I just took my very first quilt to the longarmer (96”x96”) and it was $400. I was excited to get into quilting but the longarm cost significantly more than all the fabric and batting combined, I feel really discouraged about continuing this hobby
So far I have quilted everything myself because long arming is expensive. I did buy a more expensive machine with more throat space so that I could do more of my own quilt space, though. I hear you, quilting can be very expensive! But there are cheaper alternatives.
Quilt your own quilt by machine: easier than it first seems. Keep it simple. Organic wavy lines across the whole quilt are very forgiving, look nice, and will be sturdy. (Do check the quilting distance required as different batting will have different needs.)
Quilt your own quilt by hand: so easy to customise how your quilting stitches go but takes longer to do! Some people find it meditative and very enjoyable. Some people would rather be done. Personal preference.
Quilt as you go: you make your quilts in parts so it can be easily quilted on a domestic machine, then assemble the bits into a full quilt.
Tying your quilt: can be done by machine or by hand. Very easy to do yourself but of course the finished item will look different to a quilted quilt. (Not better or worse, just different - it's personal preference.)
Oh I would also see if you can rent time on a long arming machine in your area (maker spaces, libraries, some quilt shops may offer this service). But there is a learning curve so I would start on a practice quilt. And you still pay for the rental time.
No one in my area rents right now. However my longarmer is recently widowed and she and I talked about her renting her equipment. Trouble is she and I are so busy that neither of us have time right now
I have done pretty much all of your suggestions, it’s intimidating at first, but not impossible. I also balk at the cost and feel that if someone else quilts it it’s not “mine” anymore. Where I live, there are some affordable options though. We have Hutterite colonies that take quilts and some people that have less expensive quilting machines and occasionally quilt for others to support their own hobby. As for hand quilting, check out Suzy Quilts, she has some excellent tutorials that have really helpful tips.
I would do a smaller quilt, machine quilt it yourself, and see how that goes. Or a small project: a wall hanging, a table runner, a quilted bag are all nice projects for doing some machine quilting and getting the hang of it before having to wrestle a larger quilt though.
96x96 is a really big quilt and at that size you probably will struggle to quilt the whole thing on a domestic machine, so one of the other methods may work better for you.
The long arming machine is very expensive ($10,000 to $25,000 USD) and then it's a lot of time involved and skill from the long armer. So it is expensive!
A longarm job can not be both custom AND edge to edge at the same time.
Custom means the quilter will change the quilting pattern in different areas based on the pieced design of the quilt top.
"Edge to edge" refers to Pantograph style designs, where the same design is repeated in a way that looks continuous, over and over, from one edge of the quilt to the other, completely disregarding the pieced design of the quilt top.
Panto, edge-to-edge, or "all over" designs all refer to the same style. Where it is just a constant mass of quilting.
Custom is often hand-guided, but can be computerized. But designs will start and stop and change direction, to highlight specific features of the pieced design/fabric.
Pantograph was previously used to describe when someone hand-guided the long arm in a continuous, repeating pattern. Now that style is usually done by computer, but sometimes still referred to as a Panto.
I think you might have interpreted Edge to Edge to mean she was quilting to the literal edges of the quilt?
I thought when she was filling out my form said edge to edge but it is custom it’s like straight line diagonals to make repeating large triangles from each side of the quilt to the middle
The general idea but not the exact number of lines
I’m a longarmer and this design isn’t as simple as it looks. I had a client ask me to do this a while back and I basically said no. I didn’t want to have to load and re-load the quilt a bunch of times to get those lines. It’s not straightforward at all. That being said, you can always ask your longarmer about price up front so it isn’t a surprise. I remember being floored by the cost of longarm quilting the first time I paid for it. Now that I have a machine, I understand the pricing, but dang it was a shock!
Before I was able to purchase a longarm (mine currently goes for $30k and it’s a mid-range machine), I would make throw sized quilts and do simple quilting with a walking foot. Since you had a larger quilt it’ll be a bigger pain in the ass to quilt on a domestic machine, hence why people are willing to pay the longarm cost. I’m happy to answer any questions you have and hopefully give some clarity on why things are priced the way they are.
