Thursday, July 26, 2018

Behind the scenes


I’ve been reading a lot lately about quilting for others and some of the things that happened to other long arm quilters truly scare the crap out of me.  One incident, after the quilting was done, was that the quilter claimed that the backing on the quilt was not hers and refused to pay.  So everyone suggests taking photos of the quilter, her top and the backing when the quilt is delivered…… this makes me feel as I am treating someone who would pay for my services as a criminal but the truth is one should really think about who you can trust nowadays.  On the other hand you received quilts that is not properly measured with wavy borders and sides differing with more than an inch and is expected to solve it all on the frame…. Simply impossible.  Another thing quilt top makers seem to believe is that they give you a quilt, you pop it onto the frame and the quilt motifs magically appears without any strategy, planning and sometimes heaps of photos and/or sketching.  Sorry, not true. Even I, as a beginner, sketch out different motifs and placement possibilities, the photo here is but the start of one such a quilt. 


Once you have an outline plan of what goes where, you need to decide on a thread path to prevent you from constantly breaking thread, this path should prevent massive thread build up in some areas on the back but even this is sometimes impossible. I’ve been fortunate up to now with only quilting for people I know or know of and were mostly allowed to do my own thing but I should keep the lessons learnt through others in mind.

The last and even scarier experience some had was that quilters pick up their completed quilts and then promise an EFT payment which never happens.  How do you live with yourself?  So the lesson to learn is not to have a quilt leave your house unless paid for.

I was able to pull two completed quilts off the frame this week.  This one was a medallion.


Then if finished a One Block Wonder or I guess Stack and Whack with the set in triangles.  


The border designs


And the back


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