YC Quilter

Am I wrong, or too fussy? I finally started to put a binding on a quilt that I had a longarm quilter do for me last August. As I was hand sewing the binding to the back I noticed a loose thread in the quilting. When I pulled on it to clip it off, 2-3 stitches came undone.. so I pulled a few more out, tied a knot and buried the threads. I then realized this was a problem all over the quilt where it seems lines of quilting were stopped or started apparently without the quilter stitching in place to anchor. So far I have found at least 60 places where this has occurred. I showed it to the quilter this morning and she got very defensive, claiming that I should just clip the small threads and the rest of the stitching would not come undone. I can’t give this quilt away thinking that lines of quilting could come undone as the quilt gets used,washed,handled. What do you think? I was taught that the stitches should always be anchored when starting and finishing a line of quilting in the middle of the quilt.

Tartan

The stitches should have been anchored each time she stopped. Sorry this has happened and I would not send her another quilt.

Barb in Louisiana

I agree totally with Tartan. We all know that those stitches could and probably will come undone if the quilt is washed very much. She did not do a good job as far as I am concerned.

tallchick

Not picky at all! All starts and stops need to be anchored that’s longarming 101 and is to be expected! I would firmly yet politely ask for a refund. How did you pay for it? I know credit cards can be disputed when there are issues with services. Have you used this person before? How did you come to use her? Has she been in business long? Does she have favorable feedback/reviews? I’m certainly not a professional longarmer, but if this were my business I would offer you either a refund or a redo at my expense including ripping out the areas in question. I’m sorry this happened to you, I’m sure you’re very frustrated and dismayed.

juliasb

I don't believe you are being fussy at all. Long Arm quilting is expensive! You should not have to go around the quilt at tie off the ends of the quilting. I would not use her again to start with and ask for a refund. I would accept at least 50% back if the rest of the quilting is good. I would not use her again.

Peckish

Nope, totally standing next to you on this one. She's full of ... something... if she thinks you can just clip those and it will be fine.

YC Quilter

Thank you all for your support. I definitely won’t be using her again for longarm quilting. She said she been doing it for 6 years and never had a problem before. I feel badly because I thought her quilting was creative for a very busy quilt. She just didn’t seem to understand my concern about the stitches not being anchored down. Luckily I don’t usually send my quilts out but do them on my domestic machine.
I will try to post pictures on the picture forem!

Fabric Galore

You have my sympathy and you are the second person I have read today that had the same problem but the other person lived in Canada so I'm pretty sure it wasn't the same person. I would never leave stitches untied in some fashion. I know some quilters use very small stitches at the beginning and the end of their quilting to anchor the stitches but don't just stop without some type of method to keep the stitches in place.

Jingle

Problems like this is why I quilt my own quilts. I do anchor stitches at the beginning and end.

I would be be very angry and never use her again.

platyhiker

You are definitely not wrong or excessively fussy! I took a "Introduction to Long Arming" class this winter from a shop that offers rental time on long arm machines and we were all taught how to anchor the stitching at the start and end of our stitching. I think every long arming demo video I've seen on youtube does this. It sounds like this person you hired got herself a long machine but not look into *how* to properly use it to produce quality, long lasting products. (Kinda like getting a car without having a drivers ed course! Not a perfect analogy, but you get idea.) I would not expect to even *need* to check whether someone offering long arm quilting would anchor their stitching, but now I guess that a bunch of folks will now asking about this when looking into hiring someone new. Big sigh. You have my sympathies.