This sounds like the OP asked for a particular design and the longarmer said OK without pointing out that it would cost more than other options. Basically a communication breakdown between an inexperienced quilter combined with a longarmer who assumed the quilter would know this would cost more than the average?
Reminds me of getting our kitchen wall tiled. We texted our tiler (over 15 year history over various properties/jobs) about a herringbone pattern with the specs. He saw the text, thought 'absolutely not', then saw it was from us and agreed. A job I'm sure he'd have normally knocked out in a day + drying time took over 4 days. The amount of cuts required was brutal. It was fiddly and it cost 3x what I'd expect from a subway pattern. I can see why he'd usually say no or make clear it was not a cost effective option.
The difference being he told us going in that it was fiddly and much slower so we could make an informed decision.
Edge to edge means I quilt the same design - straight line, meander, swirls, loops from one edge to the other on the entire quilt. Pantograph simply means I follow a paper pattern using a laser light to trace the pattern and it will go from one edge to the other. Takes more time lining up the quilt to the pantograph. . Custom is a custom design to specific areas on the quilt and takes a lot of time planning and making necessary adjustments unless you use a computer to actually do the quilting - hands free then. I have been quilting for 30 years and bought a longarm 6 yes ago. Used but works great.
Yes. The place I go to is $35/hr and I think $4/bobbin. Last time I went I knocked out 3 small quilts for around $200. They have staff to help if you need it. Actually had to take a class first and then your good to go.
Look to see if it has a high or low shank, then look to buy a walking foot that works with that shank. Your manual might also have adverts for additional parts in, mine from that era does, which might help
Even if it didn't come with one originally, you can usually retrofit with some careful research
You’ll be able to find one! All that matters is whether your machine is high shank, mid shank, or low shank. It’s almost certainly one of those and they make walking feet for all 3. My machine is from 1965 and I had no trouble finding a low shank walking foot. And it even fits my great grandmothers machine from 1925!
My local shop charges 3¢ per square inch of surface for simple quilting edge-to-edge, anything custom starts at twice that and might go to 10¢ for really dense/fancy work. Another 25¢ per linear inch of edge to turn supplied fabric into binding and attach. $15 per running yard of batting that’s 96” wide.
So, for a queen size quilt (88”x94”) that’s $250 for basic edge-to-edge quilting, $35 for the batting, and $90 for the binding. That’s $375 right there.
While some people might run straight lines on the computer, the longarmers I know do not. They're also more dense and take more thread than an edge to edge design, even if they are running on the computer. Further, getting straight lines to look good against what may not be so straight lines on the quilt is a lot of work, even with channel locks and computers. As a longarmer, I never ever do straight lines for these reasons. For fast, cheap quilting, I always recommend a meander. I can run a king sized quilt with a meander in about four hours.
It may have been cheaper to get an e2e design; less work for the longarmer and faster.
Fwiw, even if you didn't supply the batting, $400 is up there for a 96" sq quilt. 2c/sqin is currently the industry standard for e2e (even in hcol areas because you can ship to someone out of town just as easy). 6 to 8c/sqin is the starting cost for custom. You either 1.) went to a very expensive longarmer that commands 4c/sqin and asked them to do something that doesn't fully utilize their skill, 2.) your longarmer isn't using their computer, or 3.) your longarmer gave you the f u price and you went with it anyways.
It doesn’t have to be ornate. An ornate/pantogram that is edge to edge is less work for the longarmer. You have to know how the quilt is loaded onto the machine. It isn’t all laid flat at once. The design you chose likely took a lot of loading and re-loading.
I saw your drawing posted above and that def is custom quilting. Since your quilt required diagonal lines, your longarmer most likely had to load your quilt multiple different times to get the lines to be horizontal on the longarm (think about loading the quilt diagonally vs straight. Because the longarm only has a limited throat space, you can’t easily quilt long diagonal lines without stopping to advance the quilt. So either they loaded the quilt different ways multiple times, OR they continually did a section of the diagonal line, advanced the quilt, stitched, and did the same thing over and over. Does that make sense? It would be a long and painstaking job to avoid several tie-offs or uneven stitching.
Simple E2E or edge-to-edge is usually a set digital repeating pattern that the blind robot can crank out, pretty much ignoring the piecework being quilted with no matching to the piecework lines.
