Dilemma - suggestions?
Hello, I"m looking for some suggestions...
The situation - three of us meet regularly to sew together, always at one person's (A) house, because she prefers/needs us to come there. We take turns providing lunch for us and her husband (he's a nice guy)...
A started quilting about five years ago. During one of our sewing days I (foolishly in hindsight) offered to quilt a large quilt for her, for free - I have a small longarm and do a small amount of quilting for others at a very reasonable rate, more to learn and for the experience, but it also is my quilting spending money.
So, I did the large quilt for her, not charging except a minimal amount for batting as I had offered to quilt for her.
Subsequent to that she has assumed I will do all her quilts for free. To be fair, mostly she usually does smaller (lap/baby quilts) that she quilts herself, however, whenever she starts a larger one she is open about expecting me to quilt it for her. If I try to get out of it nicely by saying I'm not sure when I can get to it,or that I'll be able to do it, she always answers that "there's no rush, I can wait".
The last large one I did (#2) had so many wavy borders and wonky seams - I actually gave her a bit of a talking to about preparing her quilt better... she took it well, and even joked about it to a different friend when I complimented that friend about how nicely her quilt laid for quilting....
This last one I just finished, (84" x 98" )actually had several places where the fabric selvedge was the protruding into the block piece, and one place where the fabric was not caught at all in the seam... that I didn't see until I was stitching alongside it so she is going to have to put an applique or something over it.....
My dilemma - I don't want to quilt these quilts anymore for free, (or at all but I don't think I can get out of it).....
I've hinted that I don't want to do them, but she just talks over me/it and the next week or two will start talking about the next one in line...
I've also tried not going to the sewing days, but that doesn't help, we see each other in the community and have many friends in common..
Suggestions?