a small vent

"> Mostly I'm annoyed for getting myself into this situation and for

So nice of you to offer to do this for a friend, even if it is a pain to do! Barbara in SC

Anytime, anytime. I admire your tenacity for your friend's sake. Well done, you.

Karen, Queen of Squishies

#1 Well done you for fighting the good fight, and persevering.... and winning. and #2 An added bonus is that _I_ will now never bother with that HST technique, which I had down as looking like a _good idea_.

Thanks Nel (Gadget Queen)

Howdy!

Oh, I feel your pain!

This comes from my book, "Sight Unseen: Never Again!"

Several yrs ago a quilty friend who lives about 40 miles away, asked me to help a friend with whom she worked at a quilt shop, offering my name as a handquilter to the friend's cousin, a woman who had inherited her uncle's estate and, of course, found a "beautiful, antique quilt top" that just had to be handquilted. My assumption #1: that these 2 quilters had actually seen the quilt top &/or the niece & knew what they were talking about. Assumption #2 came when the niece called to meet with me & we set up a date for her to come to my house w/ the quilt top. She didn't make it all the way here, she called to say she was running late in everything (including her life, I'm sure) & could meet me at the highway exit. ? Hey, I cleaned the front room, lady; get over here! I met her on the side road, she flashed her name & thrust a box at me, thanked me, "call me, my email address is in the box, too"... and I went home w/ this surprise, assuming #3: that this was "Something". It was, indeed, a Something, Surprise!: Polyester all over this quilt top which wasn't that old (1970s), wasn't well-pieced, had a conglomeration of fabrics stitched in, & was assembled in the dark by a pack of squiggly worms who never heard of a straight line. I fixed the fixable seams, squared up the edges, found a piece of white muslin for the back; it just wasn't worth anything else for backing. I quilted it, by hand. And it was good. Went thru' 2 pkgs of needles, some C&C quilting thread (no, not gonna' invest Gütermann on this), discovered several really cute fabrics (circa 1940), and Finished that thing. Into the wash, w/ a dye magnet, no problems on the front but there were some light bleed-throughs on the back; can't be helped, not going to change it, Such is Life & the niece couldn't really see it. She got her "heirloom" quilt, I got a big lesson: never assume ANYone knows what they're talking about in regards to a quilt top belonging to someone else! and never, never take on a project Sight Unseen. It's a pretty quilt. I hope I never see it again. ;-D

Good luck to you, Roberta!

R/Sandy - "It's a learning experience to assist you in your personal development."

On 6/23/11 8:29 AM, in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, "Roberta" wrote:

I was sympathetic until I got to the part that said: was assembled in the dark by a pack of squiggly worms who never heard of a straight line. Then I had to laugh. Years ago, I bought a quilt top, GM flower garden on ebay. It seemed like a good idea. Not. It was pieced by those same @#! worms. Polly

Oh, Sandy, I just had to laugh! Perhaps there are many of us who have experienced this.

My own story, which I try to forget, is from a person who had a quilt his mom made him, but it needed some "fixin". Uh, no kidding! I am not sure at all what this poor piece had been through, but no doubt it had survived because it was made of polyester. Yep, ugly avocado green and royal blue. The batting was wadded into clumps. And there was a horrendous smell to the whole thing. I worked with it, took the layers apart, and hand washed it all. Started looking for replacement fabric. One day he showed up at the house and said he had a new girlfriend who could fix it "because if you really cared it wouldn't have been taking you so long". I was glad to be rid of it.

And I never did hear from Chris again....

G> Howdy!

You are a good friend Roberta. Rant away. Life lessons come in lots of different forms. Taria

Mostly I'm annoyed for getting myself into this situation and for making too many assumptions.