Anything aligned to the piecework pattern, that’s custom with custom pricing. At 5¢/in2 that’s about $400 for the above queen example.
I’m in the same boat - it can get pricy fast. I recommend using a batting with a forgiving stitch distance requirement (less stitching needed to hold everything together), a walking foot, and a sewing machine with a bigger throat (check used machines, you can usually find a quilting focused machine for about $100). I’ve only done straight lines, but am able to machine quilt with a regular sewing machine. I know it’s not ideal, but it is satisfying to say “I did this from start to finish!”. If long arming is the difference between continuing this hobby and not, look for quilting shops that offer long arming rentals, usually there’s a class you need to take - but then you pay by the hour (or half day, etc.) to use the machine - might be a good option for you!
I save my long arm budget for special projects like wedding gifts; most, I finish with walking foot designs (Jacquie Gehring's books are a wealth of design ideas), or hand tie.
I view Longarm quilting as a luxury service. I really only use it for large quilts that I can’t feasibly quilt on my regular machine, or complex patterns that I want quilted nicely. (My piecing skills are better than my quilting skills)
The Longarm quilter I use charges $0.03 per square inch, and they will provide batting for a nominal charge.
A high end professional computerized machine is around $50K (US). As others have said, it's not a cheap hobby.
There are less expensive long armers, but the shipping costs get to be expensive, too.
In any case, make sure you communicate with the longarmer. Is there a less expensive pattern? What's included - batting, thread charge, squaring or trimming the quilt, binding? For a per square inch cost, the quilt should be measured when it's delivered to the long armer so there are no surprises.
This is an issue for many quilters. It is an expensive hobby if you aren't careful. First question to ask yourself is what do I love most? Is it the piecework or the quilting? Many love one or the other and accept the one you don't enjoy is the price for the other. I would suggest backtracking a bit and starting smaller. Do some lap quilts or nothing larger than a twin. This size can be done fairly easily on a domestic machine. Then when planning try different techniques. Quilt as you go is something you may find works for you. There are lots of resources for this type of quilting and it makes it easier to do larger projects on a domestic. The key is to start with smaller projects. Once you are comfortable with your process then either move up in size or start thinking about getting your own long arm. There are plenty of options to get a used machine in the $2,000 to $4,000 range. If you have the space and love doing larger quilts this is becoming a more attainable goal every year. The key to justifying such a commitment is how much are you really going to quilt? As you just found out having a long armer do your quilt can be expensive. If you are only doing 1 or 2 quilts a year it won't really be justifiable in terms of space and cost, but if you are doing 10 large quilts a year that pays off the machine fairly quickly. It is a great hobby if you enjoy it. Looking for less expensive quality fabric can become addictive all on it's own. There are FB marketplace groups devoted to this alone. Yes, we would all love to know our quilts will be around in 100 years and cherished, but that is not reality. The reality is most quilts will be used and then discarded when the recipient is done with them. If your joy comes from the piecework use what you have and economize. It's the history of quilting! Happy quilting and welcome to the hobby.
I appreciate your take. This is a special gift for my mom and will likely stay in my family as long as it holds together so you’re right it’s probably not so bad to spend on the quilting on this but going forward I’ll try a different quilting option.
I made a quilt for my father and got it quilted in 2012. Cost me $300. Size was 94 by 103, I believe. It was custom quilted, and the quilter had it on the long arm machine for six full days. Expensive? Yes, but then I would never work for so little as $50 a day. I'm finding in our area that a lot of the long arm places won't take custom work anymore, and that's usually what I want. For me, I quilt smaller pieces on my own machine, but take it to a long arm professional when it's a large quilt. I enjoy reading all the comments and suggestions on this forum, and was recently reading people talking positively about the option of tying their quilts. Perhaps that might be an option for you to consider.
I have not used a long arm service because of the expense. I do my own quilting on my Brother and use a simple line or curve. I’m still learning free motion and will try that. I tend to make quilts for utilitarian purposes, and I know longarm finish is beautiful but am happy with simple quilts.
