What to consider before sending out your quilts

Have ever considered having your quilting done by someone else? If you go to a longarm quilter you may find the pricing to be a bit confusing. What does edge to edge mean? or What is heirloom quilting? And how do you decide what is best for your quilt? After all you spent hours making that quilt top, and it may even be for a gift. Now you are going to hand it over to a stranger and say "finish it for me"

So how do you decide what quilting is best? Well here is a no frills explanation of some of these terms found on Mcarmickles Weblog.

Some other things to consider before handing over the quilt.

1. See examples of the work.


2. Get references of satisfied customers, and call them to see what their experiences were like.


3. Find out how long this quilter has been in the business of quilting other peoples quilts. She may have years of quilting experience on her own quilts, but if she is knew to quilting for others, she may not yet be good with understanding what you want. And if she does not ask enough of the right questions, you could be disappointed in the results. Many quilters have a specific idea or look they are going for, but don't know how to convey that to the quilter. A good professional quilter will know how to ask the right questions to be sure you both understand how the finished product will look.


4. If you have to ship the quilt out for quilting be sure you know how to package it properly and get it insured! Although if it gets lost, or damaged insurance won't fix it, but at least it will give you money to buy fabric to make a new one. You may want to work with a local quilter where you can drop it off personally to avoid any problems with mailing your quilts.

What every you do, do your research on the quilter before giving up your top. After all you spent all that time and energy creating the top. Make sure it comes back just the way you want it to! Many of us enjoy making tops, why not let those who enjoy quilting the tops do it for you. So you can get on to your next top! If you find a good machine quilter you may have a partner for life that will make both of you happy quilters!

If you know of any good machine quilters (ones you have used personally) Share them with us, along with your experiences. Remember rule number 2, get references from satisfied customers? Share your experienced machine quilters with our readers, by leaving a comment with their contact information or links to their websites. If you are a experienced machine quilter and want to leave a comment with your contact info, we would love to have it.