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You remember the lady who needed the quilt done by New Years Eve for her daughters wedding? Then didn't pick it up until Jan 3. Same lady that failed to answer any of my emails or phone calls.

Well she sent me an email last night. Her mother has a Harley Davidson quilt that my customer would like me to quilt. Her mother will be in town next week from Monday to Friday, and she would like me to quilt the quilt for her while she is here. Oh she wants verigated orange thread and flames. According to her mother the quilt is 95 ish wide.

I don't have a quilt scheduled for next week (been a kind of slow month) my hubby says that I am crazy for even thinking about quilting it.....and he is probably right. I am going to be stubborn about it though. I've already told her that I do not have an orange verigated thread......and I'm not buying one, I really dislike verigated thread. This morning I looked at my thread and I do not have a true orange. I sent her an email and told her that I was not going to order thread for a quilt that I hadn't seen yet. I told her that I only use Sew Fine thread (not necessarily true, but I also am not going to experiment with some thread and have thread issues on her quilt) I told her that the APQS showroom did have a selection of Sew Fine Thread and they might have one of the two colors that have orange in the name. Again if she wants a special color she can drive and get it and bring it to me.

SO I GUESS MY HUSBAND IS RIGHT I AM CRAZY!:D

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Well Deb, you are setting a bad precedent ;) but I say go ahead and quilt it if you don't have anything else going for the week. Stick to your decision about the thread--oranges are hard to use up and I never have the right shade. If she wants flames (standard Harley quilt design!) you can use red or gold. Make sure she knows how lucky she is you had an opening that week. And finally, make her pre-pay!! Yes, as you fill out the intake sheet, sweetly let her know you now required pre-payment. Don't tell her she's the ONLY one you required pre-payment from! Let her wonder.....:P

And tell your hubby that you can't be crazy--you married HIM, didn't you!! That was a wise decision.

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Hi Deb,

I would do Prepay and charge a rush fee on top of it because I could use this slow time to do some piecing and that will make her think it over and or refuse the job. Your gut feeling will guide you. Some folks just don't treat others the way they want to be treated.

Corey

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I agree with everyone re: prepayment, etc.

But, You need to be the person in control of this situation. Don't let her run the situation. You let her have control last time and what happened????? She was very disrespectful to you. Left you in a lurch.

NO MORE!

And, I think there is a time when E-mail is not the appropriate form of communication. What I mean is ... this is where you STOP the train and say whoa and Slow down. Tell her to pick up the phone and call you. Better yet tell her to meet with you in person and to bring the quilt to discuss. At that time you can share your concerns from the last experience and from that conversation both of you can come up with solutions that will make it all work better for the future.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this your business and you have the right to refuse customers. Don't let her control the situation. She seems to be someone that makes demands and expects people to rise to the occasion.

You stay in control with her.

I'd make her pay all of it up front.

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I usually do try to give people a couple of chances. I am going to make her prepay. AND I am going to leave myself open to refusing the quilt if it has issues. I have a mentor on another sight that has been coaching me on that.

I do think I will add a rush charge to bill if I take the quilt.... I had planned to use the time to get ready for my community sew days.

I also will not take the quilt for a Friday finish, if I don't have it by Monday. ( I'm channeling my mentor Sandy!)

Shana's right I'm going to pick up the phone and call her.

Thanks Ladies!

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Thanks, Linda. Most of it was freehand, but the large white/silver blocks are from a Circle Lord template called Sunshine (I think that's the name). I also used a portion of it in the orange blocks that suround the Harley center.

This quilt was presented to the owner of our LQS at the grand opening of his new shop Thanksgiving week in 2010. He was thrilled! This is the shop where I meet most of my customers, so I was happy to donate my quilting (36 hours) for it. The piecing was done by 2 other ladies from my Guild. It was a fun project and Steve was overwhelmed! He drives a Harley, so this was perfect.

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