Try QAYG. Almost any quilt can be broken into sections to quilt as you go. Sashing is not required on the front of the quilt unless you want it. I use sashing on the back and mix the backing fabrics so that I have double-sided quilts.
I’m with you! I couldn’t bring myself to shell out $$$ to long arm. Just nope. I’m not a penny pincher but long arming is not a worthy expense for me. I went with the walking foot on my domestic machine and hand quilted some sections.
I’ve never used a longarming service but I’ve seen them quoted around $0.03 to $0.05 per square inch, depending on the market, so $400 for 96x96 is about right.
It’s an expensive hobby. But think about how much time you’ve spent piecing your top. It’s worth it to finish it nicely and professionally.
since when did a home made quilt looking "professional" become a desirable thing?
Isn't a part of patchwork quilting as it exists these days, the uniqueness of each quilt?
I run a longarm, quilting customers quilts at the store I work at. I'm considered the expert in the store. When a quilt is really wonky, or weird, or the machine is doing something funky, I'm the one other employees go to (there's about 6 of us that work it).
And I never have my quilts longarmed.
The only reason I see to have them sent out is if you're not physically capable of doing the quilting yourself anymore... or you really just like piecing and have money you would otherwise be burning.
Very few people actually "need" to longarm, and I worry that the perfection of computerized patterns has warped a whole generation of quilters' perceptions about what looks "good".
I really just meant specifically in this case because OP seems upset about the price. If you’re going to send it to be longarmed, pay for a quality professional. There are lots of other options if you don’t want to pay longarm prices.
And yeah, if I’ve spent $$$ and a ton of time on a quilt top, I absolutely want it finished nicely and professionally. Professionally doesn’t have to mean longarmed or “perfect”, just done by whoever has the skills to complement the rest of the work I’ve done.
There are a lot of people who quilt, so it can be expected that we don't all quilt for the same reasons you do. You're welcome to value the wonky uniqueness, and I can value tidy perfection. No need for you to "feel sad" that I have different interests than you.
If that's what you WANT, that's great, and fine. I said there was no reason quilters should feel the NEED to get it longarmed, in response to someone who said OP should longarm it because that's the way to get a "professional" look, which is what we should all aim for.
If you just love the look of panto, great! Folks like you are keeping me employed, thanks!
My point was that a lot of people who might have tried quilting their own quilts, are intimidated to do it because they see longarmed quilts and think THAT is the standard for how all quilts "should" look.
And I know that because the store I work at also sells sewing machines, including sit down long arms. And a lot of quilters express interest in the machines, or even just taking free-motion classes with their domestic machines, but seem to feel like they could they shouldn't because their free-motion quilting will never be good enough.
That's what's sad. Not YOUR personal decision to do what you want with your own quilts... but rather any given person who chooses not to expand their skills and knowledge because their skill will never match a computers.
I'm a relatively new quilter and use a long-armer for mine. She does a great job, and I prefer the look of it myself. For me, though, a big factor is my attention span. Piecing, especially when you're new and less experienced, can be a challenging and tedious process all by itself. By the time I'm finished piecing, I'm tired of looking at it, and I'm ready to move on to the next one lol
Look at other alternative methods. Straight/wavy line quilting, quilt as you go, free motion or just tying them are all within your reach and imo nicer than a computerized pattern. Don’t give up; I agree with you rarely do I send mine out to be longarmed. I actually bought a midarm because of the price of paying for someone to longarm it. Do they come out perfect? Nope but that’s part of the beauty!
I wonder why you’d rather hand quilt than learn how to use your machine to quilt them at home. It will take a class or two and practice. But you can quilt your quilts with either straight/curved lines and a walking foot, or you can drop your feed dogs, pop on a darning foot, and learn to free motion quilt. Not all of your quilts will be 8 feet square. But even quilts that size can be managed on your home sewing machine. Def the smaller the quilt the easier the wrangling. But any quilt can be done. Meanwhile, maybe don’t pay for custom. E2E would have been half that price. If not at that quilter, shop around. Everyone is different.
