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The galaxy quilt having a few piecing errors brought to mind a recent customer. She had put something on wrong in a border. I must have thought it was a design choice or didn't notice or figured she knew but didn't want to change it. Anyway she was a little upset that I hadn't taken the quilt off when/if I noticed the error. What should we do if we notice an error. I worry about offending the client if I call up and point out something. Sometimes it is intentional to be fun or funky.

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Good morning! I find that I don't normally notice the errors until I am happily quilting on them...By then, it is too late to say oops...I had better stop! I think ignorance can be bliss sometimes, and I don't point out the mistake...

Sort of like I don't point out my piecing mistakes to others...(again, ignorance can be a good thing)

Of course, I know others will feel differently....

Take care,

Karen Burns

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If you find what you think is a piecing error, do you.........

Call the customer, unload the top and set aside until it can be fixed (perhaps an extra $30 charge for the extra time--and will the error be fixed and returned? Will you ask for partial or full payment before letting it go?)

Call the customer and stop work until a decision is made--again lost time and $$. (My quilting friends call those errors "humility blocks"--they usually point them out to me and we chuckle.)

Call and the customer says to go ahead and quilt it. But they may be embarrassed and reluctant to bring another top to you.

Sounds like a no-win to me. I guess just follow your instincts and be ready with suggestions. I've found errors before starting and the block was so isolated in the center of the top, the customer took it back and appliqued the correct color on top and sent it back to me.

It seems that after the first consultation and if the error wasn't noticed by either of you, your responsibility is just to quilt it. It sounds a little detached but we are not the quilt police and wouldn't want to embarrass a customer. For some reason, they think I am a "professional"(!) and I never critique anyone's piecing, color choices or design ideas. I wanna keep those customers happy! Just a thought.

Linda Rech

Olympia Wa

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I agree with Joann, we aren't responsible for piecing mistakes, however, if I find something that is just really really obvious and I have caught it before I start quilting I will call the customer and ask... ((By the way was this "....." suppose to be this way, it just didn't look right and I want to know before I start?))

If its a piece that was pieced in with the wrong side up, I don't bother....I've been told in some cultures that a piece upside down brings good luck to the quilt and the receiver....so those kinds I just move on, but if a block was turned wrong or upside down I do ask.

When you are so close to it sometimes we don't see our mistakes. Remember several months ago one of us had a quilt that they were asking what designs or type of quilting they needed done. That quilter didn't even notice that one of the blocks was in wrong until several of us mentioned it....so its not just the piercer we as quilters don't always see something either even if its on our design walls. So its nice I think to at least mention it...and if its not a big deal then its not a big deal, and you go on.

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My grandmother inspired my desire to make quilts. She told me once that I shouldn't worry if I make a mistake in peicing and don't see it till it's too late. She told me "Only God can make something perfect.". Then she told me that she always made sure that there was one "mistake" in all her quilts, even if it was something only she would spot. The quilt she made for me was a handpeiced DWR. It was beautiful! The centers of the blocks and melons were all pink and the rings were all feedsacks she still had left! The "mistake" on mine was pretty glaring so I know she remembered that she'd taught me about this. There was one moon, in one corner that was blue! All the rest were pink, and with the scalloped border it was right on the corner where it could not be missed. My Mudder made sure I can never forget that lesson, and it's been at great comfort! Was she cool or what? ;)

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I think that if the quilt is already on the machine and we are already quilting on it then it is just too late.................like another poster said if we remove it we are out lots of time and time is money.

If I find something ahead of time yes I will let them know and ask what to do. I would even offer to fix it myself for an additional charge........................and I have done so.

This is a tough question and I think each circumstance is different.

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I'm taking a little break from a quilt right now that has now obvious mistakes, but.....it is very intricately pieced with a lot of bias going on. I could tell there was extra puffy-ness here and there when I put it on, but now that I'm half-way in I see it's a lot worse than I thought. The whole centre section of the quilt is really quite a balloon! Luckily she wanted the background all small-meandered so I'm trying my best to flatten it without taking puckers. The quilting on the motifs is something she requested and it is not working out at all to hide the problem. I really know I could have done another quilting technique to make it better, but too late now.

I find with the quilters that are new to going to a longarm-er and have always hand-quilted, they can't see that techniques they would normally use are not always what is best done on the longarm (do I make sense?).

A lot of times I try to gently steer them in a better direction, but some know exactly what they want so I guess you just have to bite your lip and comply :o

Oh well, back to it...want to get it done today!!!

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I have had this happen a couple of times, that I didn't notice until I was quilting it. If the client didn't notice it either then I don't mention it as it's too late to fix anyway. If I notice prior to putting on the machine I will check with the customer or if I happen to see before that area is quilted I will call the customer and see if they want me to fix it for a fee. If the block just needs to be turned, then I'm an expert at taking out a block and re sticthing by hand :D don't ask me why:mad:

Hester

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Oh, woe is me!!!!

