Making Money With Quilting

Are you a small scale quilter or a part-time quilter looking to make some money from your quilting passion? Are you having a difficult time monetizing on your work? If the answer is yes, then check this out.

Study the market before you begin
If you are really serious about converting your quilts into money, it's important that you study the market before you begin. This helps you find what types of quilts are in high demand. As soon as you find out, you may consider making those quilts which are in high demand in your area. Doing so makes selling your quilts easy while letting you get a good enough price for your quilts.

Those who take quilting only as their hobby don't have to spend much time doing the market research as the results from the research might end up in a conclusion that the demand for their favorite type of quilts is very low. If your choices are flexible or if you are ready to produce any quilt that the customers might want then there shouldn't be any problems for you to generate a good amount of cash from your hobby as a quilter.

Pricing
Determining a price for a quilt consists of a few steps, the first one being market research which you should have already done before sewing a quilt.

Keeping track of the time you spend
The second step in pricing should be done during the making of the quilt, which is "keeping track of your time". You need to write down or maintain a record of the time you spend on the quilt; this includes the total time you spent on the quilt (from choosing a design to finishing the quilt).

First, find out the total time you spent on each of the steps in making a quilt (preparing the pattern, piecing, basting, quilting, binding, putting your sewing room back in order after the quilt is completed etc.), then estimate the total time taken on all these steps and divide it by the size (in sq.ft) of your quilt. Now you have calculated the time taken to make one square foot of a quilt of that particular style.

Figure out what your time is worth to you
The next step in pricing is determining the cost of your time, or deciding how much the time you sped on making a quilt is worth.

If you are a new quilter or if you are doing an unskilled work then the minimum wage can be between $6.00 and $7.00 per hour. If you are a seasoned quilter or performing difficult work, then your time is worth more than that. Something around $10-$15 per hour should be a perfect rate in this scenario. Still, it's up to you to make a decision on how much your time is really worth. The market research you had done can help you in making a decision about that. You may also contact other quilt sellers in your area and talk with them about this and then come to a conclusion.

Quilt appraisal
An appraisal is awritten document about the value and other attributes of a quilt. Stuff that might be included in a quilt appraisal are, a description of the quilt, a defined value, methodology used in determining the value, the purpose of the appraisal (sale or resale, insurance requirements, IRS obligation, division of property etc.) and the signature of the appraiser.

Selling quilts
After your quilt is complete, you would want to sell or market it so that you can generate cash for the time and effort you had put in creating the quilt. Amateur quilters, new quilters, part-time quilters, or someone doing quilting as a hobby usually find that the marketing of their product is tougher than the production. So let me list some quilt marketing methods which will be helpful for the above mentioned group.

Quilting brokers and quilt shops
It's difficult for amateur quilters and part-timers to open their on quilt shops and sell their creations there. For these types of quilters it will be useful to look for other options for promoting their quilts. There are quilt brokers and handicraft shops who would be glad to sell your pieces upon paying you a cut. It won't be hard for you to find such brokers and stores in your area and sell your quilts through them. When your products become popular and when the demand for your products increases you may wish to step up to larger scale or full time quilt work and consider directly marketing your products to customers.

Selling your pieces at internet auction websites
Another option available for small scale or part-time quilt makers is to display their quilts on internet auction sites. There are a lot of such sites available out there. Auctions make it simple for a quilter to find a way to sell the product at high price. Some of such websites even allow you to sell your products at a fixed price instead of listing it for auctions. It's up to you to decide whether you want customers to bid for you product or just buy it at a price you fixed.

Some websites might even allows you to specify a "Minimum Bid" so that you can stop your quilt from being bought at a lower price than you desire. This is a really efficient way for part-time or hobby quilters to sell their quilts.

Other quilting related income sources
There are many other ways to earn money from quilting related activities. Below are two of such ways that require a certain level of expertise.

Offering quilt classes
If you are an expert in quilting and have very little time (only a few hours a day or less) to spend on quilting, then you may want to choose this option. You can find some schools teaching quilting and contact them offering to teach a quilting class for beginners. If you have a unique quilting technique of your own about which you can give classes, it would be much easier for you to get a contract as a quilting instructor. Another option is to offer quilting classes at your own home. You may utilize your spare time like this and you should be able to bring in good enough revenue from this.

Designing new quilt patterns
If you are good at drafting new and unique quilt patters, then you can easily make lots of money selling them as demand for fresh quilting patterns is always great. For marketing quilt patterns you design, you can use the same techniques described above for marketing quilts.

Like in any business, if you utilize your time and resources in the most efficient way it's not hard to build a successful quilting career or generate good income from quilting.