Photo Quilt

[JAB]

A friend of mine, who is always running late and behind , asked me to quilt a couple of photo quilts for her a few weeks ago. She has been saying to me daily, "I really need to get those quilts to you." She called me up today and needs one of them THURSDAY. :mad:

She dropped it off this morning while I was at the grocery store, she hasn\'t transferred the pictures yet onto the quilt. There are just large areas of white fabric waiting for the transfer. I called her up and asked her why she hadn\'t put the pictures on the fabric yet and she said she will do it after I do the quilting. She wants me to leave the white area unquilted obviously, have any of you ever done this before and will it turn out well? The area that the photos are going to go on are about 11 x 11 and I told her that is too much area to leave unquilted. She claims she has done it before.

I\'m pissed because I had just loaded a backing for another quilt yesterday and now I have to take it off so I can quilt her quilt. I know I don\'t HAVE to, I could have told her no but I didn\'t. I\'m mad at myself.

[Melora]

I am stumped. I have done several photo quilts am now very curious how she is going to get those white spaces through her computer. When you find out would you please post how she did it?

Thanks,

Melora

[Bonnie]

Originally posted by JAB

She wants me to leave the white area unquilted obviously, have any of you ever done this before and will it turn out well? The area that the photos are going to go on are about 11 x 11 and I told her that is too much area to leave unquilted. She claims she has done it before.

First off I wouldn\'t be so mad at myself as at her....she is just taking advantage of your friendship and that is just so wrong.

Secondly, I\'m with you. An eleven inch square is way to big to be left unquilted. Even with a batting that say it can go out 10 inches without quilting....they still shrink up and bunch badly.

Regardless of if she has done it before or not....the turn out could be a huge train wreck. They will look great until the first washing, and I\'m wondering if she has ever washed a quilt before giving it as a gift...if not she doesn\'t know what an 11 inch area will do...which is to bunch up really bad and may even cause the photos to lift up and peel after awhile. ALL of the transfer products react differently...some peel right away (ask me how I figured that one out) and some peel after a washing or two. Transfer products to be totally successful have to be heated to a much higher temp than a domestic iron can do...it must melt the product into the fabrics to adhere 100%. This is why they don\'t peel off T-Shirts because the flat irons that they are put on are so hot.

I wish you luck, but I dont\' feel its fair for her to take advantage of you like this....regardless of the warnings each time she saw you...

[Mary Beth]

This sounds just like something I would get myself into! And like you, I would be mad at myself and at her...and I probably wouldn\'t do a very good job on the quilt because I wouldn\'t want to - but that\'s just me.

Sorry you are backed into the corner like this. You could just tell her that is can\'t happen by Thursday...what is that saying about "Your lack of planning does not make your problem an emergency for me"....okay, I paraphrased...but you know what I mean.

[Hollyrw]

Originally posted by Melora

I am stumped. I have done several photo quilts am now very curious how she is going to get those white spaces through her computer. When you find out would you please post how she did it?

Thanks,

Melora

She\'s probably using the iron-on transfer method.

[JAB]

The problem is moot now, the backing was only 1 inch bigger than the quilt top.

When I called her and told her she was like "Are you sure that isn\'t big enough. I took a quilt class once that said that was enough". I\'m going to copy what was said about the photo "peeling" off and the large unquilted space and email it to her. LOL

I did tell her that I can\'t promise it now for thursday. I am making homemade enchiladas (with homemade sauce), spanish rice and sweet corn cakes for dinner tonight. I got all the recipes off Allrecipes.com and it looks VERY involved so that knocks out quilting on the other quilt tonight. I\'m not a night time quilter, I make mistakes when I get tired. I\'ll be damned if I\'m going to work my butt off because she is a last minute type person. If I had gotten myself into the mess by procrastinating I would, but I\'m not going to let someone else do it. I am so mad at myself, I didn\'t measure the top and back before I took off the backing of the other quilt I had loaded. I most likely would almost be done with the first quilt by now. :mad:

I guess it takes something like this to make you stand firm and not bend over backwards for people, give \'em and inch and they take a mile.

If the recipes turn out well I\'ll post em.

[JAB]

Originally posted by Hollyrw

Originally posted by Melora

I am stumped. I have done several photo quilts am now very curious how she is going to get those white spaces through her computer. When you find out would you please post how she did it?

Thanks,

Melora

She\'s probably using the iron-on transfer method.

Yes she was going to do the iron-on transfer method.

[mrsbishwit]

You need to start saying NO.

I had to do that this morning, one of my very good cutomer came by to drop off a quilt. When I decided to no longer do custom quilting I told her that as of 1/1/08 I would no longer do this type of quilting and that I would only do ETE only no seperate borders etc...