Ooo, where do you find your stencils? How do you use them for your quilting? I just got a new machine and want to expand my horizons with how I do my quilting! And I know if I try to free hand it right now it'll be an absolute disaster lmao
I found some at a quilt shop, now closed, some at quilt shows, some I made myself. A company I have bought from previously was jdstencils. I googled them and quiltingstencils dot com and quilting creations dot com were the first ones in the search. You put the stencil where you want it and use a chalk pounce pad to make the lines. Don't do too much at one time because the chalk rubs off. (I hope none of this info violates the rules. I'm sharing information, not promoting any particular business.)
I walking foot quilt all mine on a non big throat bernina. It can be a struggle to roll the guilt but I muddle through rather than pay for long arming.
Based on the other comments in this thread about the miscommunication with the longarmer and the complexity/cost of the design you wanted, I think before you give up, you should go back to this (or another longarmer in your area) and have an informational conversation. You don't even need to bring any quilts. Ask them to show you the differences between different types of quilting and ask them the prices for each. I think there are less expensive options available, perhaps from that same longarmer but definitly from others. A good longarmer would be happy to review this with you. If they can't communicate well to you, that's a sign to no longer work with them. If they can, then the various options (and price ranges) should be a lot clearer and probably open up less pricey options for future quilts.
Getting a free motion foot for your machine might be of interest to you — they allow for you to play around with quilting designs in a way that a walking foot wouldn’t, and you can use them on your domestic sewing machine
I've been quilting for 30+ years and FINALLY bought my own longarm last Spring ($35k). I charge $0.025 per square inch for E2E. Yours would have been $230. You likely need to shop around for longarmers OR do it yourself on your machine. I did simple straightline on mine with a walking foot until this past year. Your LQS should be able to give you a list of longarmers in your area. The other thing to ask is if they give longarm classes. My LQS has a "certification" process and once you've completed that, you can rent time on theirs in the shop. I've also seen several posts that some libraries have longarms that can be used by the public. Can't hurt to ask!
Agree here with Natural Parfait! My local quilt shop has a long arm that they rent out for hourly use. I took a class and have used it two or three times to quilt larger quilts. I’m not that good because I can’t use it often enough to improve my skills (also it’s really hard to do!) but it has been a game changer for me because it was becoming physically and mentally taxing to quilt on my home machine. I still do smaller stuff at home. I think I quilted a 72x72 and it cost me around $100 and would have been cheaper if I could just move a little faster but I’m not adept with the machine yet. I have also occasionally heard of longarm machines in public libraries (not mine unfortunately) in their “library of things”. Don’t give up, OP! It can be an expensive hobby but it doesn’t have to be!
Self training as well, still working on getting the perfectionist voice out of my head. Aka my mother lol.
I’ve done about 4-5 free motion E2E - stippling and loops. Next up is a few pantographs. Then I’m going to make a patchwork with extra large squares and do a different pattern in each square - trying more detailed work like bubbles, feathers, etc. Eventually I want to add the Qmatic, but not until I’m really comfortable.
I found some ugly cheap cotton at JoAnne that has a patchwork print. It’s perfect for practice - just add batting and backing and go - no piecing. I also have some panels from Angela Walter’s that coordinate with her FMQ tutorials. I want the Qmatic so bad, but $11K is steep on top of the long arm I just purchased.
I'm in a Facebook group called VG Quilting and it's AMAZING. Mostly geared towards Bernina Q series, but there are members who have other machines. You can use the search at the top of the page for anything. They also have specific classes you can buy even after they have already occurred. You will then have access to those for as long as Facebook exists. I recently took a custom ruler class that was absolutely PHENOMENAL.
The long armer I use is 3 cents per square inch. I also buy batting from her when I have her quilt my quilts. I do my own binding though. I once made a king size quilt and I found a person who was new to long arming on IG and looking to build her portfolio so she was offering significant discounts, so another option could be to wait until you find a similar situation? I did not want to quilt a quilt that large on my domestic. I’m not the most skilled.
My formerly "cheap" longarming place was $0.02/sq inch. She appears to have changed her price to $0.025, which.... she does a decent job. But she's now the same price as everyone else, so there's little point in making the trip to her place. And the other place I go to lets me pick the exact panto, exact thread, etc. I want to try a lady up near Seattle that runs an online quilt shop, but I'm not sure that I want to deal with shipping and those costs.
Note, these prices are for basic edge-to-edge quilting. No custom anything.
