Originally Posted by
feline fanatic
3. She could not give you a price up front?!?! STRIKE THREE!! Do not use this LAQ again! There are waaaaaay too many really good, honest reputable LAQ out there that you can send your quilts to that WILL give you an up front price for custom quilting (different design in every block) and stick to it even if they put more work into it than quoted (I have done this myself!). There are also LAQ that you can say I want quilting in the .02 per s/i price range, show me samples of what you can do in that price range and they can and will so you won't have a surprise bill to pay.
The comments of the ladies in your guild is subjective. In THEIR opinion it was not specialized. Actually any quilting that is not an all over panto-graph or end to end repetitive design (like an all over meander, cross hatch, baptist fan or any other number of design repeated over the entire quilt with no regard to the piecing) is considered custom quilting. The quilting was customized to that specific quilt. Even if it was just SID that outlines your piecing or different stencils designs in each block, it would be considered custom. There are varying degrees of custom. I have no idea what their idea of "specialized" is unless they are thinking of Trapunto or some other labor intensive technique.
I agree with Feline! You should have a very good idea of what your final cost will be when you first bring your quilt in to the shop. With my customers, the first part of the process is to measure the quilt. Then based on the size, we can see what the budget is, and know whether we will be doing custom or edge to edge on the quilt. For a custom treatment, I let my customers choose from thousands of designs on my computer, and plan every section (including those sashes!). She also decides whether she would like stitch in the ditch around every section, because that changes the price. No one ever leaves without knowing exactly what the price will be, what color thread(s) will be used, and when it will be finished.