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A friend has asked me to quilt her quilt and she would pay me.  I agreed, I've done quilts for myself and for donation quilts but have never been paid.  This particular quilt top has turned out to be the quilt from H double hockey sticks.   I have learned from this project why you measure the quilt top in three places before loading it on your quilt frame, which of coarse I did not and have spent the last day and a half taking out the first 20 inches of quilting.  After measuring the quilt, it turns out there are 5 to 7 inches difference from the center of the quilt to the edges of the quilt, no matter which way it is measured (lengthwise or width-wise). You'd think that would have been apparent before I loaded it, but no it wasn't.  Although in hindsight, It was a bit of a challenge to load it evenly, and I mistakenly thought it would all work out as I proceeded forward. 

I've read the instructions on loading the quilt to see if I've missed something and think there are couple of things that will help lesson the problem, but I don't think it will fix it enough.  I wanted to do a pantograph for this quilt but I think it might not be feasible.  I'm thinking of maybe quilting the center of the quilt first (with the pantograph or just an all over meander) and then do the borders with piano keys to try to take up the extra bulk.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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My theory on this is.. I am the quilter.  My job is to quilt the 3 layers together.  The piecer is responsible for providing me with a reasonably square quilt top which I will keep square as I quilt.   If it's seriously out of square when I get it, it will be seriously out of square when they get it back.   A piecer whose standards are that low does not deserve me agonizing over their problems.  I would put it on the frame..probably float it..and quilt away. And no, not every problem  is apparent until you get it loaded.  

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I think I would tell your friend about the issues, and ask if she wants to fix the problem.  If not, ask how much she wants to pay for the quilting, with the understanding that if she only wants to pay for a pantograph, it is likely there will be pleats, etc., due to the problems with the top.  At that point, Lynn is right, if she didn't care enough to do a good job, she deserves to get the quilt she made.

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5-7 inches is a HUGE difference!!  I would let her know the problem and ask her to fix it.  If she doesn't want to do that, then I would tell her I would do the best I could but there WILL be tucks and pleats due to the enormous difference in measurement from the middle to the edges.  Sometimes a quilter can work in and inch or two, but 5-7 inches is way too much to work in without having pleats and tucks especially with a panto.  You have already spent a great deal of your time on this quilt, so keep that in mind when charging her.   

Sometimes our friends think we can do miracles with their quilts and the old saying "It will quilt out" does not pertain to any substandard pieced quilt!  I have learned that friends can take advantage of you with quilts that are wonky.  So, I always tell them  " I can fix it, but it will cost you "  then I quote my prices and I do not 'fix' quilts for a cheap price!  I know that they could have fixed the quilt prior to me getting it but sometimes being in a hurry, laziness or inexperience gets the best of them.  Usually I only have to charge them once to fix a wonky quilt....they learn from that and I have never gotten a repeat wonky quilt from those that I have charged to fix!

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Couple things I would temper my response with.  Is she a dear friend, good friend....is it her first quilt?  If someone I cared about, I would have pulled the quilt, showed her the measurements, sat down at the dining room table and talked quilts, kids, husbands....while we both picked stitches, tried to help her understand.  If she doesn't care, then I would let her know and stitch the best I could, with out the anguish.  

As far as the fullness, someone talked about a can of vegetables or something of that sort laying on the quilt to help pull/ease.  Thankfully I have not had to resort to that, but I have kept the thought....just in case...

 

And who knows, maybe it is a working quilt and she won't care.

Good luck.

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When I've run into this problem I call the person and let them know the problem I'm having.  I tell them I can:

1.  Keep quilting and try to make it as even as possible

2.  Take it off the frame, they can unsew what I've done and they can reconstruct.  

This is one of the things that I hated most about quilting for others.  I work so hard to have square quilts and I can't stand it when they aren't straight to start.

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Thanks everyone.  The consensus seemed to be to call my friend and that's what I did.  Turned out to be not as bad as I thought it would be.  I've taken off the borders and re-attached.  The whole quilt had bias edges, no wonder there was so much stretching.  Now the quilt is fairly square with a little puffiness within the blocks, but not too bad.  Almost ready to start quilting.

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