I just finished my second quilt called "royal order". I took it to a person to quilt that was recommended. I got the quilt back and I have to say I am sick. Has anyone ever taken out an entire quilting job or am I being to harsh. I think it ruined my quilt. I went ahead and bound it. I have done two quilts and she has quilted both. The first time I thought it was just me.

It is hard to see the quilting. What did she do that you are disappointed in?

What's wrong?
To me, it looks like you have a lovely quilt ... please do tell us why you are disappointed?

I can't really discern the quilting pattern. Better pics maybe? But it doesn't strike me either way except the quilting lines crossing the white stars doesn't look good in these pics. Sorry.

To me it looks sloppy-she did a random star pattern, I think I would of been happier with a tighter pattern. My question is can this be taken out without damaging the quilt?

Just because someone has a LA does not make her an artist with it. I have not unquilted, but members of my guild have. that was when the LA was acting up, however. If it does not please YOU, that is reason enough to unquilt and go to someone else.

BTW, your quilt looks very nice.

What had you agreed upon?

When I take a quilt to a LAQ, we discuss amd agree before I leave what will be done .... or how much freedom she can have in doing the job.

Did you discuss with your LA what you wanted as far as design goes? Did you want panagragh? Is the stitching not uniform?
Personally I think from what I see it looks just fine, but, it all depends what you were charged. If you can afford custom quilting I would look for a new LA that you would be happy with.

Love your quilt and colors.

Did you and the LA discuss what you wanted done or did you give her free choice?
If you did not discuss it with her, then you cannot blame the LA.
If you did and she did not follow your wishes, then by all means let her know.
No one can improve upon their abilities unless ther are given some constructive criticism to know where to make the changes necessary.
Personally I would have done a star within the stars and a pattern in the sashing areas.
All that said, it still looks nice because of your pattern, colors, and design.

Were you looking for a more uniform pattern within the stars, the x's, the white borders, which would bring everything together and make it 'tighter'? If so, then I agree with you. I hope you learn to like this, or if taking it all out is what you need to do, then I hope everything turns out as you envisioned it to.

You can take the quilting out if you are careful. I don't think I would do it with the binding on.

Your disappointment is why I did not send out my dolly ( avitar) out.. I put so much love and energy in her.. I was afraid.

The long arm quilters are a wonderful huge group of quilters. Amazing stuff comes from them..

I just wonder as your posts shares,... paraphrased .. "I would have picked a tighter quilt design" something like that.. So sorry with your disappointment. It would be a very sad day to pick up your paid and waited for loved pieced quilt.

Good luck.. maybe more talking as to your hopes on the design.

I so get this.. I chanced my own FMQ on Dolly rather than send her out..

Good luck.. Don't give up on those that work hard with their own equipment. I do hope the next time you send something to another for quilting, you will have great success !

Ell

Why on earth would you take the second one to a person whose work didn't suit you? BTW, from what I see, it's not a bad job. It's pretty.

Did you specify a design? If a quilter says I'll do random stars ( or whatever) ask to take look at samples. If there are no samples available, then at least ask for a sketch. If they cannot provide a sample or sketch, look for another long arm quilter.
yes, you can take the quilting out. Remove the binding. You can either carefully clip the stitches on the back every so often, then pull the top thread off. If you work from the back and slip, it's easier to fix the backing than your beautiful top. You can also use the 'skinning' technique where you lift the backing a bit and cut the thread between the batting and backing. Just work slowly and put on your favorite movie.
If you used 100% cotton the holes left from the stitches will close if you steam them or when the quilt is laundered after it's been re-quilted.

THAT is why I bought my LA. after all that time and expense it is heartbreaking to be disappointed in the quilting. So now I do my own. I am so sorry your quilt didn't come out as you were hoping. I hope there is someone else in your area. :cry:

What type of batting did you use? Some battings are flat, some are puffy after quilting.

Sorry for double post

I feel your pain! I took a quilt I had made for my mother to a LA quilter. Mom picked out the pantograph pattern thinking it would kind of interlock. When we got the quilt back, instead of interlocking, the designs were stacked one on top of the other. I had planed to take the stitching all out and redo the quilting. Since then, Mom has passed and I gave the quilt to my older sister who loves it.

If you are keeping the quilt for yourself, I'd consider taking the stitching out. If you are gifting it, the person receiving it may love it just as it is.

It might take just as much time to pick out the quilting as it would to make a new top.

From what I can see, the quilting design is not a good match for the top.

I have seen others here who have taken out all of the stitching. If you are careful and the fabrics are cotton, it should be fine. You would have to take the binding off before re-quilting it.

I love the colors in your quilt.