She showed up this morning wanting me to do a custom for her. I stood my ground and told her no, then suggested that if she wanted custom that she was going to have to locate a longarmer that would be willing to do so (there are so many out here that only do custom any ways). She understood, she said that she will still bring me her ETE quilts in the future. If she doesn\'t however that will be ok too...after all she is only 1 of many of my customer base and I need to make sure the majority of my base is happy and that means keeping my turn around times to 4 weeks or under and my prices at a reasonable rate.

I would have your friend/ customer come by and pick up the quilt and tell her that you already had a quilt started and that you won\'t be able to have her quilt done in time for her Thursday deadline.

[JAB]

Originally posted by mrsbishwit

You need to start saying NO.

I had to do that this morning, one of my very good cutomer came by to drop off a quilt. When I decided to no longer do custom quilting I told her that as of 1/1/08 I would no longer do this type of quilting and that I would only do ETE only no seperate borders etc...

She showed up this morning wanting me to do a custom for her. I stood my ground and told her no, then suggested that if she wanted custom that she was going to have to locate a longarmer that would be willing to do so (there are so many out here that only do custom any ways). She understood, she said that she will still bring me her ETE quilts in the future. If she doesn\'t however that will be ok too...after all she is only 1 of many of my customer base and I need to make sure the majority of my base is happy and that means keeping my turn around times to 4 weeks or under and my prices at a reasonable rate.

I would have your friend/ customer come by and pick up the quilt and tell her that you already had a quilt started and that you won\'t be able to have her quilt done in time for her Thursday deadline.

I already screwed up and told her I would take the other quilt off the machine (which I did this morning) BEFORE I measured the top and backing for her quilt. After I found out the backing was only 1 inch larger (in both directions) I told her I couldn\'t do it with that backing and I loaded the other quilt again.

She then said that she would get another backing and bring it by tonight after work and I said I couldn\'t promise it by thursday. She wouldn\'t be able to take a quilt to a "real quilter" and expect a two day turn around. :mad: The quilters I know in the area are WEEKS out and I told her that. I told her I would try to get it done (I know, I\'m a sucker) but that I couldn\'t promise. She wont be a real "repeat" customer as she is a friend (I was going to charge her though) and doesn\'t really do quilting. She is more of a seamstress than a quilter.

[Bonnie]

Julie...if you need I can post a photo of what a Ironed on item looks like after its washed that wasn\'t adhered correctly....It looked great when it was done...and lasted until the first washing....it was NO way as big as 11 inches...it was only about 5....

[Mary Beth]

Can we come over for dinner

[JAB]

Originally posted by Bonnie

Julie...if you need I can post a photo of what a Ironed on item looks like after its washed that wasn\'t adhered correctly....It looked great when it was done...and lasted until the first washing....it was NO way as big as 11 inches...it was only about 5....

Yeah I would like to see that. Thanks!

[JAB]

Originally posted by Mary Beth

Can we come over for dinner

Sure....

[JAB]

I am saved again, she is just going to SID on her domestic sewing machine. She doesn\'t want to buy more fabric. It is out of my hands now.

I asked her when she needed the quilt to be totally finished....she said THURSDAY. I asked her how was she going to get it totally finished by thursday (she works) and get the binding on it too?!? She said she will be staying up all night to finish it.

I just can\'t work like that.

[ramona-quilter]

Julie,

This whole thing started off with:

.... asked me to quilt a couple of photo quilts for her a few weeks ago. She has been saying to me daily, "I really need to get those quilts to you."

How did a few weeks ago turn into an expectation for you to drop everything and miracle quilt this for her? :mad: :mad:

She then said that she would get another backing and bring it by tonight after work and I said I couldn\'t promise it by thursday. She wouldn\'t be able to take a quilt to a "real quilter" and expect a two day turn around.

We all have these PITA customers and besides, you know what. You ARE a real quilter. Welcome to the club. We\'re having jackets made.

And I love sweet corn cakes. Can you set another place at the table for me.

[JAB]

Originally posted by ramona-quilter

Julie,

This whole thing started off with:

.... asked me to quilt a couple of photo quilts for her a few weeks ago. She has been saying to me daily, "I really need to get those quilts to you."

How did a few weeks ago turn into an expectation for you to drop everything and miracle quilt this for her? :mad: :mad:

She then said that she would get another backing and bring it by tonight after work and I said I couldn\'t promise it by thursday. She wouldn\'t be able to take a quilt to a "real quilter" and expect a two day turn around.

We all have these PITA customers and besides, you know what. You ARE a real quilter. Welcome to the club. We\'re having jackets made.

