Helen6869

I think this is what mine came out to. They supplied the batting and thread which saved me time gathering all that so I think I probably paid a fair price looking at this. Thanks for everyone's responses. I am leery of sending one through the mail or UPS out of town. I think I will stick with what I've done in the past for future ones.

Helen6869

They didn't offer to square and trim mine. Wish they did that too. I really don't have a large enough space to be sure it's nice and square. Just do the best I can with a large square and some yardsticks. That's the part I hate....finishing everything up. I don't even like doing the binding. But alas, I do like them finished!! So i can give them away. I own one quilt that I have made in the last ten years....always a gift for someone I love! That's what it's all about for me! Love sewn into every stitch! Thanks for everyone who responded.

osewme

I've never paid anyone to quilt one of my quilts but terra32903 (a member of this board) has had the following place quilt for her & these seem like reasonable prices to me.

http://www.happycrafters.net/quilting-services.aspx

quiltingshorttimer

I'm a long arm quilter not far from the Happy Crafter in Kansas. She is somehow able to undercut most other long armers in the area. Not sure how, but she does(she also runs a fabric store so perhaps that pays the bills).

most of us in this area charge 1.5cent/sq in for a basic panto or E2E, 2 +cents for border to border with borders done differently; 2.5 and up for custom. That does not include bat or backing, or trimming/squaring. unless you have a computer guided machine, a queen, even with a fairly simple panto is going to take about 5 hrs loading to unloading. Plus your bat/back/thread. Hope you look at that $100 as not a huge amount when you figure the time, the materials, wear and tear on an extremely expensive machine, electricity to run it, having a place to set up such a large machine, and the quilters expertise.

As a couple of others have said, some long arm quilters are switching to per hour prices, especially on custom quilting, because many long arm quilters, when they figured their costs plus labor realize that they are working for way less than minimum wage.

mamagrande

I have had a midarm for 5 years and recently have been quilting for others. I am in Central Califonia, close to Fresno.

My fee for a loose panto edge to edge is .01 per sq in. for a dense panto it is .015.
I do have a minimum of $35. and this is because a small baby quilt 36x45 would ony be $16.20 which would not make it worth my while to quilt it.
I charge $7.50 a yd. for Hobbs 80/20 and $7.25 a yd. for Quilter's Dream poly select.

I think my price is fair for me...I am retired and this is my hobby but I would think that it is a little low if i wanted to make a living with it.

Bree123

Wow! I'm so amazed at how much cheaper LA services are in other parts of the country. Around here they charge $0.03/sqin + $3/bobbin + $20/hr for any non LA services (backing, pressing, grooming, trimming, etc) + batting ... and that's the cheapest price, using a moderate density panto with Signature thread. So for a 90x100" quilt, providing your own batting & handling all prep work yourself, it runs $280 and up for a panto. Fortunately, there are places around me that rent out time on LA & mid-arm machines and that is much more cost effective if I can't get it quilted on my DSM.

I will say, though, that the work they do is really beautiful. If I had the money & didn't love quilting so much myself, I'd definitely use one of my local LA'ers over the mail-in services that are so inexpensive. The difference in the quality of workmanship is easily noticeable when I see people at my guild meetings show quilts from the mail in vs some of our local LA'ers.

twinkie

I have not found one as inexpensive and good (for the price) as Happy Crafters. That is who I send mine to if I send one out. I would love to be able to use these fantastic quilters on the board as they are amazing however, I cannot work this out in my budget. Will be looking forward to answers on this board.

sept97

some places will let you rent the machine at their place...you might want to look into that

mamagrande

Renting a machine is a good idea for some but consider this..you are paying by the hour...even on my machine I will say to DH .." I just have about one hours work to finish the quilt I have on the frame." he comes in about about
1 1/2 hrs later and asked what happened your not done..

Well the thread kept breaking, changed the needle, cleaned the bobbin area, retreaded the machine, changed the thread and still not half done..

But if everything goes well..the backing is squared, the top is even..no wavey borders then away you go...

Fabric Galore

If anyone lives near the Orlando, FL area I would recommend Wandering Stitches Quilting Studio. I took a class from them to become certified to use their machine and it was $35. After that I pay $18 per hour for a Millennium LA with a 2 hour minimum. It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive for me to the studio so I normally take 3 quilts and finish them in a 6 hour day and that includes me going out to lunch. They are very helpful and they also sell thread and fabric. The last few quilts I made I have quilted on my DSM but for queen size or larger I prefer to use the long arm. It costs me about $108 plus thread to quilt a king size quilt and 2 smaller ones.