As a beginner, I found this thread fascinating. Lots of tips and ideas I can put to use to grow my skills.
Kudos to all who gave “feedback.” It’s very hard to give in a way that doesn’t sound critical. It’s a risk for the person giving feedback.
And I totally agree with maviskw.......your actions show a kind heart, profannie. You even hesitated to say “suspicious” regarding the shop’s motives. Not being so kindhearted, I thought that immediately.:o
I love the pattern. It’s very pretty.
Thank you for posting the thread.

I want to add to the (partial) comment from Dunster. I think this is is so important to have this attitude and/or work ethic. I hope you are able to satisfy this customer. I realize it will be difficult from a long-distance. I hope you will let us know how you resolved this.

I,too, think your quilt is lovely and a few loose threads and maybe some uneven stitches are really minor issues. I believe you said this is a memory quilt. This quilt shop has now added a very bad and sad memory for your customer. She will always remember their comments. That is so unfortunate because it will never be what she had intended it to be. I guess the same can be said for you. Try not to let this discourage you. There was no way you could have foreseen a situation like this. Keep on quilting!

I want to thank everyone who took the time to comment this thread. I'm overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of the members of this board. I'm grateful for all the critic, advice, compliment and support. This have been incredibly helpful. Yesterday, I sent a precise explanation to each "issue" listed by the shop email forwarded by the customer. I outlined how and why some points were only aesthetic considerations, and how some others were minor problems that could be easily corrected if the quilt was sent back to me. This morning, I sent a few screen shot of comments from this thread to create a somehow third party expert opinion to my customer. I told her that if she send me back the quilt at my expense, I would correct the minor issues found by the shop that I agreed on. I told her that the final decision was in her hand, but felt complied by professional duty to let her know that the project of the shop of removing all the stitching was, from my point of view, a very risky procedure for her precious clothing. It's more than what most members recommend me to say, but I have exchanged (can you believe it?) more than 200 email with this customer related to this project, so I know her a little and feel it was the way to go. The quilt shop have not given her any estimate yet, but she told me already it in her previous email that it was going to be high end. I guess she might wait for the total before answering me. Anyway for my part, everything is done and said. It's behind me. I'm not upset anymore (thanks to all of you) If I don't hear back from her within a week, I'll post all the detail of my offer (with a specific time frame) and I'll move on. I just want to add that I've been making quilts for customers for the past two years, and have been lucky enough to be in contact with the sweetest persons in the world. In addition of being paid without any complaint, I have received ton of love and pictures of my quilts with their new recipient. One customer even sent me a video showing her 3 year son "discovering" his new quilt! My shop reviews are filled with nice comments. This make you strong enough to bear one bad experience like this from time to time :-) I'm high spirit and ready to work on new projects!

Well done! Well done! I read your post with great delight. :-)

I agree! You have done your best to answer her problems as started by the quilt shop so move on. The quilt is a wonderful memory quilt.

I'm so sorry that you are having these issues. Quilting for someone else, I believe, is tricky. Most non quilters have no idea of what goes into making a quilt. Your quilt really looks beautiful. I FMQ my own quilts on my DM. For the life of me, I am unable to get equal length stitches. However, laundering the quilt pretty much disguises those unequal stitches. Using different fabrics, I believe, would also be difficult. I have also had some quilters who work in shops be very judgemental and critical of almost everything. You have stumbled into a really difficult situation. I do agree that I would have her send the quilt back to you so that you may see what you can do to correct any open seams and bury threads. I have also found that with a quilt this large, it is easy to miss tales on the backside. Good luck!

I've been following this thread, mostly with a crying heart for you. So glad you got some support from this board and you are able to take the critical remarks as 'constructive' (which we also sometimes need). So, so glad you offered your solution and now able to move on. I make a lot of memory quilts and I love doing it. So once again, I loved your quilt and would have been proud to be the owner.

I really can't see that much detail from the pictures -

but a question you might ask yourself -

"If I had paid someone else to make this quilt for me, would I have been satisfied with it?"