Two-Sided Quilt
 

A friend knows I have a longarm machine and would like to have me quilt a 2-sided quilt for her. She isn't familiar with the longarm process. The problem is that she wants the back centered exactly with the front. I know how to do that if basting the quilt and doing it on a domestic machine, but I don't see a way to do it with loading the front and back separately as we always do, especially since I couldn't guarantee that the stretching would be consistent between the front and back. I also think it's a queen size, so to baste that would be more than I could handle physically. I've been putting her off because I had surgery, but want to know if I should just direct her elsewhere. You all are so knowledgeable, so I know I'll get great answers.

I'm not a long armer but my philosophy for most things/situations is...when in doubt, don't. You could use your recovery from surgery as an excuse or just be honest and say you couldn't guarantee the results and pass it on.

I am not a long arm quilt, but I would venture to say that this is not doable as she wants it. Yes, use your recovery from surgery to put this off and tell her to consult another long arm quilter. A fellow guild member does make two sided quilts that are amazing. Her secret is: do as you go quilting, block by block, and she does this on her domestic sewing. Pretty sure your friend could do this, but it would entail much use of her seam ripper. And the use of some online tutorials. Hope your recovery goes well.

I always ask myself these questions before saying yes to anything:

Who is this person to me?
Is the request something I want to do?
Is the request doable and within reason?
Will the request be stressful or require a lot of time?
Am I being paid and if so is the amount beyond sufficient for my time, efforts and any frustration?

I hope your recovery is going well, and remember, no is an answer and you don’t have to explain or justify your answer to anyone should you choose to say no.

If she already has it put together... it is not something that can be changed. not to me anyway. just let her know long arming does not allow for this and send her onto someone else willing to do her request. i wish her luck.

I feel for you. It is hard for me to say to friends that I don't quilt for anyone else, just my family. I will make a quilt and give it to someone if they have touched me in some way, but not if someone asks me to make a quilt for them. I am now working on a t-shirt quilt for first grandson for his graduation this spring. I can already hear it - would you do one for my son/daughter too? Then I will start on one for first granddaughter graduation in spring of 2022. My reasoning for not doing work for others is I know people will critique or say something like I would have done it this way, etc. I've heard that too often when someone talks about a quilt they had done for them by someone else. Unless you are a quilter, people have no idea the amount time and money spent on making a quilt. Maybe I am a little selfish but that is how I feel.

You are not selfish at all. just know the facts. My son just brought me another work shirt he wants me to add length to!! like I make clothing. not anymore. oh well, it won't kill me!!

I did this for my sister. She wanted a twin size - memory quilt on one side, panel on the other.
She knew it was an experiment that might not work before I started. She also said it wouldn't be washed often. Also, I wanted to challenge myself. It sounded like fun to try.

I did it in 3 steps:

1-Layered the top (memory side) with batting and quilted that with no back. This was the more important of the sides to her.

2-Then layered the back (panel side) with another piece of batting and quilted that.

Both battings were very thin.

3-Then I centered them together and stitched in the ditch where possible, (around the borders mostly), then just tacked it together every where possible. It was pretty easy to load onto the longarm - done as if it was just one layer - not 3.

The 2 sides were much easier to manipulate after they were individually stitched together than I thought they would be, and it actually worked out pretty well.
Also, I thought it would be very heavy, but it wasn't really.

Of course, you could just say no..... :)

Just say no. It's causing you too much frustration already. A friend will understand.