Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Summer Fish

Summer Fish, from the Strip Staccato Pattern in Judy Hopkins Triangle-Free Quilts.

I had planned to enter this into the local fair, with hopes (yes hope, not faith) that it might actually move on to the state fair. I spent a lot of time on it, egtting everything squared up perfectly, ran out of fabric at one point, so had to incorporate a new print. Spent more time picking out just the right design for quilting and thread colour from the quilters abundance of neutrals and faint colours. The quilter who I've used before with great success, had it for 4 months.





Putting the binding on.



My first label.

This how it came back :( the circles / bubbles are all misshapen, the fish (which I drew from memory to be like the pepperidge farm goldfish crackers) are also mishaped, lopsided etc. A friend of mine (the boys godmother) who has been quilting for a couple of decades determined that the needle must have been dull. The tension is completely off, the needle as actually torn the backing fabric. The backstitching which my friend deemed completely unneccesary has been placed in the worst spots (on the bright white fabric instead of one of the darker ones.)

She and the other ladies at the quilting group I was at were all saying that I should really take it back to er point out the horrible things and basically see if she at the very least had the decency to refund my money.

How would you say this without being completely rude?

I discovered last night while trying to machine quilt the red & aqua table runner that the fabric really is horrible. The tension problems and ripping occured on my machine as well, even with a brand new needle. So now I'm really left with a quandry. The shaping & backstitching are definitely problems with the quilter, but the fabric is directly at fault for the tension & ripping.

Would you rip the whole thing apart & request a replacement backing & refund on quilting?
















5 comments:

  1. I have to tell you Mel, that I'm totally an unskilled eye at quilt critique...but that my dear is an AWFUL job. Even I could do better on my own machine, and I'm a beginner! How tragic that you've put all of this work into such a beautiful quilt and it has been returned in this condition.

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  2. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I love this quilt. The picture I know just doesn't do it justice. So glad you are having your Halloween Party ~ regardless of where you live. Happy Halloween.

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  3. I wouldn't worry about not being rude! She destroyed your creation! All your hard work! I would say in in a nice tone - but I think that's the best you can do.

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  4. Holy Moly, you do have a problem, tell her just what you told us, I know the fabric catches, but I wish you would have called me, I cannot use this quilt in this condition. What can we do to work this out together. Please let us know what happens. That way you are not rude at all, you have a problem and hope she can help.

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  5. I reckon Jane's spot on - definitely needs a discussion though - you wouldn't want her to think you're happy with this job.

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