Uh Oh! I Ruined a Quilt...

Ok, so it is not a great advertisement for one's business to openly admit to ruining a customer's quilt, but it is a mistake I fully intend to never repeat, and I have learned a couple of lessons in the process. I think it would be selfish of me not to share what happened, how my customer reacted, and what I learned.

The project was very simple: take a handmade quilt, and cut it down to a new size, and finish off the edges with a self-binding. I could do that in my sleep! Easy peasy!

So the customer was pretty specific in her request - she wanted all the rope borders removed, so that the center diamond quilting could remain.



Easy peasy! So I took the measurements for the length from border to border, and if I just cut off the rope border, it would be the right size. So I measured again, marked the seam allowances, and cut off the top and bottom. Easy peasy!

Next, I measured the sides. Now, the quilt originally was square in shape, and I was cutting it down to a rectangle. So obviously I would need to cut more off of the quilt sides. So I took measurements again, border to border, and right where I was going to cut was a pesky seam, right on the top.

I measured again - yup, still in the same place. And if I cut it just a little bit wider, the seam would still be there and in a very odd place. So I asked permission from my client to cut a little narrower to get rid of the seam. No problem! Easy peasy!

So, I cut off the rope border on one side, lined up my ruler on the other side where the seam was, cut that off too, finished the edges so they wouldn't unravel, and stepped back to admire my easy peasy handiwork.

Wait. What's that in the middle of the quilt? Looks like the quilting is puckered a little more there. Maybe someone tried to repair a popped stitch?

I got up really close to the quilt and followed the stitching lines.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Not a diamond pattern at all. Nope. This was a wholecloth quilt, with a center medallion. And that awkward seam wasn't just randomly off to one side, there was a seam on both sides and in the center - because when you're piecing for a wholecloth quilt, and your fabric isn't wide enough, you're going to add it equally on both sides to bring it up to size. What I assumed to have been just a diamond pattern all over the center, was really just a border of sorts to set off the center medallion.

Since the quilt was now considerably lighter from removing so much of the border material, I decided to hang it on my design wall to survey the damage.



It was even worse than I thought. Not only was there a center medallion, but there was also another motif as a border around that. And since I measured for size starting from one border to the other, the medallion is completely off center.

I just ruined a customer's quilt!

I was sick about it all day - I could hardly think about anything else. I immediately contacted my customer to let her know what had happened, lamented and wailed to my Quiltsy friends on Etsy (who else but a quilter would appreciate this colossal error?) and awaited my fate.

I did have some wonderful suggestions coming in from the team on a potential solution, one of which was to cut down the quilt to re-center it, and then use a quilt-as-you-go method to reattach the sides, like so:


I sent that also as a suggestion to my customer, although I am mindful that a) this is not what she initially wanted, and 2) it doesn't make up for what happened.

I was hoping that she would call me, yell at me, and let me have my well-deserved lashing for not paying enough attention and for doing something so stupid.

Well - I have since heard from my customer. She emailed me rather than called to say...

just accept the quilt as a donation, finish it, and send it to someone who needs it.

She told me not to worry about it, that she'd taken on projects before and made mistakes, and that she would have done the same thing if she'd done it herself, since she didn't even know that level of detail was in her quilt.

I am flabbergasted. Overwhelmed. Still feeling guilty and terrible about what happened. I can't believe that she was so understanding and generous of spirit.

So here is what I learned:

1. Be kind to people who make mistakes (put yourself in their shoes.) Now admittedly, I think I deserved to get yelled at, but my client chose to be kind. I already felt terrible about it, and being yelled at would have made me feel worse. I think she knew that, and weighed her reaction, and chose to be kind. So next time I am in a situation and someone has made a mistake that impacts me, I will remember to be kind, because you never know when the roles will be reversed.
   
2. If you're the one who made the mistake, own up to it. Sure, I could have tried to ignore what happened, or pretend not to notice it, and send it on. But that just goes against my nature to gloss over mistakes or let things ride.
3. Apologize, and offer to fix it. Now, some things just can't be fixed, what's done is done, but you need to put yourself out there in a willing and open manner. What can you do to help?
4. Learn from the experience. In my case, overconfidence was definitely a factor, and I will do well to remember that just because you can do something in your sleep, doesn't mean you should. Be vigilant in your approach to things, because even the most mundane routines can surprise you. Ask any quilter who has sliced into one of their fingers from a wayward rotary blade, or stitched their finger when machine piecing.
5. Don't let a mistake ruin your life. Certainly, this has been a little bit of a knock to my ego & confidence, and it might take me a little bit to recover, but deep down I know that I am a good person and that I am good at what I do. This particular customer may never trust me with a project again, but then again, this might be the perfect time to trust me with a project because I am ever so vigilant now!
   

Happy quilting!