How much does a hand-made quilt cost?

Whether you want to make a quilt, or hire someone, this should shed some light on what you (and your pocketbook) might be in for.  First, I confess that I'm a sucker for quality textiles and pre-packaged bundles of perfectly coordinated prints. This quilt top was made from the "Bee Creative" Layer Cake by Moda (manufactured in Japan). There are, of course, cheaper fabrics available.

After finishing the quilt top, many people choose to outsource the actual quilting (stitching all the layers together), but I prefer to do this myself and rent time on a long-arm machine (pictured below). This is the cost break-down of this lap quilt - which is smaller than a Twin size bed sheet - and that doesn't include the roughly 25 hours of labor (cutting, piecing, ironing, long-arming and binding).

Renting time on the Long-Arm
("Millie" is a $20,000 machine)

Materials	Cost
Elsie & Paige Pattern	$9.20
Bee Creative Layer Cake (Moda)    Printed fabric for quilt blocks	$38.98 $2.78 (tax)
Bella Solid, 3 yds ($8.00/yd)    For sashing between squares	$24.00 $2.07 (tax)
Bee Lattice, 3 yds ($10.75/yd)    For quilt back	$32.25 $2.78 (tax)
Border Fabric, 1.5 yds	$18.40
Long-Arm rental	$54.32
Batting, 2 yards ($7.50/yd)	$16.29
Total:	$102.07

Since my costuming generally fetches $20/hr (or more), I'm not inclined to set that work aside to make quilts for, what would have to be, considerably less. Even if I only charged $10/hr, that would still add an additional $250 on top of the materials cost. Not only would it be hard to sell a $450 lap quilt, but I'd be selling myself considerably short on the labor.

Costs could be reduced by using cheaper fabric, but could also be greater if using a more intricate pattern. T-shirt quilts may seem like less work because there are fewer pieces, but those pieces have to be prepped individually with a non-woven backing before they can even be sewn together, adding considerable more work (and cost).

Of course there are people who make more affordable quilts, I'm just not one of them. And no, I don't have any referrals. You might ask your local quilt shop or contact your local quilt guild if they have a list of people for hire.