Well, look what happens after a custom quilter get their hands on it:
 |
| "Clouds in My Latte" |
 |
| detail of "Clouds in My Latte" |
Most longarmers want to be recognized and acknowledged for the work they do. If they don't want the recognition, you probably don't want them stitching on your quilt. I could go on for hours showing before and after pictures, but I won't. I think you get the idea... I HOPE, you get the idea.
To get back to the point of this post...
I was at guild last night, we had a speaker. I'm not naming any names, but she showed many quilts. She mentioned on some "I quilted this". On others see mentioned nothing. This was tolerable for maybe two quilts -- were we, as an audience to assume that she had quilted them all? My table was "shushed" multiple times, we were discussing several things, including WHO quilted them. Finally on the third unmentioned quilt, one of my lala (longarmer) friends asked, "Did you quilt that?"... she replied "no" while looking at the label. She did mention that she belonged to a very large guild of 250 or so women, with at least 10 longarmers. She mentioned this in a stern voice. I got the impression she was trying to make this sound impressive. Well, little did she know, in our group of about 50 last night there were quite possibly close to 10 longarmers in the room, there were 3 just at my table! Needless to say, this really bothered me. It does not matter how many longarmers are in your guild, it does not matter how many longarmers you use... YOU GIVE CREDIT to the person that stitched on your quilt! PERIOD!
Honestly, I feel this bothered me soooo much, because I have been to multiple quilt shows and looked at a quilt that I had quilted and yet nothing about me, my name is not listed on the card, not in the show program, nothing. Did this customer think that she was going to enter this show as if she had pieced/apppliqued, and quilted this quilt? WRONG... both piecer and machine quilter deserve recognition, the piecer for creating and the machine quilter for adding to.
Another of my customers emailed me just last week telling me I never have to worry about this. She always gives me credit (which I know she does). She had the same thing happen to her, except that a family member claimed her work as their own. Seriously... people, what is wrong with this society!
So, all I'm trying to say is give credit where credit is due.
I'm done ranting... for now! Happy Day Quilties!
As a seamstress for hire over the years I know how you feel. Wedding dresses that were custom made and not a bit of credit. I have gotten so I just do for myself because of the hurt feelings over this kind of treatment. I admire anyone that is as creative with their work as you are and any other quilters, longarmer or hand quilter are. I read several blogs and know this is an issue. Sorry people don't give credit where credit is due. Chris
ReplyDeleteGreat rant Karen! If the guest presenter at your guild meeting just wanted to talk about the piecing they should have held up quilt tops~
ReplyDeleteIf the presentation is about the completed quilt then the piecer, the quilter, the pattern and the fabric designer is all equally important to the audience....sometimes we want to hire a long armer if we love her style and sometimes we just have to have the fabric! No shusshing....sharing! ♥Eileen
Amen Karen! It's like an author who doesn't give credit to the illustrator who created the beautiful graphics for a book. Same thing. I also don't like it when people show pictures on facebook and don't give credit to anyone, piecer or longarmer.
ReplyDeleteWow your work is amazing and agree you should be credited for it!
ReplyDeleteI hear ya sister. I had a very good client not so long ago that I quilted 11 of her 13 wedding quilts (part of a dowry/long story). She had her story published a couple months ago in AP&Q, showing at least 5 or 6 of the quilts, all ones I quilted. And was there so much as a mention of the quilter? Nada. I was so peeved I wrote the editor a scathing note. It is just wrong.
ReplyDeleteAMEN, sistah! I don't know if people that don't give credit are trying to keep the credit for themselves, or if they simply don't realize that it is important to give proper credit where credit is due. Either option is a shitty one. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteamen sistah!!!
ReplyDeleteit's not a quilt til it's quilted!!
what's with shows discounting our involvement too- getting rid of pieced by one/quilted by another!! citing that a piecer could buy a blue ribbon- wth?? it's a soapbox i can easy jump onto...
-fellow LAer for hire (should i put a red light outside my studio?)
Those who give proper credit always will.-Those who don't never will. I'm afraid it is just a fact of the "times". It stinks but it all too true. The fact is probably that there are more like 30 La's in the 250 member quild and she just doesn't care.
