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.