Botched border remedy?
 

Hi, I come from a long line of quilters, but just recently started embroidering blocks for quilts. Anyway, I had some floral blocks done by my late aunt that I had machine quilted by someone else. I had chosen a subdued green for inserts, but my quilter took it upon herself to add a partial dark green stripe and triangles in the border. It has been machine quilted and bound and I am sick. There is also a problem in that she made the bottom border wider than the top.

Could the entire border be removed and redone? Could the entire border be cut off and just have a binding directly next to the blocks (she did a checkerboard pattern alternating the subdued green). It would be a smaller quilt, but the dark green would be gone. I think I could possibly live with it if the bottom border could be cut off to match the top border and binding reapplied. I really hate to hurt her feelings, but it looks awful to me. Any advice is welcome.

Can you please post a picture? Here are instructions for how:

https://www.quiltingboard.com/qb-hel...s-t168819.html

https://www.quiltingboard.com/qb-hel...g-t166655.html

Not sure what you mean by "inserts", and why on earth would a "professional" quilter alter a customer's quilt??? That is absolutely not professional and way beyond the pale, IMO. She shouldn't have made any alterations to your quilt without your permission. Have you discussed this with her?

Why are her feelings more important then your feelings? I would have asked why on earth did you do that? I don't like it at all. She would know I wasn't happy. I would cut off the border part I didn't like and take out the quilting stitches enough to sew on a new border. I doubt that quilter would ever get her hands on another quilt of mine unless she offered to redo the quilt the way I wanted it done in the first place.

I’m a little confused. Did you take your blocks and a green fabric to someone and ask her to put together your quilt top then quilt and bind? Or did you make a quilt top and take it to her to quilt for you?
If she was just supposed to quilt it for you I would take it back and ask her to remove what she added and fix it.
if you asked her to make the top for you maybe she added what she thought would work to make it the size you wanted? Lots of unknown information here.
you of course can cut off anything you want and redo as you want, it’s yours.

Welcome to this board.

You can easily cut off the borders and apply a new binding. It's the same thing as trimming a quilt right after it has been quilted, but in this case you're trimming off a lot more. It is also possible to add new borders. If you want to do that, I would suggest the book Machine Quilting in Sections by Marti Michell for instructions.

We would love to see the quilt as it is now. Sometimes if you wait a while, you may find that you like what you didn't like at first.

I agree--more info needed. can't imagine a quilter just adding some borders unless you wanted her to finish into a quilt a stack of embroidery blocks. You definitely can cut off and re-bind whatever you want.

Thanks to all of you for answering. I took 24 larger blocks of embroidered flowers on a cream background. I also gave her some light green material that I expected would be strips between the blocks. She cut down the size of the floral blocks and used the green to make alternating green blocks between the floral blocks. This created a checkerboard look. Instead of just putting a plain border, she put some sort of arrows in the corner and a green partial dark green border. I wish I could post it the picture. I don’t want to pick out the machine quilting. At this point, I just want the entire border cut off and replaced with a plain border.
The lady lost her husband and has done other quilts for me. I have known her for years and don’t want hard feelings since she is obviously proud of her work. I think she was trying to make it bigger although I don’t recall specifying a size. I think it could have been larger, but she cut the blocks from 12 inches to 9 inches.
I did contact another local quilter (who I don’t know) who says she may be able to quilt a new border for me to attach to the checkerboard. If someone will tell me how to post a picture I will try.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]620943[/ATTACH] Here

Here is the quilt. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Mrobert…..I know this isn't what you had in mind, but it's lovely. I wouldn't change it at all.

very pretty quilt. I don't see anything wrong with it and would love it like it is.

