I have a friend or shall we say an aquaintence, who really wanted to make a quilt and asked me to help her. I agreed because at the time I was just learning myself. She picked a pattern out of a book she had and we got down to work. Unfortunately she had very little fabric to put towards it and did not want to buy any. I would say 90% of the fabric came from my stash. I cut it all and left it for her to sew, as I was going to do the quilting. This was about 2 years ago. She dropped it off for me to quilt a few weeks ago. She has been calling to push me to get the quilting done, because she says she has sold it to a friend for $400. Don't get me wrong its great that she has sold it, but let me tell you what she left me with. She did not match alot of her seams, she did not press anything, and she has not clipped her threads. It is a total mess. I spent 3 hours on it this morning trying to press it and clip threads and I am not even halfway there. This is a twin size quilt and I do not feel comfortable with quilting this size on my home machine. I can rent a longarm for $50/4hours. I have to still buy batting and backing . The friend has left a deposit of $100, which will pay for the rental and other supplies still needed, but I don't think I should be left cleaning up this mess. It won't matter to her because she is not quilting it, but what I am most worried about is the mess of the seams not being pressed as she went, causing a problem while quilting and maybe even putting a hole in the quilt. I don't know the person that bought it, or what their expectation will be of it when finished. This friend is very opinionated and will not hear me even if I try to tell her gently. I am thinking of telling her that the place where I rent the machine will not let me quilt it in that condition. If only she didn't have to be so difficult, I am not into confrontation, but I also don't feel that it should be my job to clean up her mess. What would you do?

Return it to the person who gave it to you and explain what she needs to complete before it can be quilted. This is not your problem and she is not learning if you do it for her.

Wow, what a crazy predicament!!
Me?? I would only finish it if she split the profit with me.
Sounds like it was really "your" quilt all along :(

There is no rule on this earth that says you have to be a door mat.
Write out your reasons why you can't do this quilt. You have valid ones.
Then phone your "friend" and read your script verbatim. Do not waver. If she gets upset - tough. That is her problem.
You obviously aren't close to this person or she would already know your opinion.
Just tell her. You cannot accept the top in the condition it was given, and she has the choice to either take it apart and fix it, or have someone else quilt it. Period.
My guess is she'll take it somewhere else.
The lose her phone number. She is not a real friend.

Return the quilt to your "friend" & tell her you can't quilt it with your present machine. Suggest a LQS & let them deal with her.

Return the quilt to your "friend" & tell her you can't quilt it with your present machine. Suggest a LQS & let them deal with her.

Why don't you write out a sort of contract describing the quilts discrepencies and flaws? You could state in there the possibilities that could happen when quilting and that there would be no guarantees. Then have her sign it. That way you would at least have a leg to stand on. Also that you should be paid for whatever you think is right. You haven't started quilting it yet so that should be fair.

I would politely tell her that there is another class you have to show her. Explain the quilt is not done, you have this much fabric in it & you would like to split the profit. Since you seem to be doing all the work. I hate it when people take advantage of me because I don't speak up. But like I say to others, there's a way of telling them, it doesn't have to be rude or bossy. Good luck with the end results.

I think you should be upfront and tell her that you are investing way too much time and money in "her project" because I think that perhaps you are feeling a bit used. People don't know the boundaries until we tell them.

I just don't uderstand people.
Unless she is a really good friend: I would give it back to her and tell her that it cannot be quilted on the rented machines. It has too many issues. Then I would have way to many things that I have to do and simply cannot find the time to quilt it. Let her find a way to get it quilted by someone else.