transporting top and back to longarmer

As a long armer, the only time I press the tops is when the piecer didn't press the seams very well in the first place. If I'm doing Stitch in the Ditch, good pressing is necessary. Random wrinkles, that happen just by fussing with the top, are ok. My customers usually bring tops to me either in a bag or just folded up. Some bring them on hangers but I just put them in a bag.

I think a good pressing before dropping it off with your quilter should be good enough and you shouldn't be charged for pressing.

~~~~~~~ Laurie G. in CA

I have one of those huge drycleaners' hangers that a down comforter came back on one time. I fold the backing, and batting on that. I usually very carefully roll the batting, put it in a plastic bag and hang it over the top of the hanger. Invariably you'll have a little bit of creasing, but what I've found since I started long-arming myself is that most of that comes out anyway with the natural process of rolling the quilt on the machine.

Sherry

And what if the quilt is being shipped rather than hand delivered?

This kind of question makes me want to stick with local quilters. So far I haven't had anything worthy of someone's longarm, but I expect to before the year is over.

If it's well pressed before you go and folded neatly during transport, the longarmer shouldn't need to do any extra pressing.

Personally, I only charge for pressing when I see the piecer didn't make much effort to press it before hand. If I think it needs pressing only because it's been sitting neatly folded, I throw that in for free. Most of the longarmers I know do the same.

Just curious. Is your work mostly local stuff or is a lot of your business longer distance? Does that run the gamut for pro-machine quilters? I would imagine it might be trickier for you when you can't actually talk to the piecer with the top in front of both of you. As you get more repeat customers do you kind of get a working relationship going and it gets more intuitive? The idea of sending a top out is kind of foreign to me. Taria

Kathy Applebaum wrote:

When shipping a quilt, I was told to fold the quilt top gently, separately from the backing, and put some tissue paper in the fold areas. Press before folding and shipping, and the fold lines won't be there for long enough to cause serious issues. If the project has been sitting folded for quite some time, then the creases might be more problematic.

Dannielle

I just shipped 3 quilt tops and their backings in a $8.50 Priority box and the Long Arm Quilter said they came without a wrinkle or crease. I folded them separately and then rolled them and wrapped them with Press and Seal. They were really packed tight in the box as I was trying to save on shipping costs. She said she loved they way they were packaged and was going to recommend this method in the future. They were shipped from NH to WA so had a long ride.

Kathy in NH

I almost never do long distance stuff, because I need to talk to the piecer face to face, and I need to see their reaction to my samples. Others do long distance only, or both. There's as many ways to business as there are longarmers. :)

Almost all of my business is repeat or word-of-mouth referrals.Always more comfortable for me when people have seen my work before.