So far this year, I’ve been taken advantage of TWICE in my business.  I’ve decided to write about my feelings here because I can’t do it on Facebook.  One of the people that treated me badly is a “friend” there so I’m not free to express myself.  (Of course, the other person sometimes reads this but, since I haven’t written anything here in MONTHS, I figure they’ve given up and, if they haven’t, oh, well.)

The purpose behind “writing my feelings out” is because I was always told that this type of “cleansing” was good for the soul.  Well, we’ll have to see if that works.

The first instance of being taken advantage of was a “friend” who wanted me to finish her quilt for her.  She was never much into quilting but bought all kinds of fabric to make a quilt.  We bought the border fabrics together (she paid for it) and she complained the whole drive back to my house about how expensive it was to do that.  Yes, we (those of us who are quilters) know that quilt fabric isn’t cheap– give it a rest.

Then, when I went to try to “finish” the quilt, I found that ALL of her seems were off.  This meant tearing out 176 strips of fabric so that I could re-sew them to get them straight.  Then, I finished the quilt.  All of this took time; time that is not free.  It is heavily discounted, however, because I’m stupidly generous.

I should’ve charged her $20 per hour times at least 25 hours but I didn’t.  I discounted the time and I discounted the quilting and finishing charges.  That should’ve been another 10 hours, minimum.  Nope, I discounted that, too.  In other words, I charged her $300 for what should’ve cost her $700.

Less than 2 months later, she yells at me (on email) about stalking her and yelling at her (I didn’t) on an email that I sent to her teasing her about not communicating very often.  Yeah, I haven’t heard from her since and, if I would hear from her, I wouldn’t respond.

The second instance of being taken advantage of is my nephew and his wife.  Last summer, he asked me to make a t-shirt quilt for him.  I asked him what size and he told me queen sized.  I told him that I normally charged $1,200 for that but would not charge him for my labor if he would cover the cost of materials to make the quilt.  I told him that it would cost approximately $2-300.  The final bill when I submitted it AFTER I had already sent him the quilt was $275.  I was concerned by his reaction that I wouldn’t see my reimbursement.

He said he was suffering from “sticker shock”.  I reminded him of the potential cost of the quilt and reminded him that he was getting a bargain.  They paid (eventually– it took 9 days for their letter to go 600 miles) me for the materials but when they received the quilt, I was told that it was nice.  No raving and declaring how gorgeous it was.

Since that time, I’ve had a hard time piecing or quilting, being very complacent about doing any kind of sewing.  Its been a struggle for me to even go into my sewing area.  I’m upset by both of these people and frustrated.  I’m really hoping that this helps me forget those troubles and get back to doing what I love:  QUILTING!!!!!!!!!!