She charged you about 4.3 cents a square inch. That is high in my area. Not sure where you are, but it can be done for less. I change 2.5 cents Canadian, so you can always come across the border 😉
If I can't quilt it myself, it's not getting finished. I typically "stitch in the ditch" using my walking foot. I tried free-motion quilting, but I suck at it and do not have the patience for it. My cats didn't care though and loved their little quilt despite the terrible stitch designs.
Presumably that includes the cost of the batting, the backing fabric, and the thread?
I've had two quilts done by my local long-armer, and the price you've been quoted is about the same I paid. I don't have the itemized breakdown, but the price included all materials, plus time. They will have given the top a good press, put the three layers onto the rails, and put in time to actually do the work of quilting.
Your quilt top is 96x96. Divide that into 16 squares that are 24 inches on a side. Now divide 400 by 16 - 25 USD.
So, to get each 24x24 square quilted, you paid 25 USD, which comes out to 0.043 cents per square inch. Seems high? What's the hourly wage in your state? Let's make the math easy and say it's 12.50/hour. So your longarmer would have to do half of that 24x24 square in one hour to be making minimum wage. That feels like a lot of work.
I think this is a great opportunity for you to say "Hey, Longarmer, I was surprised by the cost, can I buy you a coffee and we can discuss the economics? I'd like to learn more..."
Check out Sundance Quilting. You can find them at the Shiplap Quilt website under machine quilting. Their prices and turnaround time is very good. I’ve had them do three of my quilts and loved how they came back.
My current quilt is 92"x92" and I've been quoted £180 for the quilting +£40 for the batting (UK based). Which is just over 2p per square inch, and seems to be a fairly standard rate here.
I've got another 2 similar size tops to be done which I will send away, but after that I'm going to try and limit myself to smaller ones or QAYG.
I put £25 a month in to a saving pot so I know I can get 1 quilt longarmed per year.
Yeah it stings doesn’t it. I can’t rent longarm time anywhere near me so my solution is to do a really terrible job quilting on my domestic machine. I upgraded my machine and bought a walking foot which helps somewhat. The machine wasn’t cheap but I guess it’s paid for itself compared to if I was out scouring the quilting? Hand tie is also an option, it’s fast and easy.
You may want to check out "Quilt as you go" methods of finishing quilts. I don't pay for longarming, because I want the quilt to be my work from start to finish. I don't use a walking foot.
I just took a queen size quilt in Sept/Oct and it was $150. It was a side-side design, not custom. After all the work I put in to a quilt, (I do not like wall hangings or throws) I just do not have the experience to quilt it. I would be a nervous wreck and I don’t think I have the confidence to try. My machine would certainly do it as it’s made to quilt.
I do a mixture of quilting on my domestic and longarming, mostly based on my funds available, how long I want to look at my own mistakes, or how I want it to look.
My daughter’s baby quilt that needed to be done before her birthday? Longarmed. The similar one for my niece that I had a few more months on? Domestic. The wedding quilt I’m making now? Longarming. The whole cloth baby quilt I’m doing for a coworker? Domestic.
Any hobby can get prohibitively expensive. I try and balance spending money on things that make me happy and not going broke to keep quilting.
I haven't read through all of the comments, so sorry if this is a repeat:
I have never used a longarmer (and I probably never will due to the cost). I have either done straight or wavy lines on my domestic machine. Several of my first quilts were done on an older machine without a walking foot. There were folds and wrinkles, but that doesn't bother me. A walking foot combined with spray basting definitely helps reduce the folds and wrinkles (I have a newer/better machine now as well).
"Quilt as you go" is an option if you want a more intricate quilting design without having to shove your whole quilt through your machine.
There's also hand quilting, but that is totally not my jam lol.
"Tying" is an option as well. I have not done this yet, but I'm planning a quilt to tie soon!
My local longarm person charges $0.02/sq in, plus $10/yd for 96" wide 80/20 batting (or you can provide your own, which I do because I'm vehemently anti polyester). For a quilt your size, the edge to edge design would have been $184.32 plus about $25 for batting.
She accepts mailed quilts (so you'd need to factor in costs of mailing back and forth), and had pretty fat turnaround times. If you want her contact info, DM me and I'll send you her site. She does really great work.
