Today I finished my first customer quilt! it was a “practice quilt” in that the super customer agreed that it might not be up to international exhibition standard which is what I am aiming for, even from quilt one but I do put enormous pressure on myself to be perfect in my craft. It is hard but I am enjoying the craft of creating a work of art.
****UPDATE 2024****
Wow, where has the time gone? It’s 4 years since I did my first quilt for a customer and since then we have done around 450 quilts for customers. We have one customer from Devon who is now onto quilt number 21!!!
CountryWide
We are not only a local longarm quilter for the people in Hartlepool, Teesside and the North East, but we have client’s from the 4 corners of the UK, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, who all contribute by sending quilts to us to feed ‘the beast’ as our longarm is affectionately known.
Process
When we agree to take on a commission, we always like to have discussions with our clients because we like to know the history behind the quilt top, eg is it for a gift, is there any meaning for the quilt? Is it going to be a memory quilt? and many more questions are asked.
Decisions
Every quilt is unique and is treat as being unique. We have an extensive range of many hundreds of patterns and 73 Aurifil threads. At Alan Teather Quilting we believe that clients should have a choice, I know of some longarmers who have one pattern and 3 colours of thread and they make the decisions based on what they can do. Which is OK, that’s not being negative or anything, but we like to go the extra mile and offer the extensive range that we have to offer.
Everything is discussed with the client, and if there are any problems where, for instance, a variagated thread was chosen but on test stitching it doesn’t look correct for the quilt and pattern, we always contact the client and ask for advice and guidance.
Extras
A long with the extensive range of threads and patterns, we offer over 30 different wide backings and as we write this, 10 different waddings including Black, which we believe there are only 2 retailers in the UK that sell black wadding. Again, this is a choice that will be discussed.
If these 30+ wide backings aren’t the right ones for a quilt, then we can always make a backing from any of the 1400+ fabrics that we have in our shop.
Many of our clients opt to bring their own favourite wadding and backing fabric. All we ask is that the wadding and backing fabric are at least 4″ – 6″ wider than the quilt top all the way round.
Thank you for reading and if you wish to contact us regarding longarming your prized (patch) work of art, then please do.