Bought a pre-cut quilt kit at a local quilt shop about a year ago at the urging of the woman who runs the shop. This was going to be my second quilt.

When I originally went to their shop, I knew nothing about sewing and went to their Saturday quilting with the promise they would be happy to teach me to quilt. I did buy my fabric from them.

I had to stop going after my first quilt because of a death in the family and I was downsized from my job.

Finally had time to piece it, only to find out that when the single blocks are pieced into blocks of four, they're just enough off to cause major problems (about 1/4 inch off between all four) and I don't know that I can go back and square these up enough to make them work. It's so beyond my limited skills.

*Sigh*

This is the same shop that made fun of the colors I chose for my first quilt, then offered no help when I said I wanted to machine quilt it instead of using their long arm (which of course cost me additional money - and my quilting looked like heck. I really wanted my first quilt to be nice.)

I guess I'm just a slow learner but I will never, ever darken the doors of this LQS again. I'll be driving over to Kaufman instead.

Being a newbie and somewhat insecure, I made the mistake of trusting them.

That is so sad...I am glad it didn't discourage you from quilting..there are some people out there who are all about the $$. They need to take the customers likes into consideration..not everyone likes the same colors or ideas..that is what makes us all individuals..
Happy Stitchin' Linda B.

That's a shame and I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with them. I have been to many quilt shops in NJ and NY and the women and customers are always nice. I stay and chat for at least half hour or longer after I'm done. They help pick out fabric to start or if I bring in an almost finished quilt the help with fabric for a border. They always want to see the finished product. I would not step foot in that place again either. I'm glad you didn't let them discourage you.

Sorry they did this to you. She probably figured that since you were new to quilting that wouldn't know the difference. It's folks like that that give the LQS's a bad name.

You could post pictures here and maybe get some suggestions and help.

Is this a pattern that would allow putting strips on the 4-patches, then squaring up the blocks with the strips? Then the variance is not noticeable, unless maybe the quilt police look!
Otherwise, I would just put it together. Pressing well can help too. Believe it or not, if this is to use, most likely NO ONE will notice after it is quilted, esp. if you have not washed the fabrics first.......

I have to be honest when I say, I don't care who likes or dislikes the colors I choose. Being creative means you make the decisions. I love my bright and at times almost obscene color mixes. To quilt it makes me happy and the people I give them to. That is what quilting is for me. If you don't like what you are working with or using someone else's idea then you are not doing it for you.
Nuff said.

BTW.. you Will enjoy this group. They are supportive and give you honest feedback. It is nice to know there is support and encouragement at every turn here. Welcome!

Glad to know you are still quilting. If you haven't fixed the 4 blocks you can put maybe a 2 in border all around each one and then trim them to the same size. You won't notice the slight difference in the size of the borders when you put sashing and finish the quilt. Then you'll always have your first quilt to look back on--even if the memories are not the best. You'll know you kept at it. Welcome to this great site, I think you'll always find encouragement here if you need it.

Darn! okiepastor types faster than I do-beat me to this idea. Well at least you know it a good one. :)

Stick around here - there are lots of experts willing to share time, techniques & talents.

I have a friend who is more artistic than myself and her first quilt's colors were not even near my color preferences. But it was great when she put it together. I'm hoping you can find patterns and colors that will inspire you to continue this obsessive hobby. :lol: :lol:

Thanks... I love the idea of breaking all the rules when I quilt. Conformity was never my forte obviously. Feeling free to make your own choices based on the feeling you get from the fabrics makes all the difference for me.

You have come to the right place. Everyone here is friendly and helpful. I am so glad you did not give up on quilting after they made fun of your color choices. They just sound rude. I haven't found any rude folks here.

I feel so badly that you had that experience. Shame on them! Maybe you could put that project away while you're gaining skills and then you can get it put together.
Someone also suggested the wonderful people here who would be glad to help.
Don't give up, we're all here for you!
Sue

I agree with all. Quilts are about love and creativity...pick the colors you like! I had a quilt shop talk down to my 6yr old daughter for her choice in colors, I was horrified!!! I hope to post pics soon of that one because it's very pretty! Keep on quilting and enjoy the process.

You'll learn a lot more here...and it's a LOAD cheaper! Welcome from Kentucky!

DITTO

Are you sure that you are sewing with a 1/4 inch foot? I had that problem with some precut pieces from a quilt shop years ago - swore that they cut the pieces wrong - come to find out it was MY machine/foot.

