Every Quilter who buys a pattern, a magazine or a book to make a quilt
NEEDS to read the story below. Please bear with me.
Its a long story with an important lesson.
Its all about faith, trust and hope!
l received this email yesterday.
Hi Linda,
My name is Janni, I have been taken with your gorgeous adaptation of
your antique schoolhouse quilting the latest edition of patchwork and quilting.
I cut 20 blocks according to the instructions, but am having no end of
difficulty putting the blocks together.
It seems there are some discrepancies in the measurements and I am
finding the pieces will not fit.
Working from the given measurements I find that the door/ window wall
section seems to be shorter than the roof section, and the gable seems to be
far too narrow. Then the white strip between the door/ window walls does
not match up with the roof section.
Comparing the photo of the schoolhouse quilt and the diagram to follow
in the magazine, there is a discrepancy between the two.
The photo shows the white wall section as being narrower than the
comparable roof section, as does the cutting instructions. The diagram
however shows the two sections as being the same width. Also the white wall
piece is cut 10 1/4" which is much longer than the space.
None of this section seems to sit comfortably, I have tried cutting
wider windows, wider and shorter white wall piece, but it will not
match up with the roof, particularly the gable and the wall above the door.
Rather than risk wasting all my lovely fabrics, I was wondering if you
had found some mistakes in the printing,or have heard from other quilters
who are tearing their hair out trying to work it out? I am looking forward to
finishing this quilt as I love its charm and character,
but am getting to the point where I am questioning my own skills.
Please could you help me salvage this quilt!
Yours in all sincerity
Janni
Janni placed her faith in me to make this right. For that l am grateful. This was my reply.
Hi Janni,
Firstly, many thanks for bringing this to my attention. While every effort is made to ensure patterns are correct, its out of my control what the quilt magazine does with the information l send them.
Having enjoyed a wonderful day today visiting numerous quilt shops to deliver flyers for our upcoming exhibition, the last thing l expected to find when l came home was your email.
But l also know l had to try and work out what went wrong. l know l would not have slept otherwise. This is the first time in all the years l have worked with this magazine that they have got it wrong with any of my patterns.
l am sending you 4 pages attached. The first 2 are the original pattern l sent the magazine. The second page shows the mistakes ( circled ) in the printed pattern.
The second 2 pages are the proofs the magazine send me to check for mistakes. As you will see, my original and magazine proofs are the same. However, when the figures l have circled on the 2nd and 4th page are compared to the printed cutting instructions in the magazine, there was definitely something lost in translation.
While this does not help your cut fabric make the block correctly, we have at least found ( or hope l have found ) all the offending mistakes. And to my deep dismay, there is more than 1. ( read here 7. Yes that's 7 )
My suggestion is to make contact with the editor of the magazine, l have added her email below, and explain, as you did in your email to me ( in fact, l would just cut and paste). This is their responsibility to correct. And l would be suggesting full reimbursement for fabric wasted, as my written works and also those sent to me to verify are correct. l will also be writing to the editor with my disappointment. l am sure they will put a correction in a future magazine, but that does not help you or any others who will cut their fabric to make this quilt in the meantime.
l know the pattern l wrote is correct, as l used the workings to make the samples used in the picture diagrams.
My deepest apologies to you. Please don't hesitate to contact
me again if writing to the magazine does not result in satisfaction.
l would also like to make a suggestion for the future. When you decide to make a pattern from a magazine or a purchased pattern that requires you to make many blocks the same, cut just for one sample block. l know this can make a little more work, but at the same time also save much heartache in finding many pieces of cut fabric that are incorrect.
Many thanks again for bringing this to my attention. l hope you are able to make the corrections and your quilt become the treasure you planned.
Best wishes,
Linda Collins.
As a quilt designer and pattern writer, this experience has damaged
my faith in this quilt magazine. When l write my directions,
l check them, double check them, then triple check them. Then l
use my own cutting directions and make a test block. Then l cut several more sets
of pieces and make part blocks and components. Those test blocks
and components are used as pictures in the magazine.
So l know they work.
When you buy a pattern, a magazine or a quilt book, you trust they have
the directions right. In fact, you put a lot of faith in it.
Yes, sometimes things go wrong. This magazine can put in a correction notice
BUT!
It won't help those who only bought the magazine for this particular pattern.
It won't help those who decide in a few years time to make this quilt.
It won't help those, who, over the following years, buy this magazine second
hand and decide to make this quilt.
Who knows how many years l will get emails about this particular
pattern. That's the risk we take as designers.
But it's difficult when l am not to blame.
l have sent Janni a copy of my own written directions, and a copy of the directions
the magazine sent me for approval. These 2 were the same.
The problem occurred when the directions were typed ready
for printing. This does not help Janni or any others that have
bought the magazine, fallen in love with the project, bought their fabric
and placed trust in the directions being correct and started cutting.
Yes, l did loose sleep last night worrying about it. l take what l do seriously.
Because when all is said and done, l don't do this for the money.
Believe me. l won't make my fortune writing quilt patterns.
l do it because l love and want to share my passion for
quilting and the antique quilts l own. l want others to be able to make
their own version of an antique quilt l love.
l want to share my knowledge with this wonderful community of quilters.
That's part of who l am!!
Something similar happened to me about 6 years ago. A new quilt shop
opened and my sewing buddy and l fell in love with one of the
quilts being offered as a class. We bought our fabric, turned up at the
class and proceeded to cut the requirements. Over the next few
classes we all make advances with our blocks. Then came the day
to attach our setting triangles.
As we stitched, l discovered the setting triangle measurements
was wrong. The triangles were too small. l brought this to the attention of
our teacher, the designer of the quilt. Naturally she was horrified.
She offered to replace all fabric that had been cut the wrong size, with
most in the class taking up the offer. l couldn't. l felt bad enough bringing
the matter to her attention. l had plenty of fabric, l said, l will reuse
those triangles in another project. But our trust was a little damaged.
Maybe this experience has led me into writing my own patterns.
Then l only have myself to blame.
One thing l do know when making multiple blocks the same for a quilt. l always cut
and test a block first. Yes, this does take time. But this way, if there is a problem,
it can be sorted quickly, without wasting too much fabric.
Janni's was a tough lesson to learn.
This morning, l took the instructions in the magazine, cut out 1 block
and stitched it together. This is what Janni has been dealing with.
No wonder she was pulling her hair out!!
This is what it should look like.
There has been a flurry of emails this morning. Its all being blamed
on a computer software incompatibility. These things do happen.
So if you have managed to stick with me this far, l'm going to ask you
to place your TRUST in me. If you leave a comment on this post,
l will email you a copy of my original Schoolhouse pattern, written
and tested by me. l can't promise you its perfect!! But we can HOPE!!
Many thanks for reading to the end.
l feel a whole lot better now.
Thanks for visiting.
Linda.
P.S. Please feel free to share a link to this post. l feel it's important to
warn as many people as possible about the lessons that can be learnt here.
P.S.S. For those who asked, its Vol 21 No 9.
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