It sounds to me like there wasn't clear communication between you and the maker of this quilt. I agree with Watson58 and Lindaschipper that even though this quilt wasn't what you envisioned it is very nicely done and highlights those beautiful embroidery blocks very nicely. I too would leave it as is. I suspect she had reasons for making some of the design choices she did and I think the quilt is really appealing. For example, the embroidered blocks look beautifully centered and not swimming in a sea of white. Had she left the blocks at 12" I really think the embroidery would have been diminished swimming in such a large field of white all around them. As they are now, they look perfectly centered in the blocks. I suspect the checkerboard layout was simply poor communication. If you handed her the green and said "I want this between each block" it can easily be interpreted as checkerboard instead of sashing strips.
If you remove the border and attach something different it will be very difficult to line up the end to end quilting design used, so will need to be quilted differently. I would definitely discuss this with your quilter as a similar situation is likely to arise if you don't have clear lines of communication. I would recommend you find pictures on the internet to show her what you want if there is a next time. Also learn quilting terms so you are both speaking the same "language". Strips between blocks are called sashing, those arrow triangle things are called hourglass blocks and from what I can see they are very well done. Size matters so be very specific about size, both the finished size and sizes of elements. Like saying "I want 2 inch finished size sashing strips between the blocks with no cornerstones, I want a 6" finished size border to go around the completed quilt, I want the quilt to finish at 72 x 82". And stress that any design decisions cannot be made unilaterally. She must discuss with you.
I am sorry you are so disappointed with the outcome but the quilt really is very nice.

I think it's really pretty and the greens highlight your embroidered blocks. I think you should live with it for awhile before doing anything drastic, which cutting off the borders would be.

I think it is beautiful and the quilter did a great job with it. I suspect that it wasn't what you had in mind and the shock of seeing something else has led to you being unhappy with it. I wouldn't change a thing--except my mind. Perhaps put it away for awhile and then get it out again.

What's that line from the movie--what we have here is a failure to communicate?? She did put the green between!

I also think it looks nice as it is.

That is stunningly beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I would leave it as is.

Yes, well I did lay out the way I wanted it and printed off a picture and gave it to her. Okay, I guess I can live with it, but I hate that the top and bottom borders are different sizes and not symmetrical.[ATTACH=CONFIG]620950[/ATTACH]

I think it is very pretty.

Can the bottom be cut off and rebound without too much hassle?

Your quilt is very pretty and I am sorry you are so disappointed. I think you must have had something else in mind and maybe the quilter did not understand or the instructions from you were not clear enough to the quilter. I hope that over time you learn to like it.

Thank you for trying to make me feel better about the quilt. I felt the dark green design detracted from the beauty of the blocks, which are very intricately embroidered by my late aunt. If the bottom can be cut off and rebound I could probably live with it, not love it. I may ask her if she would mind redoing that for me. Maybe I am just too OCD or something...

It really doesn’t matter how many people like the quilt...you don’t. I agree with you that the different border size is bothersome. If it were me, I would take the binding off and cut the wider the same size as the narrow one plus a seam allowance and then reattach the binding.

If you can live with the dark green that would be the easiest fix. If you really can’t then you have a lot of deconstruction to do. It is fixable if you want to do the work or get someone else to do it depending on your budget. The embroidery is lovely and you should be able to show case it the way that you choose.

It's hard when we have a vision of something and we don't quite reach it. It's one of the ways I score my projects, sometimes a close but not quite is worse than a complete miss. While you aren't appreciating the "checkerboard" effect and you were expecting a lattice setting the two are so radically different that maybe you can grow to appreciate the difference.

And there are some things that are just going to bug us, for me the border difference is something I can live with because the only time I will really notice it is when I fold the quilt up. But I have some tiny little piddling things that annoy me in some of my projects and even when I point them out, other people don't see what I'm talking about.

I think you are just a bit too close to the project right now. Put it away in a closet for about 3 months and try not to think about it and then pull it out. If you still hate it and will never use it, then change it or give it or do something. Also think about if you had never seen it and if your aunt showed you the top because it is how she ended up having it done -- would you love it then or still hate it? lol, you are allowed to still hate it, just a question to ask yourself.

Do you think she would take offense if I ask her to cut off the bottom and redo the trim. I am not a quilter. I just like to embroider blocks for children’s quilts. Is there a reason a quilter would make the border wider on the bottom than the top or was it a mistake?

if you do end up cutting anything off, do a stitch or have a stitch done all around inside the "cut" line to keep those quilting stitches from coming apart. good luck.

Completely agree! I'd would love to have it!!

I think the quilt is lovely.
As for the borders not being the same size, there is a school of thought that the bottom border be wider than the top. It is most like matting a picture. It looks most pleasing when the bottom is wider.
I realize this doesn't help you but again, your quilt is lovely.
Kirsten

The quilt is pretty but it's not what you wanted. Every time you look at it you will be disappointed. If a change is doable then have it done.