ReplyDeleteThis is my pet P. also. I had a customer tell me that once paid for the work, that was all the credit I was due. Seriously, she claimed the entire quilt her own work and even entered it into a show as the machine quilter. That's when I quit quilting for the general public. Now my friends and family appreciate my work and I get lots of support without all the headaches.
ReplyDeleteRight on! I totally agree!!!! The quilting does make the quilt and you should be acknowledged for that! Unfortunately, not everyone is honest in this world!
ReplyDeleteKaren, how sad that we've all had this done to us. There's a local guild (not mine) who no longer allows "quilt for hire" quilts to be judged. A customer of another longarmer entered her quilt under her own name, saying she was justified because of the guild's rule. The longarmer was a vendor at the show and saw the quilt, with a ribbon. She never went to the quilt show committee; she swallowed it and just told her friends. but she never quilted for her again.
ReplyDeleteAll of these explain why I've never quilted for the public - and never will. I piece and quilt by hand - sometimes spending a couple of years on one quilt; to be perceived as unimportant doesn't appeal to me. I quilt for those I love - friends and family - and give them away freely; but every recipient knows the value of the work and the love behind their quilt.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Karen....... I have nothing to add to your post because you hit the nail on the head.
ReplyDeleteI really agree Karen that people need to give credit where it is due. I am fortunate that a lot of people do, and the ones that don't, well I know that one day they will get their just rewards. People who do things like that though are the ones that you never want to listen to them speak again. What they say has no meaning to me when I know that it is based on a lie, and when you accept credit for someone else's work then it is a lie, when you deny you know who quilted the quilt that you hired them to quilt, again I think you lie. It's a shame that there are people out there who live their lives in that manner. Those are people I shun. There are some I refuse to quilt anything for because of their lies in the past. I think it's all just part of life but it hurts when someone we know does things like this to us. I would avoid that speaker like the plague, and never mention her name. I would never give her the free advertising!
ReplyDeleteYour work is beautiful, and the resulting quilts seem to be more durable, too. And credit should be given where credit is due.
ReplyDeleteOf course credit should be given where due! One more reason is so that those of us who might be looking for someone to add their longarm magic to our quilts can know who does the work we admire.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
ReplyDeleteI quilted 13 quilts for a gal, all part of her wedding dowry. She ended up having this published in a quilting magazine as an interest story last year and I was SO pissed not to have a single credit shown in the magazine, despite all 13 being shown in photos. Shame on her and shame on the magazine. What would they have been w/o the quilter?...a 13 flimsy dowry?
Your work is gorgeous! I always include the quilter's name on my labels. I give credit where credit is due.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I have been to a couple of shows and noticed quilts that have been make from a kit that do not include the designers name - when recognisable as such to me, I don't know how that is allowed by the show's organisers...
ReplyDeleteYour work is amazing! Your quilting is what made this quilt stunning. Without the quilting I would never take a second, third or fourth look at it. It is now one of those quilts you cannot stop looking at and it is not be this way if it did not have your superb quilting skills on it. I would love to have one quilted by you for me. Could you send me a private email and let me know how much you would approximatley charge for a queen size quilt? (patchesandseams@prodigy.net)
ReplyDeleteDebi
One of the guilds I used to belong to (before I moved) used to have a yearly show. It was a relatively small show, but a nice show. The entry forms always had a spot to put in who quilted it. I had a customer enter a quilt that I had quilted into this show and not only did she omit my name, she put her OWN name down as the machine quilter! One of my friends in the guild, took a marker and crossed out this person's name and put mine in, but I couldn't believe she had done that!
ReplyDeleteTakes all kinds I guess!
Beautiful quilting btw!
Frankly, any one who would put themselves down as the quilter when they had hired it out, should be blackballed by quilters. Good grief, even Nancy Crow hires her quilting out...and she ALWAYS gives credit!! Until it's quilted it's just a top. Some are spectacular AS a top. Most are not. The quilting is what makes or breaks most quilts....
ReplyDelete