I offered to machine quilt a top for a friend, who plans to give it to her niece. She has a lot of experience in patchwork and some in machine quilting, but her health prevents her from quilting anything larger than a wall hanging. So assumption #1 was that this top would be twin size, since it's for a young child. Wrong! the kid must sleep in at least a double bed. #2 was that my friend could piece and press accurately. Wrong again

-sigh. She used that HST technique where you sew 2 strips together down both long sides, then cut triangles, so that the resulting HSTs end up on the bias. With all those wobbly bias blocks, poorly pressed, lumpy seams, her border strips are like the waves of the ocean. #3: She didn't send enough thread. 300 yard spool for the bobbin

-please! there's one 500 yard spool for the top -BIG sigh. So I need to ask if she has more. And thread is not always easy to find here if you need to match a color. #4 The backing was a bit on the skimpy side and not perfectly square. So while each side was theoretically long enough, the sides were off by an inch or so. (Great big miserable sigh and shaking of head.) #5 She machine embroidered some lovely butterflies over some of the block intersections, and there's a large butterfly on the back. Made the top and back a bit puckery.

Anyhow, I have finished my all-over grid and the 3 inner border strips, each 1" wide. Not too many puckers, even though the dratted thing fought me every inch of the way. About to start on something fancier for the wide outer border. Thanks for letting me vent, I feel better. Roberta in D

Another good friend that has learned a lesson. I probably have a vintage (old) quilt top around here that could stand being quilted. Anyone needing to learn their lesson about now give a holler and you can quilt while we teach you! Taria

"Sandy E" wrote in message news:CA28EF09.534A0% snipped-for-privacy@tx.rr.com...

Howdy!

Oh, I feel your pain!

This comes from my book, "Sight Unseen: Never Again!"

Several yrs ago a quilty friend who lives about 40 miles away, asked me to help a friend with whom she worked at a quilt shop, offering my name as a handquilter to the friend's cousin, a woman who had inherited her uncle's estate and, of course, found a "beautiful, antique quilt top" that just had to be handquilted. My assumption #1: that these 2 quilters had actually seen the quilt top &/or the niece & knew what they were talking about. Assumption #2 came when the niece called to meet with me & we set up a date for her to come to my house w/ the quilt top. She didn't make it all the way here, she called to say she was running late in everything (including her life, I'm sure) & could meet me at the highway exit. ? Hey, I cleaned the front room, lady; get over here! I met her on the side road, she flashed her name & thrust a box at me, thanked me, "call me, my email address is in the box, too"... and I went home w/ this surprise, assuming #3: that this was "Something". It was, indeed, a Something, Surprise!: Polyester all over this quilt top which wasn't that old (1970s), wasn't well-pieced, had a conglomeration of fabrics stitched in, & was assembled in the dark by a pack of squiggly worms who never heard of a straight line. I fixed the fixable seams, squared up the edges, found a piece of white muslin for the back; it just wasn't worth anything else for backing. I quilted it, by hand. And it was good. Went thru' 2 pkgs of needles, some C&C quilting thread (no, not gonna' invest Gütermann on this), discovered several really cute fabrics (circa 1940), and Finished that thing. Into the wash, w/ a dye magnet, no problems on the front but there were some light bleed-throughs on the back; can't be helped, not going to change it, Such is Life & the niece couldn't really see it. She got her "heirloom" quilt, I got a big lesson: never assume ANYone knows what they're talking about in regards to a quilt top belonging to someone else! and never, never take on a project Sight Unseen. It's a pretty quilt. I hope I never see it again. ;-D

Good luck to you, Roberta!

R/Sandy - "It's a learning experience to assist you in your personal development."

On 6/23/11 8:29 AM, in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, "Roberta" wrote:

Taria, dear friend, we are not as dumb as we look. Polly

Howdy! Ah, no contest. I got paid. And this customer was not a friend. ;->

Like you, I learned that lesson. Do you have enough supplies to finish this project? Do you need a care pkg to soothe your spirit? Or spirits to soothe your nerves? ;-D

Cheers & hugs, R/Sandy

It did me a lot of good to blow a little steam among friends -you are a good kind person! Spirits to soothe my nerves for sure! (Especially when I get to quilting the blocks themselves.) There's a bottle of wine ready chilled.

I have already run out of bobbin thread, but no problem. My friend said it was OK to use my own judgment, and she'd reimburse me. I'll use what's in my stash and call it a design element.

F>Howdy!