I mentioned earlier about a quilt I was having problems with.....boy, what a lesson I've learned!!! I think now that I should have called the customer when I realized there was a problem. I was well into the quilt when I realized it so I just figured carry on and make the best of it that I could. I was glad she wanted meandering in the background because that meant I could manipulate the excess fabric easier. I told her when she picked it up that I had problems but I tried to handle it the best I could without taking pleats.

Well, she just called...she felt awful but had to tell me how bad she thought the quilt was. She said, " I know your work is good but on hers it looked like I didn't even stretch the quilt out." I had to tell her tactfully that it was the piecing....my machine does stretch the quilts out nice and flat...but also pointed out that if she looks she would see that the perimeter is nice and flat but just the middle is a mess...which would show that I stretched it out but it will only stretch as much as the outside of the quilt will allow, right? I told her she didn't have to pay for it if she wasn't happy ( which kind of hurts, since it was a piecing problem, plus I could use the money ). She was saying how she'd have to pick it all out and I said I'd do it...wow, I wish I hadn't said that I would since I'm so under the gun for an upcoming quilt show. She said she wouldn't want it in the quilt show since it would show me in a bad light (meanwhile, I totally agree!!!).

I feel sick about this. I will really inspect quilts for flatness in the future. But, what would you all do if you hadn't noticed til well into the quilt. I really should have stopped right there and called her. While working on it I figured it was about the worse I'd ever seen...but how do you explain to a customer that it is all in the piecing and the longarm machine and LA-er can't make it all magically disappear? And...should I have offered to frog it? I wish I could take back the offer to un-pick, but I won't.

Sorry for the length of this but I had to unload!!! Thanks for listening, and please, give me some input...or some of your own horror stories so I don't feel so bad!!!

Sandra :(:(

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Sandra,

Digital cameras are a great longarm tool. I did have a center generous quilt I was working on and I too decided to keep going as I thought I really could quilt it out. But I did take a few photos to illustrate the issue. I just kept it for my use if the piecer had a problem with the quilting. I never did show her the photo. But I had it in case.

Thanks all of you, I have decided not to worry about the border since I really must not have noticed it when I quilted it. On the up side that gal has just given me another top to quilt so I guess I was making too much of her comments anyway.

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Did a log cabin quilt once for a member of my quilt group. It was for a grandaughter, I gave it back to the quilter, she bound it, wrapped it and put it under her Christmas tree.

Two weeks later I brought my book of pictures of quilts we had quilted, for ideas for our group. One of the ladies looked at this log cabin picture and noticed the the entire left column of blocks was turned wrong. We hadn't noticed it when we pantographed it, hadn't nonticed it when we laid it out on my bed and took a picture of it, hadn't noticed it when we brought it back to show and tell and 10 of us quilters oohed and ahhed over it.

Well, the owner of the quilt took it out from under the tree, unbound the entire lefthand side of the quilt, picked out all of our pantograph stitching on the column that needed to be turned, added fabric to the back so we had something to clamp on to so we could requilt it, and gave it back to us.

We put the quilt back on our machine, lined up the pantographing and restitched the column of blocks. Brought the quilt back to her and was just about to hand her the bill for our work - which by the way was harder to do than it was in the first place when we did the whole quilt. She quietly handed me $10 as if she was giving me a tip and I was to appreciate it.

I didn't hand her the bill!!!!! I guess I'm saying - even with friends - make sure there's an understanding of how much it will cost to "re-do" before you just throw it on the machine. What a nightmare that ended up to be. BUT - we still have a wonderful quilting relationship and didn't make an enemy and she still brings quilts to us which she happily pays full price for.

Great learning experience.

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I just had to remount an already bound quilt that I did for a customer and add the quilting to the one block I forgot to do! That of course was on my time and dime. This whole problem illustrates how piecers are still making the wrong choices when they put on their borders. In this case, the borders are probably too short. Someone on this forum spent a lot of time and pictures explaining how to steam out such fullness problems when it was a case of too big borders. I wonder if the same might work for a too full center. If the problem is stretched bias , it should work.

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I have had mixed results letting people know of things I found while quilting.

One lady used a bias inner border... thus her outter border looked like a ruff ocean.

I have found seams that werent caught... If I wasnt quilting near I tried to pull a little fabric up and pin it with a safety pin so they could applique the seam down...

Any how I panic. I always seem to feel like its my fault.... and feel bad talking to them about it.....

MY Current problem has been three quilts in a row that the backing was to small... two were to short, one was too narrow. Both the ones that were to short, they just had me add a strip at the top... since there were just barely to short we didnt want an inch of unmatching fabric.... so we went with like 4-6" to make it look planned that way. and the one that was to narrow she had it mailed back so she could fix it..... and its on the way back.........

Linda Susie

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I positively would never correct a customer, personally I think a mistake here or there makes the quilt unique and sometimes when were piecing, we don't notice it until later. Gives them personality, and keeps them positively unique.

