This is not meant to upset any of our wonderful Longarmers on this board, but, I have a problem. Took a kingsize quilt to Longarmer last year and asked for all over leaf and vine pattern. No problem she says, gives me the price and says I can have it in three weeks. Great! Well, she calls and tells me to pick up the quilt and says I'm only going to charge $250.00 (a favour). Quilt was in the bag and she was on her way out the door...So I paid her and left. Got home, took out quilt and it's not done. Note inside states - poor fabric, poor construction blah,blah,blah.
Two of mine friends are in total disbelief (one is a longarmer) and we start picking out all the quilting (approx 2/3 had been quilted). Anyway, the problem is this, the quilt is terribly stretched on oneside, I've started quilting it on my Janome 6600, but, you can see it has been stretched. My longarm friend says to finish it, lots of quilting should hide the distortion.
Now that I've written a book here, any other suggestions? I had made this for my daughter and she just loves it. Alot of time, energy and money has gone into this one! HELP!!!

I wish you had a picture to help us see better....and what was the original charge and such?
K

I find her note to be absurd! I know a longarmer, and have asked about distorted tops before (and I'm not saying that yours was before you gave it to her), and she regularly works miracles with customer's tops that don't lay flat or are distorted. I also know that she regularly quilts tops made of horrible quality fabric. I'm sorry you had to deal with this.

I agree, try to square it up as much as possible, and use heavy quilting. I would also stop payment on the $250 if you can.

Do you think if you wash the top it will take shape? Then start over with the quilting. I did this with a small one and it came out fine. Good luck, and I would want my money back.

I agree with mattee. I would stop payment on the check definatly.she did not do as promised and if the top was squared up and not distorted before hand then there shouldn't have been a problem. but that is just me. I am not a longarmer or even a good quilter yet. so this is just my opinion. if the longarmer calls about the check you should just tell her that the quilt was not finished and that you are having to fix what she has done to it. Hope the quilt will get fixed for you. {{{HUGS}}}

Get your money back or get a lawyer!!! No reason for that. She did not do the job she was hired to do. If she didn't think she could before she started she should have called and told you to come pick up your top. To bag it up with a note is chicken sh*& and should not be tolerated.

IMHO as a LA myself, $250 is absurd to begin with for an all-over design! Also, if she saw the top wasn't going to lie flat and felt that she couldn't do it, she should have contacted you to come get it. She should never have started it and then left it partially unfinished. I have - so far - only had to return one top unquilted, and it was very poorly constructed, but the customer knew it and has since taken it apart to redo.

This was very unprofessional on the part of your LA; not only would I stop payment, I would definitely find a new person to quilt my quilts!

Wow, I am speechless. I too would stop payment on the check. I also agree that $250 is ridiculously high for an end to end even if she had finished it. Those types of quilting designs are usually only about 1.5 cents per square inch.

I hope you took pictures of it before you ripped it all out.

I agree that it was her responsibility to inform you prior to starting work if there were ANY issues that would have prevented her from completing the work as agreed. A professional will know with out doing too much inspection if a top has issues.
When I drop my quilts off . The very first thing that is done is to unfold and inspect. Doing this does a few things... opportunity to discuss design of quilting ...and the LA gets to review for any issues in the top prior to doing work.
What happened was unprofessional at a mimimum. I would stop payment if possible. If she truley felt that she could not properly do the work to completion , the responsiblity fell on her to tell you the limits of what she could do PRIOR to starting.

That's just wrong !! Definately recontact, when this was delivered she should have been able to see if there might be a problem, not at the 2/3 mark, this has to be wound on the spools so you see then if anything is looking wonky before a stitch goes in. Good Luck with it!!

that is wrong on so many levels.dishonest not straightforward,etc.stop payment right away

That is terrible to treat a customer that way. I agree with the other posters on this board, she should have contacted you if there was a problem.

OMG...stop payment. If she didn't finish it, she shouldn't get paid the full amount. If she didn't have the respect to call you and explain the problem, she shouldn't get $250 for not finishing your quilt.

How awful!! I am appalled that at how this was handled by the longarmer. She absolutely should have contacted you as soon as she realized she was not going to be able to quilt in the manner the two of you agreed upon. I hope you can get your money back or a portion anyway. What a mess!! All that work...

I'm shocked! It was definitely a breach of contract for her to give you an unfinished product, to say nothing of unprofessional.

The sad part is this longarmer was supposedly a friend. Original price was to be $375.00 but for cash 250.00 ( I know, I know...STUPID!!) My friend( the other longarmer) says it is so distorted because she loaded it on the bars wrong, and stretched it. I can't get my money back...but, Unpostive feedback can be justice I guess. All I know, is I have alot of work ahead of me. I will try and post a picture over the weekend. Thanks for all your suggestions and support!

That's pretty rude of her to do to you. I'm sorry it happened. I'm with the others here. Stop payment on the check!

Oh my goodness! That's awful!!! I'm so sorry! I would be sick... just the thought infuriates me! Have you tried talking to her? Maybe you can reach an agreement for her to redo it at no extra cost (if you even trust her to do that at this point). Have you ever had anything done by her before??

I am even more appalled. A friend? Well the only way to get any of your money back is a face to face confrontation. I would try anyway as much as I abhor confrontation. The $250 "deal" was for a completed quilt. She is not entitled to anything IMHO. Not only did she not complete the quilt, she distorted it by loading it wrong? I am at a loss as to how that can be done but I should never under estimate people who know just enough to be dangerous. I would set up an appointment to meet with her. Take the note and lay it on the line. Refund the money or you will make sure everyone will know what kind of business she does.

