Sambelina

I joined the Board today because of a BOM I'm getting through the mail - they send me a fabric kit & pattern each month. I am REALLY struggling with it and I was hoping someone else on the Board might be participating as well. The name of the BOM is in the subject line. Since I'm new, I don't have a feel for how much information I should give so, for the moment, less is more as I try not to over-step.

It isn't that the piecing is difficult; it's the cutting mistakes in the monthly kits, the communication from the shop, and the readability (or lack of) in the copy of the pattern. I'm not here to blast the shop or the pattern designer. I really want to know if I'm crazy to be so disappointed with the program or if my expectations were too high.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

dunster

Wow, that is a beautiful quilt! There was a discussion of this pattern before - http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...e-t121108.html

I haven't read the entire discussion (above). Hope that helps.

Sambelina

Thanks. I read some of that thread the other day - before I joined today - when I was looking for help with this. As it happens, I emailed Sue directly from her blog and she could not have been nicer. She said the covers for each month's pattern should be in color, but ultimately that was up to the distributor. I don't know if she meant the shop doing the BOM or the pattern publisher. What I get is a color image that has been copied in black & white and it's very hard to tell which color goes where. We're making four star blocks per month with a variety of colors and I'm just not confident I'm going to end up with the dazzling quilt I have in my mind.

dunster

I do think you have a right to get a clear pattern. If I understand correctly, it is the quality of the copying that is the problem, not the quality of the instructions? And also the fabric isn't cut correctly? I would complain to the shop doing the BOM and see what they have to say. Also be sure that Sue Garman knows that her pattern is being distributed in that way; perhaps she can do something about it. It doesn't speak well for her or for the shop doing the distribution.

Dolphyngyrl

I had a bad experience with a BOM that I got directly from a designer so I am now leary of them because of my experience. I would like to know what are reputable online sites for BOM that are consistent. I still haven't finished mine from the designer and only have 4 months of it. still need the other 8 months but need a new distributor because the designer is not very dependable

Sambelina

The shop has blamed it on the cutting instructions they received from the pattern company. They are giving us the right size pieces, but not all the fabric for the items being constructed that month. For example, in month 2, the fabric for the floating border around the center medallion wasn't in the package. In month 3, we were to supposed to receive 18 different fabrics for the pinwheel border, but there were only 14 in the package. In month 4, we received the additional fabric for the pinwheels plus additional fabric for the 4-patch border constructed in month 2.

I knew there was a problem with the pinwheels, but I was unaware of the 4-patch problem and didn't know that fabric was coming because the email from the shop wasn't specific. These errors seem like they'd be pretty easy to spot while kitting the fabric if only someone checked it against the pattern being sent. I suspect the problem is really at the shop, but I have no way of knowing.

Thanks for your suggestion to let Sue know. I wasn't quite sure where I should be pushing this, but you're right ... she should know.

Sambelina

As for the pattern, I think I will contact the distributor directly to see if a black & white pattern on typical copy paper is the quality we should be receiving.

Peckish

I'm wondering about the quality of the pattern. It almost sounds like someone is making photocopies of photocopies, and if that's the case, Sue should know. It's illegal for a shop to purchase one pattern and make several copies to sell with a kit, unless they have her permission. I certainly hope that's not what's happening in this case.

Sambelina

I started wondering about the legality of the pattern after my last post. It contains printing instructions to make sure everything scales properly - check the size of the one inch box. This pattern was originally a BOM on The Quilt Show so I'd expect a print / scale check to be in something people are downloading. That sure makes me wonder if they're using a legitimate license to print copies for their program participants. I did email the distributor earlier this evening so I'll make a note to address this with them, too. Thanks for the input.

Jan in VA

As a pattern designer myself, the first thought that came to my mind was that Sue meant the "distributor" is the company who sells the patterns to the quilt shop.

It sounds suspiciously to me like the pattern you described was copied from one of Sue's patterns that the shop bought from a distributor (or got from another source), and then -- wanting to keep her (the shop owner's) costs down -- she copied the pattern, put it in an envelope/baggie and sold it to you/her customers as being directly from Sue's company....a HUGE copyright infringement. That is IF this is what actually happened.

Sue probably knows who her distributors are. Maybe she will want to learn if her distributor has sold patterns to this particular shop. She may even want to find out from the shop itself if they are indeed selling prepackaged patterns or are repackaging them themselves. She does have the right to this information if there is an infringement, and she can prove it.

Jan in VA