Turning Your Quilting Hobby Into Money

2007-08-08 Word Count: 1160 Category: Crafts

Are you a non-professional quilter or a part-time quilter looking to earn some extra money from your quilting? Are you having a difficult time monetizing on your quilts? If the answer is yes, then keep reading.

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

People who take quilting only as a hobby don't need to spend much time researching the market 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 passion quilts.

Setting prices for your work
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 quilts.

Keep track of the time you spend
The second step in pricing of your work should be done during the creation 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 piece).

First, find out the overall time you spent on different steps in making a quilt (preparing the pattern, piecing, basting, quilting, binding, putting your studio back in order after the quilt is completed etc.), then calculate the total time it takes on all these steps and divide it by the size (in sq.ft) of your quilt. Now you have calculated the time it takes 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 finding out the price 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 work then the minimum wage might be between $6.00 and $7.00 per hour. If you are an expert quilter or doing skilled work, your time is worth more than that. Something on the range of $10-$15 per hour should be an appropriate rate in this scenario. Nevertheless, it's truly up to you to decide how much your time is worth. The market research you should have done should help you in making a decision about that. You may also contact other quilters in your area and talk with them regarding this and reach a conclusion.

Appraisal
An appraisal is a formally written document about the value and other attributes of a quilt. Things which might be included in a quilt appraisal are, a description of the piece, a defined value, system used in determining the value, the reason for the appraisal (sale or resale, insurance purposes, IRS requirements, equitable division of property etc.) and the signature of the appraiser.

Selling quilts
Once your quilt is complete, you would likely want to sell or market it so that you can generate cash for the time and effort you had put in making your piece. Amateur quilters, new quilters, part-time quilters, or someone doing quilting as a hobby usually find that the promotion of their product is tougher than the production. So let me look at a few quilt promotion methods which can be very helpful for the quilters that want to earn money.

Quilting brokers and quilt shops
It will be difficult for amateur quilters and part-timers to open their on quilting shops and sell their creations there. For these types of quilters it will be useful to look for other ways of promoting their work. There are quilt brokers and handicraft shops who would be glad to sell your pieces upon paying you a cut. It should be easy for you to find such brokers and stores in your area and sell your products through them. Once your products become popular and the demand for your products increases you may wish to step up to larger scale or full time quilting and think about directly marketing your products.

Offering your work at online auction websites
Another option available for small scale or part-time quilt makers is to display their work on online auction sites. There are many of them available out there. Online auctions make it easy for a quilter to seek a way to sell the product at maximum price. Some of these sites even allow you to sell your products at a fixed price instead of listing it for auctions. It's up to you to decide if you want consumers to bid for you product or just buy it at a price you specified.

Some sites even allows you to specify a "Minimum Bid" so that you can stop your item from being purchased at a lower price than you want. This is a really efficient method for part-time or hobby quilters to sell their work.

Some other quilting related income sources
There are many other ways to earn money from quilting related things. Below are two of such ways which require a certain amount of knowledge.

Offering quilting lessons
If you are an advanced quilter and have very little time (just a couple of hours a day) to invest, you might wish to choose this option. You can find some schools teaching quilting and contact them offering to run a quilting class for beginner quilters. If you know a unique quilting technique of your own about which you can teach classes, it would be easier for you to get a contract as a quilting teacher. Another option is to offer quilting lessons at your own home. You might use your spare time like this and you should be able to make good enough money from this.

Creating new quilting patterns
If you are someone who is good at designing new and unique quilting patters, you can easily earn big bucks selling them as demand for fresh patterns is always high. 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 way it's not hard to build a successful quilting career or generate good revenue from quilting.