HTH

so sorry you had such a horrible experience with your LQS...i do hope you realize that your experience with them is far and few between most quilt shops.....they must not care about keeping customer happy, or they are the only quilt store in the area, so customer service does not matter to them....i am glad where i live we have lots of quilt stores and so they all try to just as nice as pie!!!! please do not give up on quilting, it is great, there are hundreds of people willing to help you.....take care...gina

Don't let that one bad experience turn you off to quilting. There are so many people that would love to guide you along the way. That kind of treatment won't keep their doors open for long!!

This was one of my thoughts. If this is so, you go unsew the seams, iron the fabric and then resew.

There are several tutorials about how to check to see if you're sewing an accurate 1/4 inch seam. When you first sew you should've been instructed to sew a scant 1/4 inch. This is 1 or 2 threads shy of the 1/4 inch. I believe there might be a You Tube video.

You could also follow some of the other suggestions given.

Pam M

You didn't say where you lived but if you are anywhere near me I want you to just come ovr to my house and we can work on your kit together. Plus, if you need extra fabric you can go through my stash instead of trying to figure it out on your own.

Linda

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

Yes, my first thought was, "Oh no, wrong seam width," but I double checked and my 1/4" foot is right on the money.

The small blocks (168 of 'em) are one batik 3" x 5" with a black 1 1/2" strip on each side.

Then four are assembled into a block.

I'm sure I'll figure out some way to square all of the little buggers up after I stopped being aggravated!

You said Kaufman do you live in Texas, if do we may be close and maybe I can help you with blocks but please post and I know that a lot of people can help you fix this problem.

With those measurements, it should come out to 5" x 5". Check your center measurement on the top side and it should measure 2 1/2" from seam line to seam line. If it is smaller, try taking a slightly smaller seam allowance. I hope this helps.

It's so frustrating to have the start of a great project, and to have it all fall apart! My first quilt I did all the wrong things. I used stripes, which have to be perfect, flannel, which frays like crazy if you have to take it apart, and I didn't know how precise the 1/4 inch seams have to be. When the top was together, it was six inches longer on one side than the other. And it was just a small baby quilt! I took it to Hancock, and they basically said the same thing--your seams are all off, and you didn't use great fabric. Have a nice day. It was reqally frustrating. I went home, took it totally apart, redid the seams, and got it together. I ended up getting it finished in time for the birth of my first grandson. But I'm no longer a customer of theirs. Every goof is a learning experience, I guess. Hope yours gets figured out. Maybe if you take it apart and cut all the squares to a uniform size you can save it.

Color choices are personal and everyone likes different ones. I won't be going back to that LQS but ask questions here and you will learn a lot. As far as color goes, we all like different colors!

Good luck with the repairs, cant add to all the other advise.But keep on keepin on.. You will win out .We are here for you. Hope you have another,better LQS near you.If it is Kaufman Texas, Go to Country Junction in Wills Pointe,they will help you .Tell them the long lost Jo Lofland sent you.

Been there done that . Said right then I would not buy kids anymore made in the LQS

I'm so glad you are going to pursue your quilting urge. And, that you have another QS you can go to. Hoping the folks there will be nicer. Always feel comfortable with the fabrics you choose. You are the one making the quilt.

Sorry about your bad experience with the LQS. Quilting is supposed to be a fun experience so don't pay attention to negative people. Welcome to this Board, you have just found LOTS of new friends and we are all here for one another. Be sure to post your quilt when it is finished, we are looking forward to seeing it.

This is the best place to be. Being pretty new myself, I have found this board to be very encouraging. You really learn whick LQS stores are there to help and which ones just want your money. Don't give up. :)

Shoot the quilt police around here make fun of my colors all the time and like I care..............NOT! I simply say different strokes for different folk and I keep doing what I want.

I had a quilt member tell me recently that I'm not qualified to teach them how to use the Accuquilt Go because she could not understand how the machine works. She claims to have been a teacher and only those educated in teaching are qualified to teach. Yet I'm the only one in this guild that is very knowledgeable regarding die-cutting machines.

I had to chuckle when some of us met this week to sew. She was there and announced that on my advice she purchased the AccuQuilt and when it comes in she wants me to teach her and others how to use it.

My point being that as a new quilter myself and as new quilters we all have talents that others don't have even in a quilt guild so many of us do not get discouraged. We just keep plucking away until we click with someone in the group that can teach us what we need to learn regarding quilting.

I have experienced things that have been a waste of time and money but I take it as a lesson I needed to learn and I'm sure the OP will find someone in her area to help her out even if it isn't this LQS.

I agree wholeheartedly with this.

