Resources for you and your business

Keeping the customer happy

I always like to try to achieve my customers requests when quilting their quilts - do YOU?

Do you customise your pantographs?
How do you price this service?

I always like to try to achieve my customers requests when quilting their quilts - do YOU?

 But sometimes they really don't understand how some types of quilting even work.

You've heard the statement -
'You can just ditch it all, that won't take long?' or
just do an edge to edge but can you do something different in the borders and can you not stitch over these feature blocks? (all for the same price as E2E of course!)

It is our job as professional quilters to both understand what we can achieve within their budget and also to educate them on what they are asking for. This means we need to learn how we CAN achieve what they are asking for at the same time as steering them to a solution that won't break their wallet or YOUR head in frustration over what you agree to do.

For those that are just venturing into doing some light custom work using your computer system, there are a number of ways to enhance your services that are easily achievable and can still be cost effective for both your income earned and customer's pocket.

Here are some really easy ideas to offer:

  • Stitch a pantograph as normal, but ALSO ditch stitch over that panto the seams of the border. Could be one seam or if the piecing is one of those with a small border (1") then a larger border then ditch the skinny border both sides and then it will be defined & 'pop'. The pantograph is simply the background texture. I personally charge an extra $25 to do this above my panto quilting rate. (though may depend on the size of the quilt as well)
  • Stitch a panto in the body of the quilt, ditch the border and create a different border design using line pattern. I find this really easy & quick to achieve whilst working down the quilt top. Simply need equal divisions in the borders to put a line pattern between.
    This would be worked out on my lowest basic custom rate usually - depending on whether I need to change threads and the complexity of the line pattern (time taken to stitch)
  • Stitch a panto across the entire quilt BUT create no sew zones over featured blocks of applique/stitchery. I call this Panto PLUS level.
    Usually the pricing is panto pricing plus a flat amount per NSZ for this style. Sometimes Custom pricing works out cheaper for the customer than panto plus per NSZ so work out both ways & give the customer the cheapest option & then they love you.
  • You can also manipulate the design on your computer system so that the design is better balanced in the body &/or border. Once edited it is simple to stitch out. Charge for your editing time that is above what it normally takes to setup a panto if it takes too long.
  • Modify a panto so that you can change the thread colour in the border to be different from what it is in the body of the quilt
    For me this is definitely higher custom pricing if the pattern chosen requires lots of stops/starts across the seam of the border/body of the quilt. There are editing options to modify the design to eliminate starts/stops and not change the look of the panto to keep the flow however. 

If you are a member of IQ Summit or the Gold Membership group you can find videos showing step by step how to achieve many of these ideas. Login and then click the image to go watch



Categories: General

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Have you joined our community here on Academy or on the FREE Facebook Group for IQ owners? Click on the Facebook icon to join in and see all the amazing designs that everyone has come up with already, building on what they have learned inside this membership. If you are a paid member of IQ Summit or the Gold Members group then we also have a private community inside this platform as well. You can find the link on the top of this page to explore the community you are enrolled in here.

Would you like to have more information at your fingertips to help you with your Longarm Business?
 
Then head on over to check out the Resources I’ve prepared for you. A really valuable article with a downloadable pdf is a Longarm troubleshooting checklist that everyone should print and use when having machine issues!

We discuss many relevant topics in our monthly live Q & A sessions where we all learn something new and useful each time. From these, courses and articles are created, to build out our library of resources for members to find and utilise when needed.
 
Then join us in the Gold Member Group of Machine Quilting Academy. If you are already a paying member of IQ Summit then contact me for a special discount voucher to sign up to this service.




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