is .025 per sq in. She just kept raising her prices as she got recognized and as her quilting was on quilts that were winning awards at Innovations, APNQ, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiltmonkey Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Originally posted by ffq-lar How do we as professional longarm quilters raise our prices? I have no way to raise my prices except to bump everything up a half a cent. And my competition hasn't made this step yet, so I won't either. Any thoughts on this? Yes! I have a thought! Why don't you & your competition do what the gas stations do? They all raise their prices at the same time. No joking. I truly think that the gas stations are all in cahoots with eachother--- I imagine they all have a moring teleconference call and say "OK I'm raising up 2 cents a gallon today." Then they make a plan on and raise it TOGETHER all at the same time. It's a win-win for them! And yet, we all continue suck up and pay.,,and pay...and pay... Ya think it'll work for quilting, too??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Beth Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 It seems like our machine quilters around here work together on pricing. I had one talk to me in a LQS one day and asked what my minimum charge was. I told her, although I can think of one off hand that won't tell me what she charges...just says, "not enough". She told me I needed to raise the price and said that everyone around was charging .015 as a starting point. So I did. DH about croaked...said that was a 50% hike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Sheila....Is there a way that you can quilt the WHOLE quilt in the first color and then go back and reroll and do each of the other colors...and not have to switch out on each roll...that will take you forEVER to quilt if you change each color on each roll.... I give the first thread with the quilting price, and then each thread change $15.00 per thread change....mostly because they really don't need the thread change they just think they do, and they think its easy to do...they change threads on their DSM and that's not hard so why should it be that big a deal with a LA..... they have no clue how each thread acts and how long it could take you to get it dialed in if its a speciality thread...or even a different weight from the first one. I quilt each thread change before I change colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quilting Heidi Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 I charge $5.00 for each thread color change. I would do as Bonnie suggested and do one color for the whole quilt, pinning as needed and then rolling and doing the next. I also charge for threads if they aren't bottomline, Sofine or Signature Cotton. I figure the price is almost double for other types of threads, such as rainbows or KingTut so I have to have a way to keep my pricing so that I can capture those additional costs to me. I charge an additional $7 for these special threads. If the pattern or design I were quilting were not heavily quilted I would probably reduce that price a little. I tried to price it so that I could recover the cost of using a lot of thread. Of course the size of the quilt would be taken into account as well. I'm not here to gouge my customers either but lets face it we all have a huge investment in our machines and thread costs $'s too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chocoholic Posted August 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 Ok, Bonnie, npw I feel dumb. Of course, I can quilt all of one color first., But, that is why I ask this group, cause when I am stuck, someone always comes up with a better way of doing things. Thanks for the great idea. For some reason I was stuck on having to do the whole roll with all the accopanying changes. La'ers around here charge for thread. Many charge per bobbin, but some of us don't want to keep track of that and well, So-fine puts a lot more thread on the bobbin than say King Tut so then how do I know how much I actually use, etc. So a few of us just have a flat thread charge. I have chosen $8 for thread if I provide the thread. This is for any size quilt and so if a customer is a repeat customer (and most of mine are) it all evens out in the end for her ads most bring me quilts in a variety of sizes. This is, of course, assuming one color throughout the quilt. In this particular case, the customer provided the thread, as she had already bought it so I would only be charging her for the changes. I agree that it is work to change threads. Many times you have to retension both bobbin and upper, which takes time. Thanks so much for all your input. I really appreciate the help. So I start tonight on the quilt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 :PNow Sheila...there aren't any stupid questions asked here....but I won't guarantee that I won't give you a stupid/silly answer at times.....:P:P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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