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Thursday, September 19, 2013

The Three Finishes

Before we get to that though......

I got an email this morning from Mike over here: The Amateur Quilter about a post I did quite a while ago about what to charge for a quilt.

In my email I described the formula that I made up to figure out what to charge for quilts.  Now mind you I haven't actually charged anyone based on my formula yet since friends and family get the friends and family discount, but this is what I WOULD charge for anyone I'm not related to in some way.  :-D

I take the size of the quilt, say 65 inches by 85 inches and find the square inches:
65x85 = 5525 square inches.  Then I find out how many yards that is by dividing by 1296 (the square inches in a square yard of fabric):
5525/1296 = 4.263 yards of fabric multiplied by 3.5 (seam allowances, front, back and batting) = 14.92....  multiplied by the cost of the fabric per yard cost.  If I got the fabric for $8.75 a yard (that is low right now as you all know) that comes out to $130.55.

To that I add a premium for the difficulty of piecing and quilting.  Easy piecing: $.007 per square inch, Intermediate piecing $.015 per square inch, or hard (including applique and paper piecing) $.02 per square inch.  Let's assume the piecing is intermediate with some pieced borders and stuff.  Square inches 5525 multiplied by .015 = 82.88 (round up to 83).

So far that is $130.00 plus $83.00.  Now for the quilting.  I free motion quilt everything so lets assume the quilting is just an easy meander, that would add another $.01 per square inch.  5525 x .01 = $55.25 so I add $55 for the quilting.  The quilt would end up costing $268.  Would I get that?  I don't know but it's a good place to start with regard to what to charge.  Quilters in my area charge from $.01 up to $.025 for quilting so depending on how fancy I got with the quilting I'd charge in that range.  

This is the formula I'm going to be using for quilts that I make to sell on Etsy, which is something I'm going to be doing in the coming year.  This is also the formula that I'll be using for making quilts for people who ask me to make them a quilt from now on (unless they qualify for the friends and family discount).

Now onto the pictures of the 3 quilts for Natalie's bunch.  Monroe and Reagan's quilts were made using pieces of clothing from their first year of life, Jaidin's is made from a 'Man Quilt' top that I had done already because Natalie didn't have any of his clothes (he is her nephew).  She is sure he'll love it though because he likes wolves.

I haven't done the labels, I'll get that done either tonight or tomorrow and then these are going to their new home on Sunday.

Monroe's quilt, front and close up then the back.  Natalie wanted me to use pieces from their first blankets so I used them on the back.  They were fleece and minky and I pieced the backs using pieces of them and some cotton.  It's easier if you stabilize the stretchy fabrics before you piece it and try to quilt it, as I learned.



Reagan's quilt:




And Jaidin's quilt:




And there they are!  They all finished right around twin sizedish.  I haven't done my final thread trims yet and as I said I still need to do the labels and measure them and all that but they are DONE!  And I am happy. :D

3 comments:

Christine S said...

What an amazing help your formula is for helping with a price! Thanks so much for sharing that! Love your finishes too :)

Terry Johnson said...

Love your finishes.

autumngram said...

Your quilts are beautiful and I think your formula is very fair. Like you I make my quilts for gift giving and for personal enjoyment, therefore I don't take any orders for payment. But I would not bat an eyelash to charge $268 for a quilt like these. If they want cheap - they can go to Walmart. JMHO

Leann