If your LAer sees something "odd" -
09-01-2015, 06:50 AM
#21
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Jozefow, Poland
Posts: 4,474
If I sent a masterpiece to a LA and they saw a mistake, I would definitely want to know. (They are the only ones I can imagine sending to a LA.)
I would NOT want them to fix it. I would want to do it myself.
I would NOT want them to fix it. I would want to do it myself.
09-01-2015, 07:00 AM
#22
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Michigan
Posts: 2,757
I took a two sided quilt to a longarmer and I got a phone message saying they wouldn't do it..to many seams. When I called back I talked to a diff lady and she said she would give it a go if I ok'd it. It turned out beautiful! I did appreciate the call and heads up just in case it didn't turn out..it was my choice!
09-01-2015, 08:01 AM
#23
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lake Elsinore, CA
Posts: 15,144
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.
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.
09-01-2015, 11:05 AM
#25
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Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2008
Location: MN
Posts: 24,400
Originally Posted by UFOs Galore
Quilters know what they create. Calling a client to tell them they have subpar piecing skills that result in in a humped middle and wavy borders? No.
Examples -
"I noticed that one of your blocks is turned differently than the rest of them - was that a design choice?"
comes across a bit differently than "You screwed up one of your blocks - how could you have missed that?"
"If you take out some of the fullness in the borders, I can do a better job of quilting them and it will look nicer" as compared to "For crying out loud - these borders are about 15 inches too long for the center out of this quilt and it will be difficult to try to get it to look decent."
I don't have any great ideas for volcanoes and pleats in the middle of the quilt.
Last edited by QuiltnNan; 01-03-2016 at 10:20 AM. Reason: language
09-01-2015, 11:11 AM
#26
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Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2008
Location: MN
Posts: 24,400
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.
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.
09-01-2015, 01:34 PM
#27
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: North Fork Ca
Posts: 8,234
I would never expect my LA'r to do a repair without consulting me first. I would however, hope that she/he would call and ask if a block appears to be turned the wrong way. I am sure that if the LA'r is busy, she may overlook an error the same way that I overlooked it, but if I were the LA'r, I would call, and risk being accused of being among the quilt police.
09-01-2015, 07:46 PM
#28
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: kansas
Posts: 6,407
thanks for starting this thread. I do long arm for others and have to say I've found that it's best to look at the quilt with the piecer to see what may be challenges in the quilting--i.e. she wants lots of stitch in the ditch (which is NOT a long arm favorite and many charge extra for that--use your domestic machine if that is what you want cause it works better) but the seam pressing would no allow this. Or there are obvious waving borders even before I get it on the frame, or seams that aren't closed, etc. Obviously, this works with local customers. Then we decide together what he/she wants to do. But I'm looking to increase my clientele with via social media and that may mean more quilts in the mail, so this thread has me thinking about the way to handle this.
That being said, I do think we need to remember in the original post the quilting was a panto which if it wasn't computer/robotic guided, then the quilter was standing at the back of the machine and looking down at the panto and likely did not see the mistake.
That being said, I do think we need to remember in the original post the quilting was a panto which if it wasn't computer/robotic guided, then the quilter was standing at the back of the machine and looking down at the panto and likely did not see the mistake.
09-01-2015, 08:04 PM
#29
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Toronto Canada
Posts: 1,130
I longarm and I would definitely tell the customer if something wasn't right...I had a lady send me one by mail and the borders were very wavy ...it was going to be hard to make it square...I called her and she said to go ahead and quilt as it...she was a very picky customer and I didn't want to be at fault if the job didn't come out right...I had to pull the top and stretch it more than I wanted and this caused some boarding on the back...I was happy I had advised her ...
09-02-2015, 01:15 AM
#30
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: North Wales
Posts: 473
As the person providing the quilt I would want to be consulted (in a straightforward, but not insulting manner).
As the longarmer I would expect to consult the customer before doing anything (or as soon as the difficulty is noticed, if partway through)
I don't think it is reasonable to expect a longarmer to catch/notice/fix any and all mistakes/oddball design moments - they are being engaged to quilt the thing, not evaluate/improve it. Some things are so bad that it can make the quilting impossible to do (e.g. monster wavy borders) others are easily quiltable (e.g. a reversed block) and may not be that noticeable (to anyone - the longarmer is human too). I haven't read the post that inspired this one, so don't know what the original issue was, but there are *many* different things that can come up - and they are all at various points on the 'noticeability' scale.
Of course there are always going to be people who will complain regardless of what you do. Anyone who has ever had a job dealing with the general public knows that!!
As the longarmer I would expect to consult the customer before doing anything (or as soon as the difficulty is noticed, if partway through)
I don't think it is reasonable to expect a longarmer to catch/notice/fix any and all mistakes/oddball design moments - they are being engaged to quilt the thing, not evaluate/improve it. Some things are so bad that it can make the quilting impossible to do (e.g. monster wavy borders) others are easily quiltable (e.g. a reversed block) and may not be that noticeable (to anyone - the longarmer is human too). I haven't read the post that inspired this one, so don't know what the original issue was, but there are *many* different things that can come up - and they are all at various points on the 'noticeability' scale.
Of course there are always going to be people who will complain regardless of what you do. Anyone who has ever had a job dealing with the general public knows that!!
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