Oh my! That is just totally unacceptable. If you can't get your money back, then pictures and word of mouth will have to do in your cimmunity. I think I would post pictures at the LQS on their bulletin board, and tell my guild members!

Stop payment on the check!

Go with your longarm friend and confront her with the truth. Take lots of pics take her to small claims if you can prove with your friend and pics if she messd it up she needs to pay for it!@

Does she have a website with a "comments" or "feedback" section? If she does, you might want to consider posting your experience and disappointment with her work (stick to the facts). She may delete it, but until she does, the word may still get out.

I don't understand how you can load a quilt the wrong way. I sometimes load a quilt with the top and bottom to the sides if I am doing custom and want a larger area to work on before each advance.

If you have fullness in areas, you can sometimes shrink it with some starch or best press, then iron it.

The behavior of the LAer is really strange, and no, you shouldn't have to pay for a partially completed top.

$375?!?!? How much does she charge per square inch? Typical price is only .015/sq inch, so it would have to be 25000 square inches to equal $375, and that's one HUGE quilt!!! That's just LUDICROUS!

You've been ripped off. Show the quilt to an attorney.

I would not be using that longarmer again for sure and as the others said...I would stop payment. Makes me appreciate all the more what a wonderful LAQ I have found here in my neighborhood! She has only done one of my quilts so far but I am sure she will do the next one just as beautiful as she did the first one! And she didn't charge me $250 for my king size quilt either!!

She should be ashamed of herself. I do a lot of quilts for some quiltmakers that have been so out of shape but I try and work with it. I only do a wavy diamond on them and I only charge $35.00. I can't do the custom quilting on my machine. I am trying to stop quilting for others as I need to get mine done but I currently have 7 here to do.

i would be at her house when she got home and get my money back.

If I lived in your area I would be wanting to know who she is, so I wouldn't have a similar problem. However, the price would probably have put me off. I have paid that for custom work, but never for an all-over pattern.
PS with a friend like that who needs enemies.
I hope you are able to save your quilt and recover your money. Such an expensive lesson. I sympathize with you.

I thought there weren't any quilt police. Sounds like you found her as she sure made comments about your quilt--and fined (charged)you besides! If all of this was "wrong", it was wrong when she accepted the job and she should have said so before she started the quilting and just returned the top to you.
Advertising is the best reward for a job, whether it is well done or not! Don't libel yourself in what you say about your experience but other quilters should hear the facts and know to be wary of this person's service. Maybe all who hire quilters should take a picture before and after?!

buyer beware!!! a little knowledge is dangerous. sounds like she has a very little. Anytime someone doesn't have time to show their workmanship before being paid, don't pay. always look first, no matter how big a hurry they are in. I hope you get some kind of repayment. it will still not be enough for the trouble she has caused, besides the damage. good luck. from a quilting granny

I know. It can get waaay out of hand real quick.
.

Oh, and BTW, I am assuming that if she is running a business for 'cash', she is probably not reporting all her earnings to the IRS. Karma is a b*$#@. She can't continue this way for long, believe me.

I am sorry this happened to you but you should know you are not alone. I have heard of two other experiences like this where the LAQ quit in the middle of a project and still made the customer pay to get their top back. This is so bad on so many levels. Both, however, were able to remove all of the stitches that were done and I was able to quilt in an all over pattern and save the quilts. I suggest you do not wash the top yet. Take it, or send it to a reputable LAQ and get their opinion about how to move forward. They will be able to give you better information when they are able to look at your piece in person. Good luck.

I'm so sorry. If the LAQ is a friend, I would try talking to her. Explain that you understood that $250 was the price for a completed job, and you wish she had called you as soon as she determined there were problems with the quilt, to give you the option of fixing the problems or dealing with them in another way. Tell her that it is more difficult now for you to complete the quilt than it was before she started quilting it, and that you think she should refund your money. Be nice, but be firm in telling her that you shouldn't pay for a half-done job. If she is new to the business, she needs to get feedback from her customers on what is acceptable and what isn't. If she isn't new to the business... well, she shouldn't be doing work like this. Good luck.

I am horrified by your story. She's a LAQ, but it really sounds like she didn't know what she was doing and thought she could get practice on your quilt and get money from you at the same time.

Friend or no friend, I would explain how unhappy you are and that kind of treatment is unprofessional! Once you pay her money, she is no longer a friend but a business person, and she cheated you out of what you paid for. I'm sorry if this ends a friendship, but she didn't do you any favors and if anyone asks about her business, I would steer people away from her.

Your experience reminds me of the phrase: "With friends like that, who needs enemies?" If she's a real friend, she will do what's right to fix the ill-will she's caused.

I'm so sorry that you got such bad workmanship from a friend no less! To me she is way over priced. I just got a Cal King quilted last week with a shell pattern all over. My LAQ only charged me $70.00. I thought she did a pretty good job. No it wasn't perfect, but then my quilt wasn't perfect either. (It was my first.) She bought it to me told me that she tried to square it it up for me and gave me pointers for the next one. She also told me that she thought that I did a pretty good job, even tho I knew it wasn't perfect. I think she thought that I was going to be disappointed, because some of the points weren't exact, but I was satisfied with it. I sure hope that you can get something worked out with her, if not then I think I'd find another friend. Just me.