quiltingshorttimer

I think here in the Midwest we are fairly on the low side of prices(locally I see that at Happy Crafters and also another quilter in the area that charges wayyy low). That being said, around here, most of us start prices for an open, easy panto at 015cents/ sq inch and heavier pantos at about 2 cents/sq inch. Custom--meaning the borders and center are treated differently and often each block is treated separately (i.e. with a sampler) usually starts at 2 1/2 cents for a very simple design. When you add in lots of ruler work, or more dense quilting, the price climbs up to about 3cents/sq. inch. Heavy quilting or complex designs would be more. And if there are many thread changes, it would also likely result in higher prices. But many of us are realizing that when you charge 2 cents for a 85x90" quilt that takes 30 hours (not counting any design prep work--i.e. doing some drawings, marking the quilt, making stencils, etc)it means you are working for $5/hour. Thus when another quilter decided to start charging by the hour--and one quilt cost $500 (king with custom work at $10/hr) there was lots of talk. A national quilter/teacher announced in a recent class I took that micro quilting is charged at $15 hr. for a 14x14" area (this person timed working on a sample of that size with micro quilting and it's $15 for 1 hr.)and that is on top of the rest of the cost.
So to answer your question--no I don't think it's overcharging.

amyjo

If you want to have your quilt spotlighted with beautiful quilting, you will have to pay. Just like everything else out there. People have no idea what it costs to make a quilt. It is very time intense. You don't churn out a beautiful quilt in 2 or 3 hours so they only have to pay bare minimum. I sold a basic tied king size quilt for $400 and he thought it was bargain.

germanquilter

Thank you for all your responses! This is not for me. I have only ever had overall patterns done by an experienced Long armer who is also a friend. I was just curious what the going rate for custom quilting is

Nammie to 7

I pay 3 cents per square inch -- it is worth every penny.

Auj

I agree that that is a very reasonable price. I have a friend who does custom quilting for me on occasion when the quilt I have needs that sort of expertise. I know she is very experienced and will think of things I never thought of, so I usually give her freedom to create something wonderful.

She recently custom quilted my "Bears in the Woods" (Eleanor Burns pattern) for me. She quilted a bear outline on the top, bottom, and sides in open areas, feathers and curls, and quilted lines in the trees. It is all done by her manually moving the longarm machine - not a pantograph. So, I think it is very reasonable.

quiltingshorttimer

I just finished doing custom--but no micro quilting--no real fillers, just fairly dense quilting on sampler blocks, a simple arc design on border and sashings, was 48x48" and took me about 6 hrs from loading on the frame to unloading. with my 2 1/2cents/sq in (this was heavy enough quilting that I could have charged 3cents a sq. inch but it's her first quilt so I always give a discount) I earned $57.88 cents before the bat charge and the tax (our state has raised taxes so much that I have to pass it along unfortunately). At about $10/hour I really don't think that is super expensive. As a friend and I were recently discussing, there are quilters in the area that will work for less and do less on the quilt for those that want simple meandering for less cost. And that when a quilter will pay $10+ for fabric for a quilt, that griping about the cost of quilting just doesn't seem right.

Had my machine serviced a couple nights ago and the rep was saying that anymore when someone asks how long it will likely take to pay off the cost of a new long arm by professional quilting, she explains that unless the purchaser gets into writing books, doing classes and winning big-time shows, it will take a long, long time as there are many quilters out there and many more that are purchasing less costly sit-down machines for personal use.