Research the market before you begin



If you are really serious about turning your quilts into money, it's important that you research the market before you begin trying to sell. This helps you discover what types of quilts are currently in high demand. Once you know this, you may think about only making those quilts which are in high demand in your area. This makes selling your quilts easy while getting a good price for your quilts.

People that take quilting only as a hobby don't need 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 reasonable amount of cash from your hobby.

Pricing quilts

Determining a price for a quilt consists of several steps, the first one is market research which you should have already done prior to sewing quilts.

Keeping track of the time you spend

The second step in pricing of your work 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 picking a design to finishing the piece).

Start with finding out the overall time you spent on different steps in quilting (preparing the pattern, piecing, basting, quilting, binding, putting your sewing room back in order after the quilt is done etc.), then estimate the total time taken during all these steps and divide it by the size (in sq.ft) of your quilt. Now you have the time taken to produce one square foot of a quilt of that particular style.

Figure out how much your time is worth

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

If you are a relatively new quilter or if you are doing an unskilled job then the minimum wage can be between $6.00 and $7.00 per hour. If you are a seasoned quilter or doing difficult work, then your time is worth more than that. Something around $10-$15 per hour would be good rate in this scenario. However, it's truly up to you to decide how much your time is really worth. The market research you had done will help you to make a decision about this. You may also contact other quilt sellers near by and discuss with them about this and then come to a conclusion.

Quilt appraisal

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

Selling

Once your quilt is done, you would likely want to sell or promote it so that you can generate your revenue for the time and effort you had put in developing your piece. Amateur quilters, new quilters, part-time quilters, or someone doing quilting as a hobby usually discover that the promotion of their product is tougher than the production. So let me list a few quilt promotion methods which can be helpful for the quilters that want to make money.

Quilting brokers and quilt shops

It will be 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 ways of marketing their quilts. There are quilt brokers and handicraft stores that will be glad to sell your pieces upon paying a commission. It won't be hard for you to find such brokers and stores near by and sell your pieces through them. Once your quilts become popular and when the demand for your quilts increases you may wish to step up to larger scale or full time quilt work and think about directly marketing your products to customers.

Offering your pieces at online auction websites

Another option available for small scale or part-time quilters is to display their quilts on online auction sites. There are many of them available on the web. Such sites make it easy for a quilter to find a way to sell the product at maximum price. Some of these sites even allow you to sell your quilts at a fixed price instead of listing them for auctions. It's up to you to decide whether you want customers to bid for you quilt or just buy it at a price you fixed.

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

Some other quilting related income sources

There are many other ways to make cash from quilting related activities. Next you'll find two of such ways which require a certain amount of expertise.

Offering quilting classes

If you are an experienced quilter and have very little time (just a few hours a day or less) to invest, then you may want to choose this option. You could find some centers teaching quilting and contact them proposing to teach a quilting class for beginner quilters. If you know a unique quilting technique about which you can run classes, it will be easier for you to get a contract as a quilting teacher. 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 make decent enough revenue from this.

Creating brand new quilting patterns

If you are someone who is good at designing new and unique quilting patters, then you can easily make big bucks selling them as demand for fresh patterns is always great. For marketing quilt patterns of your design, you could use the same techniques described above for marketing quilts.

Like in any venture, if you utilize your time and resources in the most effective way it's not hard to make a good quilting career or generate good revenue from quilting.