Long Arm Quilting

In January of 2015 I was contacted about quilting a t-shirt quilt.

I have been trying to find someone that can do the quilting part of making a quilt. 

I'm making a large t-shirt quilt and would love to find someone that can quilt the 3 pieces together.  Do you do that?  If not, do you know anyone that does?

I don't have the measurements handy, but it's big enough for a queen size bed.  I have made one before and quilted it myself using a regular sewing machine.  It was tough squishing in the whole piece!  

I'd love to hear from you.

Best Regards,
Liz

I spent more than a little time working on my response and I don't think I ever shared it with the blog world. Note that I have not modified the text so the quoted prices for some things may no longer be valid. Check with the linked source for current pricing. 

Hello Liz,

Thank you so much for contacting me. I am a long arm quilter and I regularly quilt for Annapolis Quilts for Kids. I have made three t-shirt quilts for friends and I've attached a photo of one of those quilts. I'm not a professional long arm quilter. I don't have a business license and don't do my quilting as a business.  

Let me give you some information so you can make an informed decision on hiring a long arm quilter.  

There are a couple long arm quilting machine dealers in the area that offer the use of their machines for a fee.  You have to take their class to learn how to use the machine before you are allowed to rent time on the machine.  

Spring Water Designs in Columbia, MD, is a newer quilt shop that offers rental of their Handi-Quilter machines.  The beginning class is $60:  http://www.springwaterdesigns.com/

Capital Quilts in Gaithersburg, MD, has been around longer and also offers rental of their Handi-Quilter machines.  The training class is $50:  http://www.capitalquilts.com/

Tomorrow's Treasures is a shop in Crofton, MD, that offers long arm quilting service. I don't know their rates.  http://www.tomorrowstreasures.info/

Maria O'Haver is a member of my quilt guild and is a professional long arm quilting artist. Her website gives her rates. http://www.mariaohaver.com/home.html

I know there are many more professional long arm quilters in the local area. If you ask at your local quilt shop they usually have business cards for long arm quilters. If you see machine quilted quilts on the walls of a fabric store it is very possible they can make a recommendation.

The rate for quilting similar to what is in this photo would be $0.015 to $0.02 per square inch.  If your quilt is 90" by 90" (about the size of a queen depending on how much bigger you wanted it to be) it would cost $121.50 to $162.00 to quilt it with a similar design. This rate does not include other services that some long arm quilters require. Some charge more depending on thread, some charge for bobbins (few do, but if they use pre-wound bobbins it is more common), almost all charge for thread color changes. Custom quilting will cost about twice those estimates for a queen-size quilt. 

How long it takes to get your quilt back from the quilter depends on the demand the long arm quilter has for their services. I've seen wait times of 2-4 weeks with some as long as 6 months due to a backlog of quilts from very desirable quilters.

Please, if you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask.  I know that these quilts are important to the maker and I want every quilter to have the best information available so they can make an informed decision.

Becca

Do you have questions about long arm quilting? I would be happy to try to help answer them.