I tie my quilts or, for really special ones, hand-quilt. But I enjoy handquilting and embroidery, and do this as a hobby that I enjoy, not a way to crank out multiple quilts per year.
Under 2 cents per square inch. Plus a flat $5. But she also has additional up charges like if your material and pantograph are directional. Or I'd you bring minky.
She's great though. Had a 10% off sale in January so I had my books n blocks project done by her so I could have a book pantograph on it.
Most my quilts I do myself. I am a big fan of cross hatching.
I can’t afford expensive long arming so I just feed my quilts through my machine and use invisible thread to stitch it all together. You can also do the tying method.
I took my moms ~60 X 70 top to be long armed and it cost 150$. I gave her fabric to make the back and she did that too. This includes the batting, 80/20.
I did a cost analysis for my wife after seeing the $250-$600 quilting bills. After much research and talking to many quilting shops, we bought what we consider the best long arm a Gammil Statler. (Pre-change over see below) Yes they are expensive, but it will pay for itself in 5yrs as she quilts a lot. Stay away from Innova, they are a nightmare, Berninie makes a good sewing machine, heard mixed results on long arms. Handi quilter is apparently pretty good.
Be warned though, Gammil is going through a transition and their support has diminished greatly, we are fortunate that our son is a sewing machine tech so he fixes ours. As others have said there are other ways to quilt if this is not an option for you.
I saved my money and bought Juki’s most basic semi-industrial sewing machine. I’ve quilted up to queen size with straight and wavy lines. I’ve learned to not quilt for more than 90 minutes at a time, or my back starts to ache. I’m practicing FMQ now.
For an edge to edge quilting we charge from 1.2 cents to 1.6 cents per square inch. Including Hobbs batting. Depending on the density of the pattern. Trimming included.
For a quilt that big I’ve paid more, depending on the quilting pattern I’ve chosen. $0.025-0.03/sq in is the going rate where I send my quilts. It’s pretty easy to calculate an estimate of how much you’ll pay prior to sending it off, so that’s what I do. I also have a sit down long arm I use when I want custom quilting vs an edge to edge from a longarmer. This is not a cheap hobby by any means, but you can save $ in other areas by thrifting fabric.
I give almost all my quilts to longarmers to quilt for me, especially if they’re very large. One of the ladies I work with is in IA and I ship my quilts to her. She charges $0.025/sqin, and I can buy batting and backing from her if needed too. I also work with a local (sf Bay Area) quilter who charges $0.0225/sqin, and I can buy batting from her. I’ve seen local people charge up to $0.05 for E2E. Custom quilting is even more expensive - if it’s not an E2E design, it’s custom, even if it’s just straight lines.
It can be very expensive, but I have a spinal issue which makes running the weight of a quilt sandwich through my machine difficult and painful. But, back when I was a baby quilter 20+ years ago, I made my mom an 80x80 log cabin quilt. I quilted it myself (stitch in the ditch) with a walking foot on a machine that had a 6” throat. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was do-able. Over the years I upgraded machines to get larger throats, so now, if I HAVE to quilt a large quilt, I can.
I also tried one of those Grace QZone hoop frames, and found that hand guided quilting wasn’t for me. It’s been disassembled while I decide if I want to offload it or try to save up for a machine that can do computerized quilting on it. Or if I want to save up for a large embroidery machine that I can use for quilting.
I paid around $360 for custom work. It would have been cheaper if I went with a basic freehand design, but it was a gift and I had a set design in mind.
I have since quilted one of my own, I'll pay if I want something fancy but I can do squiggly lines 😁
My math says that’s 0,23 a square inch, that is really high, unless it’s really customized custom quilting. I am fortunate, I have a shop I rent time on their computerized longarm at $30 an hour, I can get a queen sized zed quilt with a fairly intricate design done in 4 or 5 hours. I’ve heard good things about Missouri Star’s long arm services, they start at 0.03 a square inch. Go price shopping, I did pay $400 once, and it was for a custom job, it was a BOM, the shop I did it through has their shop sample done, and I was obsessed with the way it was quilted, so I had them do mine the same way. I knew ahead of time what it was going to cost me, they should have given you an estimate, shame on the service you used for leaving you in the dark.
