The End of the Story

For a good many years, I made my living typing dissertations for Ph.D. candidates at the university in the town where we lived.  I was a good typist -- a fast and accurate one -- and enjoyed my work.  My standards were high and I took pains to make my work as accurate and precise as possible.  Also, because I knew that I was in a mostly-word-of-mouth line of work, I chose to give the customer/students the benefit of any doubt and retyped without charge any pages that they found problematic.

Our inclination is to share our experiences with our friends, our positive experiences as well as our unpleasant ones.  Over the past couple of years I have been happy to share with other quilters in the area Mrs. X's name as a good and dependable long-armer.  A few days ago I posted about a less pleasant experience with Mrs. X.

There have been a couple of additional developments.  I believed the right thing was to contact this lady and share my disgruntlement, thus allowing her the opportunity to make it right and let the unpleasantness pass.  So I sent her an email, and she replied.  So I'll reprint the exchange, and then my local friends can decide for themselves whether or not to use Mrs. X's services again.  I've made my decision.

I wrote:

Dear Mrs. X,


I finished putting the binding on my red quilt using fabric that matches the outer border. The front of the quilt looks so pretty -- the design that you picked for machine quilting is just perfect.


On the back, I'll need to applique a patch over the hole you made in the backing fabric. The area in the corner where the backing is pleated into the quilting is more of a challenge. I suppose I can try to cover it with an oversized label.

I am surprised at your choice not to mention these things to me.


Nancy

She responded:

My apology... The hole was from a snag in the fabric which I thought I repaired and honestly forgot about. The pleats I am not aware of as I took the quilt off of the machine rather quickly to get it to you on time and just didn't see. I can take out the stitching and restitch it if that will solve the problem.



I always tell you if there is an issue with a quilt. I did not choose not to tell you, it was simply an oversight that came from working long hours trying to get your quilt to you when you wanted it. Let me know if you want me to pick up the quilt and rework the area.


Mrs. X