Should take her the quilt, tell her how much you love to shop there, but express your concerns/disappointment over the end result and tell her what you would like done to fix it. Then once all issues are resolved, just dont let her quilt anything else and chalk up the inflated price she charged to a learning experience. That way you can still get your fabrics there if you feel her prices on the fabric are fair.

I am concerned about her not giving you an estimate because she wanted to do custom quilting in each block. That alone sounds fishy to me. I have my own longarm and though I am far from being good - I do my own qults. One tme I sent a quilt (queen size) to be quilted and the longarm quilter went through the whole quilt with me - first showed me some of his previous quilts and how they were quilted -then we used some of those ideas to incorporate into my quilt. After that he told me how much it would be according to what I asked for - it was around $ 150.00 for a custom quilt - also we signed a contract spelling out what would be done and how much - there were no surprises - I feel bad that you were taken advantage of - it really doesn't speak well about that person not being up front about the fees and then not wanting to fix the "burps" - that being said - I hope that your quilt is beautiful and you will enjoy it - I thnk this is a lesson that we all need to learn about getting things in writing and being clear about what is expected. Hope all is well.

Mommabear, thanks so much for letting us know the outcome but a few comments I would like to add, just so you are more well informed...

1. Regarding the folds/pleats in the back and what the LA told you (nothing can be done).... I call BS!! It can be fixed. It is a royal pain in the butt as it involves ripping out all the quilting that has been done and re-doing. No LA-er wants to do this, it is a lot of work, so we go to great pains to avoid it from happening in the first place. She should have offered monatary compensation in the form of a partial refund or discounted future quilting. So strike one against this LAQ

2. Trying to run another meander down the side to "make it look" ok?!?! Strike Two!!

3. She could not give you a price up front?!?! STRIKE THREE!! Do not use this LAQ again! There are waaaaaay too many really good, honest reputable LAQ out there that you can send your quilts to that WILL give you an up front price for custom quilting (different design in every block) and stick to it even if they put more work into it than quoted (I have done this myself!). There are also LAQ that you can say I want quilting in the .02 per s/i price range, show me samples of what you can do in that price range and they can and will so you won't have a surprise bill to pay.

The comments of the ladies in your guild is subjective. In THEIR opinion it was not specialized. Actually any quilting that is not an all over panto-graph or end to end repetitive design (like an all over meander, cross hatch, baptist fan or any other number of design repeated over the entire quilt with no regard to the piecing) is considered custom quilting. The quilting was customized to that specific quilt. Even if it was just SID that outlines your piecing or different stencils designs in each block, it would be considered custom. There are varying degrees of custom. I have no idea what their idea of "specialized" is unless they are thinking of Trapunto or some other labor intensive technique.

TAKE IT BACK! Ask her to quilt in the sashings (No problem adding here) and try to fix the fold issue. I have seen my LQ take out stitches and fold areas of quilts...it can be done.
Diana in TX

$300 is a lot of money esp. for quilting that doesn't meet your expectations. I would definitely talk to the LA quilter.

As I'm retired and make quite a few quilts, I cannot afford to pay a LA quilter to do each quilt. So I do my own quilting on my Bernina -- works well but is a challenge on large quilts. I have two king size quilts ready for quilting that will be nearly impossible to do on the Bernina. So in June I'm taking LA certification classes at two of the LQS. Then I can rent time on their LA machines to do the larger quilts. I'm hoping that will work out well.

Take the quilt back to her and show her. $300 is a lot of money to pay for something that you are not happy with.

Anita in Northfield, MN

If you don't think you could recommend her to another quilter with a clear conscience then I agree with the rest...go and speak to her about your concerns. If she's any kind of good business woman she'll make it right. After all, she is really after your return business.

I do LA quilting as a business and would want to know if my customer is not happy. For starters...there should be no burps on the back, that is not getting the back loaded on the quilt frame correctly. The quilting should be evenly spaced over the rest so that it lays nicely. You really do need to talk to her, have her fix it or if you're willing to live with it as is, she needs to give you a large discount. The amount you spent was a little on the high side for the amount of quilting and mistakes. JMHO

I would hope that it was just an over sight on the LA's part, I would hate to think that you were taken advantage of because you didn't know what to expect...take it back

You paid high end for your quilt to be done. So sorry you didn't get what you paid for. I definitely would mention it to the lady in private and in a calm manner explaining how disappointed you were. Doesn't sound like a professional job.