Study the market before you start



If you are serious about turning your quilts into cash, it's important that you study the market before you start. This helps you discover what types of quilts are currently in high demand. As soon as you find out, you may consider only making those quilts which are in high demand in your area. This makes it easy to sell your quilts while letting you get a good enough price for your quilts.

Those that take quilting only as a hobby don't have to spend a lot of time doing the market research as the results from the research might end up in a conclusion that the demand for the item which they love to produce is very low. If your choices are flexible or if you are ready to produce any quilt then there shouldn't be any problems for you to generate a good amount of money from your hobby as a quilter.

Pricing

Estimating a price for a quilt consists of several steps, the first one is market research which you should have already done before making quilts.

Keeping track of the time you spend

The second step in pricing needs to be done during the creation of the quilt, which is "keeping track of your time". You need to write down or keep 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 completing the piece).

Start with finding out the overall time you spent on different 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 calculate the total time taken during 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 in that particular style.

Determine how much your time is worth

The next step in pricing is determining the value of your time, or deciding how much the time you sped on a quilt is worth.

If you are a relatively new quilter or if you are doing an unskilled entry level work then the minimum wage can be between $6.00 and $7.00 hourly. If you are a seasoned quilter or performing difficult tasks, your time is worth more than that. Something on the range of $10-$15 hourly should be an appropriate rate in this scenario. Still, it's up to you to decide how much your time is worth. The market research you should have done will help you to make a decision about that. You may also wish to contact other quilters near by and talk with them regarding this and come to a conclusion.

Quilt appraisal

An appraisal is a formally written document about the estimated price and other specifications of a quilt. Stuff that might be included in a quilt appraisal are, a complete description of the piece, a defined price, methodology used in selecting the price, the reason for the appraisal (sale or resale, insurance requirements, IRS obligation, equitable division of property etc.) and the signature of the appraiser.

Selling your work

After your quilt is finished, you would likely want to sell or promote it so that you can generate money for the time and effort you had put in developing the piece. Small scale quilters, new quilters, part-time quilters, or someone doing quilting as a hobby usually discover that the promotion of their quilts is tougher than the making. So let me look at a few quilt promotion methods which can be helpful for the above mentioned group.

Quilting brokers and quilt stores

It's difficult for hobbyist quilters and part-timers to open their on quilting stores and sell their pieces there. For these types of quilters it will be useful to look for other options for promoting their work. There are quilt brokers and handicraft stores that will be glad to offer for sale your quilts upon paying you a commission. It will be easy for you to find such brokers and stores near by and offer your pieces through them. When your quilts become popular and the demand for your quilts increases you may wish to step up to larger scale or full time quilt work and consider directly marketing your products.

Offering your pieces at online auction sites

Another option available for small scale or part-time quilters is to display their work on online auction sites. There are a lot of such sites available on the web. Internet auctions make it easy for a quilter to find a way to sell the quilts at maximum price. Some of such sites even give you options to sell your quilts at a fixed price instead of listing them for auctions. It's up to you to figure out whether you want consumers to bid for you quilt or just buy it at a price you specified.

Some auction sites might even allows you to specify a "Minimum Bid" so that you can prevent your piece from being purchased at a lower price than you desire. This is a really effective way for part-time or hobby quilters to sell their work.

Other quilting related income avenues

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

Teaching quilting classes

If you are an experienced quilter and don't have much time (only a few hours a day or less) to spend on quilting, you may want to pick this option. You can find some institutions offering quilting lessons and contact them proposing to teach a quilting class for beginner quilters. If you have a unique quilting technique of your own about which you can run classes, it will 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 use your spare time like this and you should be able to earn good enough revenue from this.

Creating brand new quilting patterns

If you are someone who is good at drafting new and unique quilting patters, you can easily make lots of money selling them to other quilters as demand for fresh quilt patterns will always be great. For marketing quilt patterns of your design, you can use the same methods described above for marketing quilts.

Like in any venture, if you use your time and resources in the most efficient manner it's not hard to make a good quilting career or generate good income from quilting.