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Making Quilt Sense

“ASK LINDA”

by Linda V. Taylor, Linda’s Electric Quilters LLC

I keep a file in my e-mail when readers and students write and ask me questions. I have labeled this file, “AskLinda.” As I have been reviewing those questions, I found many longarm quilters who have been wondering about renting time on their longarm machine. So here are some of my thoughts on that subject

The eager quilters who would love to rent a longarm machine are generally people who do not or will not ever have the room or possibly the money for a quilting machine but want to quilt their own quilt tops. And many longarm quilters would love to make money on their longarm machine when they are not using it. I have had considerable experience with renting out quilting machines. I did it for about two years in my shop. I no longer do it, but applaud those who do. Here are some of the issues I encountered that you may want to consider as a longarm quilting machine owner before you decide to rent your machine.

There is a huge liability issue -- the renters will be on your property, using your property. Make sure your commercial insurance company understands exactly the nature of what you will be doing with your business to ensure adequate coverage in case of an accident.

You need to train people to use the machine. This involves a great deal of your time. Decide what compensation will be necessary for this aspect of the service and remember that you will be re-training some of these people over and over again, depending on how often they use the machine to become familiar with it.

You will need to supervise the renter using the machine or hire another longarm quilter to help. I found you simply cannot leave most of the renters alone as they have many questions and problems arise because of inexperience on the longarm machines.

People “tweak” everything on the machine and I mean EVERYTHING! If there is a knob, they will turn it. You will need an on-going maintenance person on the premises -- this could be you.

You will be held responsible if the machine is not stitching to their satisfaction. Decide ahead of time if that “down” time will be subtracted out of the hourly or daily rate.

Decide how much you charge for the rental. Is the rate hourly or by the day? When does the time begin and end? What if they are not finished at the end of the day?

Will you supply the thread, pins, scissors, and so on? Can they purchase these supplies from you?

Some of the successful longarm quilters who have rented their machines tell me they require the renters to buy zippers and already have their tops pinned or basted to the zippers when they arrive. This would save much time in loading the quilt components.

Truly assess whether you make more money using the longarm machine yourself or renting it.

As long as you go into this aspect of the longarm business with your eyes wide open, you will be successful. Good luck!

Here is a cute continuous pattern I thought you might enjoy, since I’m still on my way to teach the Zulu quilters in South Africa.

Reprinted from Quilting NOW, February 2008