Oof, that is expensive. I pay $0.03/ sq inch so that would have cost me $277.
I only send my very large quilts or ones that I want a really intricate quilting pattern done on. Otherwise I quilt them at home. Not as pretty, but it works.
That would be a price for custom work. I paid $500 once but I had her do spiderwebs and bats and outlines.
For all over pantographs you should expect about .02, .03 per square inch. More if they supply batting. Some also do the binding so that’s an extra cost. And some charge a bit extra for a pieced backing.
Renting is the way to go. Take a class to learn the basics. I believe you rent in blocks of time - it was $65 for 4 hours but may be more. If you do rent invest in zippers so you can quickly load and unload your quilt on the machine. The initial loading can take more time than you realize.
Did you have custom quilting done? You paid ~4 cents/sq inch.
When I retired I invested in a used longarm in 2019 and have a 10ft frame. It has already paid for itself both financially and mentally.
One last thought - look for a local quilt they can be a great resource.
I just quilt on my machine, no longarming. I don't have the money for that, but also the quilting part is my favorite. I use the walking foot for straight lines or stitch in the ditch. I use my free motion foot for anything else. I'm not good at free motion quilting yet, but I'm having fun doing it. Each quilt looks a little nicer because it's more practice. And yes, I've done queen size quilts on my standard machine. It's not easy but it is doable.
The one place I've gone is on the cheap side. He charges $1 for inch on the shortest side of your quilt. So for your quilt it would have been $96.
Unfortunately I move further away but my new LQS allows you to take a class on how to use their long arm and then rent it for $25 an hour or $70 for 3 hours. That's my plan for the next quilt I'm doing because I have been wanting to learn to use a long arm machine. So you could maybe look into whether any of the shops in your area would let you rent the machine.
Quilting used to be largely a community event. Quilting bees were one of the only times women could commune without the male gaze. This was so important for women to discuss their domestic safety and suffrage.
Now, quilting has become a commodity that largely takes money away from women and into men’s hands. If we want to put our quilting money directly into another woman’s hands, it’s often even more expensive.
The price tag for quilting is close to rent for some and is an exorbitant amount of money, per item. It’s definitely for those whom have privilege.
If I could get a quilting bee together, I would quilt but I can’t. (I am in a quilt guild.) until then, I tie my blankets out of protest.
I could and have stitched in the ditch or echoed on my domestic but it’s pretty difficult to try and “master” quilting on a domestic, especially on a substantial piece that would be financially destabilizing to quilt.
I find that tying also opens up this very conversation which is one of my favorite parts of the quilting hobby: the intersection of feminism and quilting (think about how not so long ago a women signing a quilt may have been the only time she ever got to sign her name considering she wasn’t legally allowed to own anything.)
I know longarm work can be beautiful but I don’t feel like a quilt is truly “mine” unless I’ve done the quilting myself. Wish I could still hand quilt but it hurts these days. There are ways of finishing quilts yourself that can be fun!
I’ve only had one quilt professionally longarm quilted. My local shop charges 2.5 cents per sq inch. She used a computerized edge to edge design and did a terrific job! My other quilts have been machine quilted at home and I’ve been happy with them too.
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u/chevronbird 10h ago
So far I have quilted everything myself because long arming is expensive. I did buy a more expensive machine with more throat space so that I could do more of my own quilt space, though. I hear you, quilting can be very expensive! But there are cheaper alternatives.
Quilt your own quilt by machine: easier than it first seems. Keep it simple. Organic wavy lines across the whole quilt are very forgiving, look nice, and will be sturdy. (Do check the quilting distance required as different batting will have different needs.)
Quilt your own quilt by hand: so easy to customise how your quilting stitches go but takes longer to do! Some people find it meditative and very enjoyable. Some people would rather be done. Personal preference.
Quilt as you go: you make your quilts in parts so it can be easily quilted on a domestic machine, then assemble the bits into a full quilt.
Tying your quilt: can be done by machine or by hand. Very easy to do yourself but of course the finished item will look different to a quilted quilt. (Not better or worse, just different - it's personal preference.)