And I love sweet corn cakes. Can you set another place at the table for me.

I know I know, I am a real quilter...it\'s just so hard to say out loud. Compared to you guys I feel like a baby just starting out.

You would have to know my friend, she does a million things and is always down to the wire. It\'s crazy and I refuse to live that way. Besides, stress physically wears on me. I have an auto immune disease (Takayasu\'s Arteritis) and I can physically feel a difference when I get stressed.

Oh yeah she also tends to rely on friends A LOT. In fact, I picked up her daughter from school today (I do it once or twice a week). She has another friend of mine take her daughter to her practice for cheerleading/tumbling twice a week. She delegates a lot, something I just can\'t do. It\'s not my style.

[jmyhogan]

Originally posted by JAB

I am making homemade enchiladas (with homemade sauce), spanish rice and sweet corn cakes for dinner tonight.

What time is dinner?

[Bonnie]

Julie...the dark blue outline and the star and flaggie thing were pre-printed onto a quilt label.

I took an expensive high quality transfer product made for inkjet printers and printed it out. Ironed it on and it was so pretty....this is after 2 washings of this quilt. I was very sad.

I need to put on a new label and reword it a bit....but I still do feel that we will be successful in the Mission...And I do still support our troops in whatever they need to do to get the job done.

[ramona-quilter]

Hey Julie, we are not all the rock star quilters that you think we are....well, except for Mary Beth, of course. The rest of us eat our sweet corn cakes one at a time.

I know she\'s your friend and she obviously has some wonderful qualities that we can\'t see from where we are. You have to do what you are comfortable with. And hooray for you for giving her the stop sign before she delegated her quilting to you. It is not easy to manage our time. We know how wonderful our machines are and so do some others. If we are not careful, they can put their lack of planning in our studio and create that stress that makes us all crazy. Hang in there.

[judysmith]

Julie, unfortunately we all have friends who are very good at managing their affairs by using or as we politely say, \'delegating\' others!

Look after your health and have a wonderful day cooking.

Real friends understand.

[JAB]

Ok I am NOT posting the recipes. It took me friggen FOREVER to make this whole dinner. If you like to quilt and have a hard enough time getting laundry done then this recipe is NOT for you.

My husband and son (who just came back from his first year away at college and got a 3.683 GPA ) loved it, my middle daughter (14) said, "Ewww it looks like barf" and my youngest daughter (9) took one bite and said, "I think I\'m going to take a shower and go to bed".

After all that work I had lost my appetite and only an hour earlier I thought I would faint from hunger. I did eat quite a lot of the guacamole though, it was delicious if I do say so myself.

If someone actually does want the recipe (it was very good) I will post it but don\'t blame me if you spend all your time in the kitchen. The sweet corn cake was so YUMMA!

[JAB]

Originally posted by Bonnie

Julie...the dark blue outline and the star and flaggie thing were pre-printed onto a quilt label.

I took an expensive high quality transfer product made for inkjet printers and printed it out. Ironed it on and it was so pretty....this is after 2 washings of this quilt. I was very sad.

I need to put on a new label and reword it a bit....but I still do feel that we will be successful in the Mission...And I do still support our troops in whatever they need to do to get the job done.

I support the troops as well. Thanks for posting the picture, if she says anything else about it I\'m going to copy your picture and email it to her.

[JAB]

Originally posted by jmyhogan

What time is dinner?

It was late tonight (almost 8:00) Jim and you missed it.

[JAB]

Originally posted by ramona-quilter

Hey Julie, we are not all the rock star quilters that you think we are....well, except for Mary Beth, of course. The rest of us eat our sweet corn cakes one at a time.

I know she\'s your friend and she obviously has some wonderful qualities that we can\'t see from where we are. You have to do what you are comfortable with. And hooray for you for giving her the stop sign before she delegated her quilting to you. It is not easy to manage our time. We know how wonderful our machines are and so do some others. If we are not careful, they can put their lack of planning in our studio and create that stress that makes us all crazy. Hang in there.

You hush now, I\'ve seen your work. I\'m the quilt stalker.

[quiltmonkey]

I want those recipes. I like hanging out in the kitchen making a mess of things. My DH likes to eat on new recipes, too. He\'s pretty brave, I think!

And some day your girls will really appreciate your home cooked meal. They\'re at that "age" when everything is "not so cool" and I think your younger daughter is mimicking your 14 year old. LOL! Oh goodness you are having some fun, Julie with those girls of yours!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry your "friend" wobbled back and forth with that silly old quilt top. Sorry, but I seem to think she\'s a dork. LOL!