The first quilt I sent out , took 3 months. I found someone else to quilt my large quilts. With sending them through the mail , I still get them back in less than a week. She does a great job!!

Here is depends on who is doing the quilting. One gal has a 6 month wait list, yes 6 months. She does a lot of high end quilting. She is one the most expensive in our area.
Others are a little more resonable and turn around is normally around 4 weeks.

I would give her a date to have it done by and not just say, 4 weeks. That way she knows you need it by that time.

As long as you know that up front, it's really not a problem. She certainly doesn't have to have your quilt in her posession for that whole time and doesn't even need to know the size at that point. You could actually get yourself on her schedule for quilting before you even start making the quilt. All it means is that she's booking that far out and with a little planning on your part, there should still only be a week or two max before you get your finished quilt back.

SO glad to read about this topic. I am a new quilter and really have nothing to gauge the turn around time on. My quilts are taking 6+ weeks, well beyond the promised date. My take away is that the agreed date of completion should be met, otherwise the LAQ should call the customer. It also looks like 2-4 weeks is the average.

my friend who does professional LA has a list.. you can reserve a space when you start the quilt as soon as you know the dimensions.....if you need more time to finish the top you can drop back on the list....but when you are ready your time is 'next' so she never has quilts piling up but has continual work...... and she saves a time for charity baby quilts which she does 3 at a time on the wide frame. Ok, read this before i hit post and it is safe to say we all love her dearly!!!!!

Why not ask her when she would be able to have it for you..and if that period of time doesn't work for you, then perhaps a bit of haggling might do the trick.

Won't hurt !!!!

With my LAer. I let her know when I need it...she lets me know her work load. Sometimes I need it fast and her other clients will have to wait and sometimes I am the one to wait. 5 or 6 weeks would be the outside edge on how long I have waited.
I did call a woman once who told me it would be three months...not sure why the woman has a business that is too long in my opinion.

The only one I have ever used let me know how long it would be and it was about a month and it was finished. I would try someone else if you feel you are getting the runaround. Things do happen but there should be some explanation, not just extensions of time. Good Luck

where in Jersey are you I do longarm work and a very reasonable pm me if you are interested I'm in Mays Landing and have great sucess with priority shipping

It sounds like she is 'scheduling' by date wanted rather than "first in--first out". By squeezing them in according to those dates, she isn't able to manage the time correctly. Maybe gently talk to her about how she schedules....