Research the market before you start



If you are serious about turning your quilts into cash, it's very important that you research the market before you start. This helps you find what types of quilts are in high demand in your area. As soon as you find out, you may consider making those quilts which are in high demand among your potential customers. 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 their hobby don't have to spend a lot of time researching the market 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 that the customers might want then there shouldn't be any problems for you to earn a reasonable amount of revenue from your hobby as a quilter.

Setting prices for your work

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

Keeping track of the time you spend

The second step in pricing should be performed during the creation of the quilt, which is "keeping track of your time". You should 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 piece).

Start with finding out the overall time you spent on each of the steps in quilting (preparing the paper pattern, piecing, basting, quilting, binding, putting your sewing room back in order after the quilt is completed 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 calculated the time taken to produce one square foot of a quilt of that particular style.

Figure out how much your time is worth to you

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 new quilter or if you are doing an unskilled entry level job then the minimum wage might be between $6.00 and $7.00 per hour. If you are an expert quilter or performing skilled work, then your time is worth more than that. Something on the range of $10-$15 per hour should be reasonable rate in this scenario. Still, it's up to you to decide how much your time is worth. The market research you had done can help you in making a decision about that. You may also wish to contact other quilt sellers in your area and talk with them about this and then reach a conclusion.

Appraisal

An appraisal is awritten document about the price and other specifications of a quilt. Stuff which should be included in a quilt appraisal are, a description of the piece, a defined price, system used in selecting the price, 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 probably want to sell or promote it so that you can generate your revenue for the time and effort you had put in creating your piece. Amateur quilters, new quilters, part-time quilters, or someone doing quilting as a hobby usually find that the marketing of their quilts is tougher than the making. So let me look at a few quilt marketing methods which can be very helpful for the quilters that want to make money.

Quilting brokers and shops

It's difficult for beginner quilters and part-timers to open their on quilt shops and sell their products 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 that will be happy to offer for sale your quilts upon paying a commission. It should be easy for you to find such brokers and stores in your area and sell your products 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 quilting and consider directly marketing your products.

Offering your quilts at internet auction sites

Another option available for amateur or part-time quilt makers is to display their quilts on internet auction sites. There are a lot of them available on the web. Auctions make it simple for a quilter to seek a way to sell the quilts at high price. Some of these sites even allow you to sell your quilts at a fixed price instead of listing it for auctions. It's up to you to figure out whether you want people to bid for you product or just buy it at a price you specified.

Certain auction sites even allows you to specify a "Minimum Bid" so that you can prevent your piece from being purchased at a lower price than you see fit. This is a really good method for part-time or hobby quilters to sell their quilts.

Some other quilting related income sources

There are many other methods to earn money from quilting related activities. Below are two of such ways which require a certain level of knowledge.

Offering quilt classes

If you are an advanced quilter and have very little time (only a few hours a day or less) to spend on quilting, then you may want to pick this option. You could find some centers teaching quilting and contact them proposing to teach a quilting class for beginners. If you have a unique quilting technique of your own about which you can teach classes, it will be much easier for you to get a contract as a quilting teacher. 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 new quilt patterns

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

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