Help! I need to fix a customer's oversight!

[sewidahoquilts]

I am quilting a quilt for a customer. She isn\'t the world\'s best seamstress, but this quilt is obviously a special work of art for her, she\'s entered it in our local quilt show. It\'s nice if you don\'t look too close at her piecing. Anyway, she missed a portion of a seam inside one of the blocks. Hard to explain. I missed catching the seaming error until too late to take it off, not sure I could have fixed it without tearing the block apart and resewing. Anyway, to make the story short, it looks like I can recut a piece to fit into the area and "fix" her faux-pas. My question is, can I stitch very very closly around the outside area kind of like an applique or will it be better to slip the seam allowance under the surrounding pieces and stitch them down. I will try to include a photo, I haven\'t don that before, so bear with me. I can try both methods, but it would save me time if one of you experienced quilters could make some suggestions. Thanks I sure enjoy my few minutes a day to read posts and learn from all of your experiences.

[MarieBrewer]

Why do you have to fix her mistake? I think she should do it so if it\'s not what she wants, it\'s her problem. She needs to see her mistake and learn from it. If you fix it, you will enable her to feel someone else will fix her quilting problems.

[sewidahoquilts]

Oh my, I guess I could return it to her unfinished, but it seems more professional to return it in as good a condition as I am able to . . . it never occurred to me to not fix it! If I sent something to a "professional" to finish I think I\'d be disappointed if it came back as it is now, or even as it it but stippled like the surrounding pieces. She won\'t be able to enter it in the Quilt Show as it is . . . Am I wrong?

[Bonnie]

Dixie....you don\'t have to send it back...there really is a way to fix this....

first you need to get a bit of iron on interfacing...I use a brand called Pellon...it has a plan side and a nubby side. First you need to wiggle a piece into the seam so it covers the area with the nubbies up.. then you iron it down...I would then take either a product call Bo-Nash 007 Bonding powder and sprinkle over the ouch and work it into just the area that is ravelling and iron that down. It will seal the seam so that it can be finished...it will leave a shiny spot where the iron on powder melts down into the fabrics, but it does great job.

OR you can fix it with putting the Pellon inside the seam and take a applique stitch and fix the ouch that way. After you fix it with the Applique stitch you can lay a bead of Fray Check on it and that will also help it from coming further apart...and will last in the wash.

Good luck...I do agree I would want to fix this... I use to fix customer quilts ALL THE TIME, yes it took a bit longer to do, but I knew that with the extra service I would have a return customer.... No she won\'t want to show it in a Quilt show, but she will have a fixed quilt to enjoy for a long time.... and she will learn to be a bit more careful in the furture.

[hollyc]

I "rescue" a lot of old 30\'s quilts and they often have bits of seams that are a bit frayed or thinking about it. I would use the matching background thread, and make a couple (1-2)of parallel rows. There is no way now to fix with it already stitched. You could do one row (like SID) and reommend that she use a small amount of fraycheck to prevent furth raveling. The fray check should not show on the cream. There is no way to make it perfect when the process is this far along. It will not affect the usefulness of the quilt and will be minimally noticeable.