What's Under My Needle Today - January 24, 2019

Since I'm doing a lot of custom work this week and it takes longer, let's do something different today.  Let's answer 2 questions:  What is custom?  and Why does it have such a big range for the price?

What is Custom?

Custom means simply that different areas of the quilt are treated differently.  It can be as little as 2 areas, the quilt center and a single border.  It can be hundreds of different areas if each square or triangle is quilted differently.  A quilt leaves the world of edge-to-edge and enters the world of custom when you have one area that you simply cannot quilt the same as the rest.  This can be due to high contrast where 1 thread will not work on all the fabrics, 3D elements like flanges, or wanting to have an area be puffier than another.

With the quilt above, we entered the world of custom because Big Foot would just get lost if the background design was quilted over the top of him in a light color thread.  The background would then be more dominate and draw your eye away from him.  The same is true for the trunks of the trees but since they are small, a few lines of lighter thread crossing them would not cause the same problem.  A darker thread is an option but it would be a neon sign on the very light background.

Why dies it have such a big range for price?

The stitch in the ditch (outlining) work required is the first thing that increases the price.  Once you decide you need 2 or more areas quilted differently, we need to consider the integrity of the quilt.  Edge to edge designs are great because they end up stitching over every seam in the quilt longer than an inch or so.  That anchors that seam down and prevents it from standing up after washing.  If I'm not going to stich over some seams (like Big Foot), I still need to anchor those seams so I'll need to stitch in the ditch around him.  Even with unique borders, we still need to stitch in the ditch the seams that will not be crossed over by the pattern.

Thread color changes are another thing that increases the price.  Big Foot used 3 colors, green brown and pearl.  I generally quilt each thread color in a unique pass through the quilt top to bottom.

Basting is also necessary on most custom quilts that require more than one pass top to bottom.  On Big Foot, I could outline and background quilt in the first pass so I only had to do a tiny amount of basting in the trees and Big Foot.  When quilts don't have much background, it requires more basting!

And finally, the number of different patterns or styles also increases the price.  Just choosing what will look best for each area of the quilt and planning your transitions and thread color changes to do it efficiently simply takes time.  Each repetition of a pattern also adds time.  Each tree, trunk and Big Foot was quilted separately.

Big Foot is a perfect example of some light custom treatments really enhancing the quilt while only increasing the price less than 30%.  If I stitched over the trees and trunks with the background and just did custom on Big Foot, it would less than half the custom work.

I know we are all price sensitive.  Less money quilting means more money for fabric, right?  Getting just the right custom touches for your quilt doesn't have to double or triple the quilting price.  Most longarm quilters do many levels of hybrid edge-to-edge and custom that can accomplish your goals without the sticker shock!  Just tell me what you want in the look, any fears that you have and what your budget is and most of the time I can do it.  Don't think you have to get full custom with dense background fills on every quilt.  There are many options to explore!

I hope laying out exactly what drives the price for custom quilting will help you feel more in control when you ask for some custom treatments on your next quilt!

Tammy