Originally Posted by dunster

I'm getting ready to start a longarming business, having been quilting for myself and friends for years, so this discussion is helpful to me.

The longarmers that I've known have developed working relationships with most of their customers. They know if the customer is a new quilter and offer encouragement, along with tips on how to avoid problems in the future. They also know that the quilts from some customers will always have wavy borders, or be poorly pressed, and that previous advice has not solved the problem, so they do the best job they can, just as the customer did her best. Almost all longarmers are quilters too, so they do understand that few quilt tops reach perfection, and they do their best to correct any problems that can be corrected with the quilting.

However these days it seems that many quilts are sent by mail to longarmers who may live in different parts of the country and who have never met their clients. The personal relationship can still be developed over time, but it's not as easy to give a quilt back to a customer to fix if it needs to be mailed both ways. Also it's harder to judge whether a customer would be offended by being asked (in the nicest possible way) whether they want to fix their wavy borders, or instructed in how to do so in the future. I do think the longarmer needs to notify the customer if she doesn't think she can achieve a good result with the quilt. I don't think she should undertake repair without permission.

When I start to work on a quilt top, I do examine the top and back in some ways. I measure all 4 sides, look at the pressing, look for open seams or loose threads, etc. These are just things that affect my ability to complete the quilting. This discussion has made it clear that it would also be a good idea to look at the top as a whole, trying to spot errors in orientation of the blocks, or fabrics clearly wrong side up, etc. While I don't really think this is the longarmer's primary responsibility, it is something that would benefit the customer. However, even if I try to spot construction errors of this type, it is possible that I would overlook them, just as the piecer did, especially in a complicated piece where small mistakes are not as obvious, and probably not as important.