I had two of my quilts quilted by a lady at a LQS, she informed me she was not a pro but said she does a good job. I got then both back in about a week and a half to 2 weeks, now I thought this was kinda fast. She brought them to my house and while looking at them when she was here I noticed alot of loose threads that she did not cut off and some birds nest. Some of you may remember the southwestern one I was making for my mother-in-law, well this was one of the quilts. Then when I went to trim off the edges to put the boarder on, the batting as you go down to the bottom of the quilt started shifting to one side so I now need to add to the edge of the batting to make it go to the edge of the top.

The second one which is mine looks bad, like a rush job and there is even some white thread on the edge of the back and it can be seen coming threw the top side. (she must have ran out of the maroon) I paid her $265 for both, good price, but I feel I should take mine back to her and have her take out the white thread and put in the maroon I asked for. The pattern is supose to be leaves and at first I thought they were hearts.

Do I have the right and am I in the right to ask her to do this?

I will never use her again by the way.

I would take it back. It sounds like she did rush things, and if she is honest, she will make it right. That is a significant amount of money - you have a right to be satisfied with the work.

I would take it back too. That's not work you should pay for.

I would take them both back and demand she do them right or refund at least most of my money. Word of mouth is your best advertisement and she needs to know you won't give her a good rating.

I don't want her to get mad, but she needs to understand that if she is going to start quilting and get to be a pro she needs to do it right, neat, straight and finish it off right, and clean. No loose threads, no birds nest. I can see what will happen when it is washed, the areas where the thread just ends (no back stiching or anything to stop it from coming undone) will start coming undone and before you know it all the stiching will be coming out.

For any amount of money, when somweone takes on a job it should be to your satisfaction or you should return it to be made right. If she fixes it , I would go over it carefully in front of her until you are satisfied. If she does not fix it, I would tell her that she would never get your business again and that you would put the word out to all your friends and that you have a LOT of friends.

What is your opinion of her version of leaves?

I thought they were hearts at first.

You do have a right to go back and talk to her about how you feel, she may offer to make it right or give a discount. The nest and bobbin thread showing thru the front makes me think she was having trouble with her tensions. As far as how fast she got them done, it is very doable to do these in 2 weeks. Good luck and hope the end result is good for both of you.

She works at one of the LQS, you would think she would want to do a great job.

I never saw leaves like that anywhere. Wow, I feel like you got ripped off big time. I agree with the poster who said that you need to be a pro to do work of this nature and she clearly isn't one yet. You need to talk to her at once. :(

She told me she was not a pro, but I figured if she was offering her services that she was at least better than what she did. I would never offer my side business (GRR GEAR) of fleece dog jackets if they were not of good enough quality for me to buy.

I know but her prices weren't exactly "amateur", you know???

This.
Yes.

Quilting for others is probably one of the most stressful things I do. But the satisfaction I get when I am finished makes it all worth while. When a customer says "do whatever", is my "whatever" acceptable to her? I have been quilting for hire for six years now and with every quilt, I do feel as if I improve. But to get to where I am now, it took quite a bit of time and practice.
Tension can make or break a quilt. It is obvious she had issues with her tension. I never would have been satisfied letting that out my door.
I am at a loss as to advise you what to do. Did you see her work before you became her customer? Did you discuss this before you paid her? If you did not she may have thought you were satisfied. This may be one of those times where you just take it out and have it redone by someone else and just not go back to her again.
Please let us know how you resolve this. Sorry I can't be more help.

I am going to talk to her and try to get this resolved. I am going to go the LQS tomorrow where she works to see if she is there and if not I am going to call her.

One of my questions is.....
is the thread just supose to stop and end with no form of a tie off so it won't come undone in the wash and threwout the years?

I feel that if she is not a pro she should not charge like a pro. For the $200+ you spent on the quilts she should have at least gone out and gotten another maroon thread. I'm sorry that you put all that work into that quilt and now you are unhappy.

Absolutely not.
Quilters take some "locking stitches" of one form or another at each start and each stop of the thread.

Looks like she was practicing on you. I don't think that's a "practicing" price, tho.

I can live with mine and feel that it would take her forever to take it all out (this is a qween) and do it over. I will be happy if she will just fix the white thread. I am glad she did a better job on my MIL quilt. I am happy with it, not thrilled but happy.

I would definately talk with her...you asked for maroon, not white and show her where the batting is shifting...things like that aren't just a "matter of opinion"....she may think the leaves look like leaves and you think they look like hearts (so do I) but colors of thread and shifting batting can't be argued.

If this was done an a quilting machine, how on earth did she not notice that the batting was not going straight. I even found (so far anyway) a buckling of the batting on my MIL quilt in one area on the edge and runs up into the quilt some.

I would have her redo it.
I never let anything leave my shop if I didn't think it was perfect.
In my 20+ years in my company I never had a piece of furniture come back because the customer wasn't happy with it.

I would let her know that you are not happy, please let us know what happens on this situation

That happened to me to. A lady at our winter RV park in Texas does long-arm quilting. She had shown some quilts she had quilted for her daughter and they were done nicely. I had her quilt one for me - just a twin size, asked for an all-over pattern. What I got back was a disapointment - looked more like basting and had many starts and stops with thread ends not secured. She reduced her asking price, but this was a sad lesson.

Ditto for me too!! The leaves look like HEARTS!! I'm not HAPPY with the way these look and they're not my quilts! I can only imagine how heartbroken you really are!!

I would be disappointed too. You paid a fair price but did not get your money's worth!

You have every right to get what you paid for, and you did not!

Those must be redbud leaves! They are heart-shaped.

Sad to say that I feel my poor attempts at quilting on my little frame and domestic machine is better work than this. Good luck on your chit chat with her.

I'm sorry that happened to you and to your quilts. Good luck, I hope she makes it right for you.

Your quilt tops are very pretty; they deserve to have a top notch quilting job done on them.

If she agrees to re-do the quilt, it might be a good idea to take the stitching out yourself. Fabric can easily be damaged when stitching is removed if a person isn't extra careful.

Hope all goes well in your discussions with the quilter. Good money outlay requires good work in return.

I am fairly new to doing longarming for other people, but boy she didn't do you any service. For the price she charged you she should have done a much better job both at her designs and the proper stitching and cleaning up. Never would a quilt that I did go out with all the batting still around the edge. I always trim away the batting so that all a person has to do it put the binding on and it is finished. But to left threads that are definitely messed up is very unprofessional even for an amateur. I would for sure talk to her about it and if she doesn't want to correct her mess she should at least be willing to give some sort of refund of at least half if not more. I have never seen a leaf or heart that looks like what she attempted. If you need help correcting her mess please let me know and I will gladly assist you.
Sherryl
Candlequilter

Before I got my longarm I sent quilts to be quilted. I always had to trim them, but it was no big deal because they were quilted correctly. What I really don't understand is anyone changing the color of thread. That really blows my mind! If you run out of thread, buy some more. She made enough profit to afford more thread. And those are not any leaves I have ever seen. If she was inventing her own leaves she should have shown you an example first. I just really don't understand it.

Honey, those ARE hearts. I have a quilt sewn with the same pattern. If you are not satisfied, I would take it back. I think I would have dealt with this issue BEFORE I paid her though. Good luck and let us know how it turns out for you.

From what I "think" I can see, her bobbin tension is too loose. I think I am seeing the bobbin thread on top. What a shame. I am not a long arm quilter but I would be if I could afford the machine and supplies. She should have stopped and fixed that or called the company. I would have never let that out of my hands looking like that.

she did not have the tension set right on her machine

The leaves do look like hearts to me, but I've seen several leaves that do.