I can really understand your disappointment if your quilt has come back and it isn't how you dreamed it would be then you are naturally disappointed......but that's where I think the problem may lie...if you don't relay what the end quilt looks like in your head to the LA quilter then you will always be disappointed.
If I were ever to send mine off I think I would draw a simple drawing of the quilt and in pen show what type of quilting I would like.... even if it was a useless drawing hopefully it might give them a much better idea of what you want.

Good advice.

From what I can tell your quilt is quite impressive! And it's only your second quilt...wow!!! Even if the quilting itself isn't exactly what you wanted I think you can be assured that your quilt pattern and colors are awesome and it's still a very attractive quilt. Don't know if I'd take out the stitching but if I weren't happy with it I certainly would look for a different LAQ in the future. Good luck with your decision as to what you're going to do.

I'm a ripper, and from what I see i'm disapointed in the star centers looks like someone did not care of give thought to what they were quilting. what ashame. perhaps the next time discuss what you want done.
Love the Quilt

You can certainly take it out without wrecking your quilt, if you're that disappointed.

Same response. I just picked out some quilting I tried to do myself and decided to do my designs by hand. Still working on it.

I am in the process of taking one out right now, the best thing is to work from the back just in case you slip. I also just purchased a LIGHTED SEAM RIPPER to help me see some of the areas better. It was only about $6 from Nancy's Notions on line.

I don't understand what was wrong with it.

So sorry of your disappointment. Hard to see the pattern. Lots of good advice already listed. It is a beautiful quilt.

I can relate very well to your problem. I completed a Spinning Star and took it to a highly recommended LAQ only to have her not do anything we discussed she would do. I have begun the long, tedious job of removing the horrible attempt at quilting she did. I truly understand how ill you feel.

Thanks for all the responses. As this is my second quilt I dont think I was aggressive enough in stating what I wanted. (Since at this point of the game I am not sure what to really ask) I also worried I would insult the person who has a good heart. I think in the future I will try and do it myself for awhile-until I learn more. I think I'll move on to number 3 and take this as a lesson learned-I know what I like.

Heres a pic of my daisy doodle-Quilt #1

I hope since you are unhappy that you let her know. How can she help satisfy you if you don't let her know. If you did tell her and she didn't try to resolve the matter then I would make sure she knows why you aren't going back. Especially if she's new she needs quilters to tell her how they really feel before someone isn't so nice and she's left wondering why that "one" person doesn't like her work. Besides I have a moto "If I pay for something I want it done right"; rather it's food or something else.

From what I can see, it looks like a pantograph. I think you would have been happier with a custom quilted design. A custom quilted design would have emphasized the stars instead of quilting through them. Would I take it out? I think I'd wait a while and see if it still bothered me a month from now. If you take it out you have wasted your money and you still will either have to requilt it yourself or pay to get it quilted again.

I agree with Tartan -- I believe you really want custom quilting. The custom quilter looks at the quilt and makes the quilt stand out in its design. The pantographs just do a design all over regardless of the block patterns.

Your question -- ever taken quilting out --- yes, you can do that -- very carefully. Don't just grab a thread and rip --- that may rip the fabric. And you will have to get more backing. Remember, the longarmer will need more than the quilt top size. You may even need more batting. If you're going to do the new one on your home machine, you don't need the extra. You MAY want to look it over good and see if you can ADD to her design (if there is a design)....

I think that quilt looks very nice, but it is YOU who need to be satisfied. Once I sent a quilt out and let the LA do as she liked. I was not happy at first, but after washing it looked really nice. I like the soft wrinkly old fashioned loved look so washing solved my problem!

I think that the quilting is so important -- I have seen quilts "ruined" with poorly designed MQing. The local QS here does a terrible job. I wouldn't take a dog blanket to them. There is a quilter that does a nice job at a different (my fav) shop.

I chose someone here on line because I could see examples of her work. I sent a small baby quit first and then my dearly prized bargello. I usually hand quilt -- right now I am in the middle of 2 that I hope will be done by spring.

By all means, do talk with her to tell her why you are not happy. It may help her to improve. Perhaps she just doesn't have the "artist eye" to enhance a quilt design. And she may also return some of your money

Mim

Good advice-the investment in time and money is alot. I take responsibility for the lack of communication. I am just learning about all the parts of the process. Thanks to all how gave me their thoughts.

I think I can see what you are referring to. The quilting on your white stars, IMHO, appears to be rather hap-hazard and in no way uniform. It seems to be 'all over the place'. I only take my quilting to my nearest sewing machine and do my own. Perhaps you should go back to her and voice your dislike for the work performed.

I took a baby quilt to a shop that does LA quilting for customers. I explained that I wanted a tight quilting when I picked it up it was quilted nice but quilted very far apart. I paid over one hundred dollars for a few lines of quilting. Needless to say I bought my own long arm after that, The shop had beautiful quilts done by them on display but mine looked very cheap after done. Unfortunately the shop owner is a family friend and I couldn't make trouble amoung friends, Lesson learned.