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Are you a small scale quilter or a part-time quilter looking to earn a bit extra money from your quilt work? Are you having a hard time selling your work? If the answer is yes, then keep reading. Research the market before you begin If you are really serious about turning your quilts into money, it's important that you study the market before you begin trying to sell. Studying the market helps you find what types of quilts are currently in high demand in your area. As soon as you find out, you may think about only making those quilts which are in high demand among your potential customers. Doing so makes selling your quilts easy while letting you get a good price for your quilts. Those that take quilting only as a hobby don't need 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 reasonable amount of cash from your hobby as a quilter. Pricing Pricing a quilt consists of a few steps, the first one is market research which you should have already done prior to producing quilts. Keeping track of the time you spend The second step in pricing of your work needs to be performed during the creation of the quilt, which is "keeping track of your time". You should write down or keep a record of the time you spend on each quilt; this includes the total time you spent on the quilt (from choosing a design to completing the piece). Start with finding out the total 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 finished 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 make one square foot of a quilt in that particular type. Determine what 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 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 skilled work, your time is worth significantly more than that. Something on the range of $10-$15 hourly would be good rate in this case. Still, it's up to you to make a decision on how much your time is really worth. The market research you should have done should help you to make a decision about that. You may also contact other quilt sellers near by and talk with them about this and come to a conclusion. Appraisal An appraisal is awritten document about the estimated value and other specifications of a quilt. Stuff that 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, division of property etc.) and the signature of the appraiser. Selling your work 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 crafting the piece. Small scale 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 production. So let me list some quilt marketing methods which will be helpful for the quilters that want to earn money. Quilting brokers and quilt stores It's difficult for amateur quilters and part-timers to open their on quilt stores and sell their products there. For these types of quilters it will be useful to look for other ways of marketing their work. There are quilt brokers and handicraft stores that will be glad to offer for sale your pieces upon paying a cut. It shouldn't be hard for you to find such brokers and stores near by and offer your quilts through them. Once your products become popular and when the demand for your products increases you might want to step up to larger scale or full time quilt work and think about directly marketing your products. Offering your work at internet auction sites Another option available for amateur or part-time quilters is to display their work on internet auction sites. There are a lot of such sites available on the internet. Online auctions make it possible for a quilter to find a way to sell the quilts at maximum price. Some of such websites even give you options to sell your products at a fixed price instead of listing it for auctions. It's up to you to figure out if you want customers to bid for you quilt or just buy it at a price you fixed. Some auction websites even allows you to specify a "Minimum Bid" so that you can prevent your piece 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 work. Some other quilt related income avenues There are many other methods to make cash from quilting related things. Next you'll find two of such ways that require a certain amount of expertise. Teaching quilt classes If you are an advanced quilter and have very little time (only a couple of hours a day) to spend on quilting, you might want to choose this option. You can find some centers offering quilting lessons and contact them offering to teach a quilting class for beginner quilters. If you have a unique quilting technique of your own about which you can teach classes, it will be easier for you to get a contract as a quilt instructor. Another option is to offer quilt classes at your own place. You might utilize your spare time like this and you should be able to bring in good enough money from this. Designing brand new quilt patterns If you are good at drafting new and unique quilt patters, you can easily earn big bucks selling them as demand for fresh patterns will always be high. For marketing quilt patterns you design, you can use the same techniques described above for marketing quilts. Like in any venture, if you utilize 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.
Article Source: http://www.rightarticle.com
Kirsten Stone is a long time quilter. You can find more of her insights at www.quiltingboard.com/forums/show/510/1.page
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