Oops

Well, this wasn't expected.

I got my my second Carolina Christmas back from the longarmer, and it's quilted with the most wonderful pattern of snowflakes and swirls. But, as you can see in this picture, something isn't quite right. (Back of quilt is photographed for clarity.) She and I both looked at the quilt when I picked it up. Neither of us saw it. I didn't find it until I was trimming the edges. Of course, this was the middle of the last edge to be trimmed. There it was, a spot about as large as my hand with fingers outstretched, completely void of quilting.

How did it happen? We aren't quite sure, but this is our best guess: This is a very wide panto pattern, almost 18", and the computer controls make the quilting machine loop back on itself to fill in parts of the pattern as it goes instead of sewing the pattern completely, left to right. We assume that her computerized machine ran off the edge of the quilt and shut down rather than looping back to fill in this gap. She didn't see it and advanced the quilt on the roller.

She gave me some matching thread and I will locate a repeat in another area and trace the missing piece of the pattern onto some acetate, so I can make a stencil to mark the area before quilting it myself. Since the quilt had been trimmed it would have been hard to reload it on the longarm and adjust so that the pattern would match up. It is a lot easier if I fix it.

I don't blame her. She's a great quilter and I love her work. This is just one of those things that happen when you automate the process - once the machine ran off the side of the quilt it didn't go back on this pass. Just one of those things.

A little quilty progress

I did accomplish some sewing yesterday. I completed binding my butterfly lap quilt; it's lying on the end of the couch now. I'll make a photo tomorrow and post it. I used a new longarmer for it and she did a nice job. Maybe that will be my new quilting source. As I am about to tell, the other one I have has disappointed me once too often.

Some time ago I started a failed log cabin - not enough contrast. It wasn't going to be a prize winner but it was bright and the fabrics were pretty, so I put a piano key border around it and sent it to be quilted at the local longarmer shop. I provide my own batting and backing because they use polyester batting which I think is too thick and only have white backing. Their quoted price includes their batting and backing, and I used to get a credit since I supplied my own. Well, surprise, today when I picked up the quilt, they raised their prices and don't give me that credit anymore, so I'm in effect paying for materials I'm not getting. Great, just great.

Smarting from that indignity (what are you going to do, not pay them and not get your quilt back?) I brought it home and started to trim the edges. That's when I found that they weren't very careful loading the batting on the roller and got a big old pleat in it that extends about half the length of the quilt! It overlaps on itself by a good two inches, so it's not just a small bobble. They just went on and quilted it with that lump of batting running down the center! And there's nothing you can do about it now. This wasn't a "good" quilt or anything, but that kind of sloppiness is inexcusible.

In the past, they had been good at their job. But, several years ago, they screwed up a couple of quilts of mine, and I had stopped using them. The business changed hands last year and their quality had returned. Evidently, not anymore. Well, strike them from the list. I'm calling the owner and he's getting a piece of my mind tomorrow.