How long and how much --

That's useful info about the long-arm quilting thing, Anne -- thanks! Would it be too much to ask that a long-arm quilter should watch the quilt to see whether a needle breaks or a thread runs out? I just barely understand how the LAQ process works. I do know that the LAQ at the quilt shop I may outsource is not "guided" LAQ, but rather a pantograph.

Needle breakage may well be a concern with the quilts I'm working on because they includes shirt features like pockets and button plaquettes. (It's for sure that I will have to remove buttons for LAQ and sew them back on later, while it would be easy enough to quilt around them here at home on my SM. I'm getting more confident with practice that I will be competent to offer the client my own services in a cost effective manner.)

I don't think I've never continued sewing more than 30 seconds without noticing that a bobbin has emptied. I notice the loss of a top thread or a damaged needle immediately. I guess experience machine-quilters might go longer with an empty bobbin because they keep a continuous motion going -- they get in the groove?

I fully intend to charge for any time spent changing a needle or a bobbin, including the seconds I might continue sewing with an empty bobbin -- that's just part of the cost of quiltmaking, AFAIC. Like, as a lawyer, if I need to replace an ink cartridge in my printer, I most certainly don't log off my time sheet for such routine work that takes seconds or minutes. By contrast, if the printer has to go to the shop or be replaced, that time can't be charged to the client; that's part of my overhead, per my standard business procedure.

I'm used to time-based billing and running my own business, after 16 years of doing it, and more years before that billing time as an employee of somebody else's law firm. I seem to make automatic decisions about client cost v. business overhead that don't come naturally to people who haven't run a solo business with time-based billing. I can well imagine that unit/piece/project billing would come more naturally to others. I'd be sure to cheat myself using the latter method.

ep

Anne, that website was just one example -- I did a lot more research than that while I was drafting the MOU that I offered to the group, but I haven't reconstucted that research again for this thread. If you research the issue yourself, you'll find other examples of hourly billing.

I chose $15/hour for myself because that number kept cropping up in my research and because I'm a novice quiltmaker (while I do feel quite competent to make the particular quilt tops my client has requested), and it seemed as good a number as any to pull out of the hat. I don't expect to get rich off this commission; it's more on the nature of a learning experience for me and, frankly, a lark. I am often surprised by how often people offer to pay people like me to do things -- from being a private chef, to giving kayaking lessons, to booking vacations abroad, to ghost-writing, to appraising their book collection. I don't take such an offer unless it looks like something new and fun for me, and for somebody who I think would be a pleasure to work with. When I do take on such projects, I usually make money in the long run, if that is my intention. (I do volunteer work, too.)

When I went into business for myself as a consultant to lawyers in 1994, I deliberately undercharged new clients/colleagues -- what's called a "loss leader" in marketing. I got acquainted with the clients, they got a bargain, I got a good reputation and referrals, and I made a pile of money in the long run. Maybe some quiltmaker's $15/hour gig can turn into a business in the same way. That's not what I have in mind for myself -- though stranger things have happened in my career(s). :-) And this project is simply something I want to do. The fact that somebody else might not want to, or might not have the confidence or know-how to make such a deal, doesn't mean it's a dumb deal. I'm an intelligent person with business experience; and I have a good idea of how to experiment with and enjoy new ventures, and I'm sharing my ideas here for whatever they're worth. The response has been mostly favorable.

I have no doubt that there are quiltmakers here who would charge as much for an hour of their work as I charge for my legal/consulting work, if they choose to bill on a time-basis. I did not mean to suggest that $15 is a reasonable rate for anybody but me, at any time but now. I have negligible overhead, I'm a beginner, and I'm being paid for my latest hobby. (But, incidentally, businessperson that I am, I am trying to figure out how tax deductions on this six-quilt project can juuuusssst about cover a new SM for me, fair and square and consistent with all applicable tax laws! :-)

ep

I like Heidi's approach of a set rate, based on how long it "should" take (and that estimate can be based on historical records of how long it has taken you to do similar jobs, and maybe a sample block or two, times the hourly rate you want), with an hourly rate for customer changes. That seems to me like it would be the best of both worlds!

Dragonfly