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Quote:

Originally Posted by dunster (Post 8084701)

I agree with feline fanatic's advice regarding contacting the quilt shop and asking what problems they see with the quilt.

How did you deal with starts and stops? Did you backtrack, or did you knot and bury the threads? That might not be a good idea with knits, since the knots might not be large enough to stay buried. Did you use a larger than usual seam allowance for the knits, so that they won't ravel? Are they the type of knits (e.g. T-shirts) that should have an interfacing? Is the quilting sufficiently dense? Is the quilting stitch length too large? How about the stitching in the piecing? Is the quilting tension good? (It looks okay in the pictures, but are we seeing both sides of the quilt? Tension can look great on top, but terrible on the back.) Those are some of the things that would affect the structural integrity of the quilt, and we can't really judge any of those issues from the pictures.

I want to say this nicely, so please don't take offense. Your comment about how much time you spent on the quilt, compared to how little you charged, is worrisome. It implies that spending more time on something excuses a poor product, and I don't think that's how you feel. Customers want to get a bargain, but they expect to receive a good product, no matter how much they pay.

Of course, Dunster. My point is only that a quilt quality is not directly related to a perfect aesthetic. I got the detailed comment of the quilt shop (8 comments) and 7 of them are related to the aesthetic. For exemple, my binding corner should have been hand sewn to prevent ripping. Am I'm the only one here who is not hand sewing the corner of the binding??? I never did that on any quilt I made, and I never heard back from a customer complaining of having a binding going off. My children's quilt have be abused, and the binding is still fine 5 years later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tartan (Post 8084712)

From what I can see there are thread tails that should have been knotted and buried. A quilt made from different fabrics is more difficult to make and quilt. Does the quilt shop she took it to offer machine quilting? I would find out if they are just looking to criticize the quilt to get her to use their services. If you washed the quilt before sending it, it sounds structurally sound to me.

Yes, the quilt shop is offering longarm service. That's suspicious, right? I back stitch all my quilting lines, but sometimes cut the tail of it quite far from the point. This is why there is some loose threads. Again, I cut most of them, but it look like the shop have pick all the remaining ones.

That looks like a difficult pattern to do well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bearisgray (Post 8084733)

That looks like a difficult pattern to do well.

Absolutely! This is why I tried to push the customer in another direction, but she wanted this. She was aware that the quilt would not be perfect. She was very happy with it before the quilt shop messed everything.

Quote:

Originally Posted by profannie (Post 8084710)

Here's the picture of the quilt before it was all finished, just to get an idea of the size and model. The star shape were just quilted in cercle connecting the points so the quilt would be stabilized without risking any damage to the not-quilting kind of material. The border was quilted with feathers.

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What a beautiful way to make a memory quilt with many different fabrics.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cindyb (Post 8084747)

What a beautiful way to make a memory quilt with many different fabrics.

Thank you, Cindy, you warm my heart with your comment.

I feel sorry for you. It is tough to win when dealing with customer satisfaction long distance. And the longer the problem lingers, the more of a negative effect it has on you. If this happened to me, I think I would offer the customer her money back, take whatever you have learned from the incident, and be done with it.

Also, wanted to let you know that the pattern you chose, although very difficult with those curved points, makes a very nice looking design!

I think the shop really should have included explanations with the photos, so you knew exactly what they were thinking. It may be that talking to them now won't help, as it won't be fresh in their minds and they don't have the photos in front of them. You can't really reassure your customer, since you didn't get an explanation of what they thought had to be addressed to keep the quilt from falling apart (that sounds as though it might be an exaggeration). Sorry you're in such a tough situation!

Personally, I think the quilt shop sounds very unprofessional. The comment about the quilt "falling apart" is ridiculous. I have made quilts by hand sewing everything and those quilts have been drug all over the world by my great nieces and they have not fallen apart - one is 5 years old and one is 7 years old.

i would think your machine sewing would hold up better than my hand sewing for sure.

the quilts that I make are far from perfect, but they hold up.

too bad because I don't know how you would reassure your customer

Quote:

Originally Posted by meyert (Post 8084815)

Well, that's exactly my first thought; if my grandmother not so good hand quilting hold up for 60 years, why not a machine stitching, even imperfect?
Now, I've explained this to my customer, offered her to ship back the quilt. I can't do nothing more. It's her decision. Thanks for you comment!