To answer your question, yes. The bottom can be trimmed and rebound. What is important is that you wanted a quilt that honored the beautiful work your late aunt did. Have the adjustment made to get closer to what you originally had in mind.

It sounds like a communication problem. If you want the quilter to make changes I would suggest you admit that you failed to communicate exactly what you want. Nevertheless the quilter did a beautiful job starting with just embroidered blocks.

Yes, I will try to be tactful if I ask her to redo the bottom hem. Thanks to all of the members who took the time to answer my questions! I am thinking of retiring soon so I may actually do some quilting myself. My mother, her mother, etc., were all quilters, but I am afraid I didn’t pay enough attention to the art of piecing quilts. As I said, I am a little particular about some things so I know I will have to get that hem even.

Ok I'm totally guessing here, trying to imagine how this could possibly have happened. It sounds like maybe there was some confusion about the terminology? "strips between blocks" (in your first post you had called them "inserts") sounds to me like you wanted sashing, not entire blocks? And maybe this woman didn't understand that? And to compound the issue, because she was thinking you wanted blocks instead of sashing, she realized there wasn't enough green fabric to make that many blocks of that size, so she cut the embroidered blocks smaller so she could get enough alternating green blocks, then needed to add the darker green to the borders to get it finished. Which, if this is actually what happened, is still beyond what any quilter should have done without first consulting the owner of the top, unless you had given her leeway to do what she felt needed to be done to complete the top.

I do think it turned out nice, although I would be unhappy with the borders too, both the size discrepancy and the hourglass blocks. I like the quilting. But as someone else pointed out, you're the customer, it's your quilt, and she needs to make it right. At the very least, I would try to have a calm conversation about the communication between the two of you - what you said vs what she heard, why she felt comfortable making changes (especially cutting your blocks!) without consulting you first, and maybe once things have been cleared up, give her the chance to fix it for you without incurring further charges.

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Sometimes a larger top boarder helps to lengthen a quilt or makes an emphasis on the design. Jenny from MSQC does this sometimes. I don't know your relationship with this lady but my guess is you don't feel comfortable speaking to her about it. As to whether she takes offense, it seems you have a previous relationship with this person and if approached in the correct way, she will not be offended. You may question her as to why she went in the direction she did and be honest with her. It's obvious both of you weren't on the same page when she made the quilt. I hope you can get this resolved satisfactorily for both of you. After posting the picture of the border I tend to agree with you that I wouldn't be happy with it either. Good luck.

She is a creative person and I have had issues in the past with her putting a pink binding on a quilt intended for a little boy. She said she didn’t know I was giving it to a baby boy, but didn’t consult me. After that incident, I always purchased the fabric I wanted used, laid out the blocks on top of the fabric the way I wanted, printed off a photo and gave it to her so there would be no misunderstanding. I think she thinks I will like whatever changes she makes so just goes with it. I really don’t understand her thought process on this quilt.

Oh, well.

Time to find a new quilter!

I do love the quilt and I think it was done very pleasing to the eye. However, your not happy so communicate with the quilter. Keep an open mind though. I can understand why she made the embroidered blocks smaller. If they were bigger the embroidery would be lost and not be pleasing to the eye. The woman work reflects good use of scale. It also appears she put quite a bit of work into this quilt. She is talented but maybe not a good listener. If your so unhappy find a new quilter.

I understand your frustration. I would not be happy if my clear instructions were not followed. , I agree with other posters. It's beautiful. I think I would leave it as it is (I know me... I would start to take it apart, make an even bigger mess and never finish it). I do think that I would have a frank, honest conversation with her, and point out what you have posted here. (perhaps negotiate a partial refund to ease your discomfort) and in the future put every detail in writing,

The quilter is happy but you aren't. Be the happy one.

It really doesn't matter what she thinks when you see it out of alignment. If that is what makes you feel insync there is no harm in asking. All she can do is say yes or no. Then you know what you want for the future too. IMHO it is a beautiful quilt. Cutting the blocks to 9" was a good call. You hold the power in your hands. I think too setting it aside for several months is a good thing to do before making a cut that you might regret later on. This is from one OCD person to another. The hard part it to let it set for 3 months.