I've learned a lot on this board and still learning.

One daughter of mine hates green, loves red. I make her a quilt, I put in red. If I make me a quilt, I put in lots of green, like lime green, purple and orange. It is all in the eye of the beholder. I don't put down her choice just because mine are different.

All shops are not like this, just shop around for a quilt shop until you find one that is open and friendly and really want to help new quilters. I am with you --I would not go back either. We have two shops in our town and one bends over backwards to help the customers, the other -well the owner cannot tear herself away from her cell phone to actually wait on customers. No one would mind if she was doing an order or helping a customer, but its chit chat with friends. You can tell its that by her side of the conversations. So glad it didn't turn you off of quilting, we old timers welcome the new comers to quilting.
If you have a quilt guild in the area, you might try joining that.

Sad to hear another bad LQS experience. Most of the quilt shops I have gone to are VERY helpful. One LQS let me sit in on a class to refresh how to make quilt from a class that I had taken year ago- at no charge. If you like the fabric at that LQS then go back. Maybe the staff was having a bad day or that staff person is not longer there.

IMHO I think that the worst thing for a first time quilter to be encouraged to do is to use a kit. The best kits are well thought out and carefully cut with good directions. The worst can have slightly off pre-cuts or not quite enough fabric and the this brand new quilter has to cope with how to work this out after the fact. I've seen experienced quilters frustrated with things like that but at least they have an arsenal of tools and experience at their disposal to diagnose the underlying error or essentially throw out the original pattern and turn what is left into something else. And a person who wants to try their hand at quilting is already a creative person who will have a critical eye and want to have the final result look at least good if not perfect.

All it takes is one lap quilt with all square lines to get the basics. An all squares quilt needn't be boring. The squares can be different sizes for some variety like alternating plain and 9 patch. By starting from scratch a new quilter can see the importance of accurate initial cutting, what a 1/4" seam really is, how to match those pesky lines and at the end, the easiest machine quilting to start with is plain stitch in the ditch and straight lines are easy to follow. Now if the next project is a kit, at least a new quilter can then remember to check the sizes of the pre-cuts because they will know this is important to the final product, they will know that if the sizes are correct then the problem is somewhere else. They will also know to look at the pattern and think about seam allowances and whether they add up correctly in the block before they start to sew them together. I can not count the number of times with patterns that I've found errors like this. It often seems like the pattern drafter wanted to re-size the block and forgot to resize one of the pieces. And don't even get me started on paper piecing patterns. Except to say, that my guild, with some long time experienced quilters, held a workshop on a curved block with a "name" quilter. When the blocks were assembled, the curved lines weren't lining up unless the block was stretched a wee bit, which in quilting is a no-no. The printer paper size paper piecing pattern that was to be copied was 1/8" of an inch wrong in one dimension. How is a new quilter going to know to check everything and twice when that pretty quilt picture is so inviting?

I don't necessarily think that the LQS was being deliberately unhelpful for monetary reasons. There is the underlying assumption that if a kit is put together by someone else then it is that person's problem. If the kit was put together by the LQS, it probably wasn't done by the sales person. When you asked for help with the machine quilting, the person you spoke to probably doesn't even know how to machine quilt. Often people will be dismissive when they in fact don't know the answer. In any event I believe it is important that a sales person for something like this not hard sell the kit if she knows a person is totally new. She should first find out if you have a sewing buddy or have any basic experience and suggest that it might be better to get some experience with basics first.

This is a personal hobby horse of mine. Sorry for the long post. I hope you hang in there with quilting and have much better luck with your next quilt!

Diana

"I'll be driving over to Kaufman instead....." said by quiltergrrl

With your location in hiding, I am unsure if you are in Texas or not...but I was wondering if you would PM me and let me know what store this was. If you are in Texas, I am not that far from Kaufman, and want to avoid said store....no need in me throwing away my money at a store that would treat a customer the way you were.

I would offer to help you, but seems you have had some offers from some others already....

don't give up.....I am sure in time you will figure out what to do with all those squares.

Terrible starts mean great endings. Keep the faith. Remember that it is your quilt and you can do as you please.

Don't get discouraged. I think it is important in your first few quilts to do it all yourself. That way you learn the whole process. From choosing the fabric, choosing the pattern, cutting the fabric and sewing it together. There is a lot to learn. I took a class when I was first starting. 6 week beginning quilting. The teacher was a bit arogant but she knew her stuff and I learned alot. Find another quilt store and keep trying. This is a wonderful hobby and there are a lot of ladies on this board to help you out.