I am glad that you have had a conversation with your LArmer - and am hoping for a happy resolution for you. I am hoping that you post a picture of your quilt!
I quilt my own tops now, but have sent out a couple of my tops in the past (to my wonderful cousin who is a LArmer). That was years ago, on my first quilts, and my quilts came back beautifully quilted! After reading posts like these (there have been several as of late) - I think of calling her and asking her - do you remember quilting my quilts? Did I have wavy borders, etc that you had to take pains to work out, or other issues? Because if I did - she never said anything to me.
These posts make me determined that I will continue to quilt my own tops on my DSM. Invariably somewhere on the quilt (usually in the border) - I will have a small area that I come to that I have to really slow down and work with to ease in a little fullness (to avoid a pucker). And yes, I have ripped some quilting out to re-do it. Sometimes it is such a small area I leave it be, because I know that since I wash my quilts and like that "puckery" look - it will disappear when the quilt shrinks. My quilts are generally square (I say generally to mean that I do not have one side that is substantially longer than another - very minimal difference if any - but that difference is obviously enough to cause some problems).
From these posts I am learning. I think if I ever choose to send a top out I will either use my cousin (involves mailing my quilt out of state), OR make sure I communicate closely with the LArmer before leaving my quilt. It seems to be very important to see their work in person, ask them how they handle quilting issues that come up (ie, wavy border), ask them to let me know if they see any problems with my pieced top BEFORE they start (actually, anywhere in the process where it is causing them grief), seems it would also be beneficial to speak to other quilters they quilt for (references). Communication seems to be key.
And - WOW - all of you LArmers that do such beautiful work on this board!!! I would have never said it was a walk in the park, but I didn't know all of the intricacies of what you might face as you work on other people's quilts. I am amazed at the beautiful quilting that you do!
