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Translating your customer's input


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I'm always stressing to business owners to listen to their customers and find ways to stay within their budget while also providing pretty stitching.

This customer said--don't do too much.

 

That translated to me as one of these things-- the budget was limited/ she wasn't in love with the top and didn't want something extravagant on it/  it was a gift for an acquaintance/ or she has seen how I "go overboard" and wanted to avoid that!   :D

 

This is a medium-size wallhanging made with geese and lots of half-square triangles--all of a good size. The HSTs are 6 inches square. There is some applique where she plans to add 3D flowers.

This was my approach. The HSTs were treated as squares with a CC design that had an added leaf and echo. The triangles and squares were marked into larger squares so a leafy-wreath fit, and five wreaths fit in an L-shape piecing area. The geese (which aren't shown) were also marked into squares so the same CC design could be stitched--they were all the same size. All the blocks were "super-sized" regarding stitching--stitching all the individual pieces would have been much more expensive so I ignored some of the seams while still honoring the piecing.

 

Applique blocks had the background stippled, a narrow border split into two colors got small leaves on one and swirls on the second.

 

She was thrilled with my "restraint" and loved the subtle stitching. And it wasn't very expensive. This can translate into a customer bringing you more tops. 

Just wanted to share the thought process and decision-making.

Link to a photo.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/larech/17147411905/

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I always just ask them if they are telling me that for budget reasons or personal taste. When I was using intake forms, there was a question If price was no object, how would you envision this quilted..heirloom, custom, light custom,etc, Sometimes they will write on paper what they are hesitant to express directly.

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Great idea, Linda.  Of course, you know I LOVE your ideas.  I actually just got a small wall hanging and she said cheapest when she called.  Then, when she came, she wanted the top border a little special . It had preprinted pictures and I didn't want to do a panto over them.  But now, I'm going to look closely and see if I can combine blocks.  It's not very big.

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