I work at a quilt shop and recently someone stold a quilt -- everyone is flabbergasted, its a disgrace. But had that quilt had an error in it maybe it could help prove it was yours. Especially if it was a kit of many similiar. It's totally shameful that someone lost a quilt like that -- I can't imagine someone NOT HAVE TO MAKE THEIR OWN.

Mumm is the word, just keep on quilting.. enjoy everyone style

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I think when a customers hands over a quilttop, and you have checked it before, a large error would appear then, wouldn't it? And if the customer had not mentioned it, then it is not the responsibility of the Long Arm quilter. But that is my opinion.

If I mount a quilt up the machine, and notice something very strange, I sometimes call the customer anyway, but if things seem only different, for special appearance, I leave it that way.

Sylvia Kaptein

Sylka-Mode

www.sylkamode.com

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It's such a dilemma when we see something in a quilt that really could be "fixed". I'm learning to be more discreet. It goes against my character not to tell them something I've noticed, it seems sneaky or dishonest somehow, but since I have had mixed results telling customers about their little boo-boos I'm more careful about sharing all I know.

Somehow it takes the joy out of their project to tell them they have more work to do, or that their quilt will be less than it could be if something isn't changed. I LOVE unique and quirky quilts, but wobbly, wavy borders and obvious construction errors can be a real pain to deal with and I'd like to help quiltmakers do better on their next quilt without discouraging them.

If you've figured out a diplomatic way of handling this, PLEASE share it with us!

Last year I helped a young friend through her senior project of making her first quilt, a queen sized log cabin, and then having a small quilt show of log cabin quilts. The whole thing was a delight and a wonderful success. However, her picture with the quilt showed up in the local paper where she noticed, (and it had to be pointed out to me :D ) that an entire row of blocks had been pieced in - then loaded and quilted - UPSIDED DOWN. What a great lesson that was for her. Everyone loved her quilt, her project received the highest passing grade, we even sold tickets for another log cabin quilt that had been made as a fundraiser for Habitat For Humanity ~~ the winning ticket was drawn from a ticket sold at her little show! What's a few quirky blocks compared to the overall experience? One I'm sure she'll never forget!

Keep a good spirit. ~~ Eva H.

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Ok looks like I cannot attach the photo and I do not want to download it to my webshots as the customer would likely not be happy to see that as an example.

I think that having the customer not pay for the quilting would have been enough. To offer to unpick it for her when she is going to discover the problem for herself once all the stitching has been unpicked anyway. Now that you made the offer I guess you are commited. I just hope that it is not densly quilted. I have become quite good at unpicking but it is still a very time consuming thing to do. Fortunatly I have never had to unpick and entire quilt.

As for the customer who handed the $10 bill over...............nope I would have explained it to her. It was her mistake not yours! What would your garage do if you took the car in for something and they did the work and you found something else wrong and brought it back.....................yep you get another bill. I usually have the bill out in plain sight. They know it is there and will look at it once they have looked at their quilt.

These are all hard choices and sometimes we make choices where we want to kick ourselves for later. I think it boils down to preplanning. For instance if you take in work (or rework) talk price before you begin! That will avoid that awkward situation later like the $10.

Ok so the quilt with the wavey border.........................it got an allover loose meander. The borders got a much tighter meander and also took more time and thread and she sent it to me because I was having a sale. Yep the customer piecing can really cause alot of problems. I did let the customer know why the borders had much denser quilting. I think it important to check things (if possible) especially for flatness before we begin. Once we are half done quilting and discover something it gets really hard to know how to handle it. That is why I love this forum as there are so many options and opinions given.

Well for those of you that have shared guess it is a lesson learned and you just have to go forward and rack it up to a learning experience.

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Thanks for all your comments!!! You guys are great! I feel a little better today...plus am taking this as a big lesson learned. I really must spend more time checking a quilt over completely before I start and if there are any doubts, I won't attempt it!!! I wish I hadn't offered to un-pick but I'll do it since I offered.

Have a great spring day :)

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Sue, There have been a few times when I've noticed pieceing errors when writing up the work order. If I do, I mention it then. The client has on both occations, taken the quilt back and fixed it and thanked me. The one, I honestly did not notice at all, until I saw it in the photo. Not sure what I would have done if it had been half quilted. Thats a tough one. Maybe call her, then apply a pita fee if she wanted me to remove it so she could fix it.

.

Going to read the rest of this thread, for some reason my spam blocker has been moving my APQS messages. grrrr..

take care

Pat B

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There are so many good suggestions on this thread. Mostly, I"m glad to see the general concensus that we don't tell the piecer when its too late to fix the mistakes. I wholly agree tho, that if the mistake is caught before the quilting is started that a phone call would be appropriate ' Hi, I was just about to load your quilt and noticed this. I was wondering if it was intentional?" Thats all... good suggestion!

take care.

Pat B - NJ

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On telling your customer that you'd un-pick her quilt.....Then I'd add...."as soon as the Christmas holidays are over"....she won't want to wait THAT

long and want to take it home and do it herself....If she thought she'd have to wait 6 - 8 mos for the quilt, I doubt she'd hold you to the un-sewing....lol ML in Mo.

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