Happy Monday to you!
Just want to share this letter, received in my email inbox this morning.....
Hi
You're getting a pissed off blast because I'm tired of dealing with the screwed up mess you created in the Harry Potter quilt along pattern. Even your corrected pdf's have mistakes. You can't even get it right when people email you a list of your mistakes. I'm still waiting for you to upload the corrections I sent you a couple of months ago for the still wrong already corrected once title block pdf.
The blocks were great until the title block. Something changed. In discussions with a friend we suspect you had a pattern writer and decided to it was cheaper to stop paying and write them instructions yourself. After all writing instructions is easy. No it's not! If we're correct that was a mistake that will cost you dearly.
It's very clear that you didn't just get in over your head, you jumped into the deep end without knowing how to swim and have been drowning ever since. I've had to correct cutting and piecing instructions for every block starting with the Harry Potter title block because you can't get it right. On top of that I corrected the cutting and piecing for the Hogwarts Express to remove that really obnoxious seam running thru the large yellow square. My block is has 3 fewer seams and looks a hell of a lot better than the one I made using your instructions. Then I get to the final block and find the corrections you uploaded over the long weekend are still totally screwed up.
I printed the corrected pdf for Castle Part 2b only to find you can't even get the fabric colours straight. In the Castle Part 1 you have us piecing strata for the windows using yellow and medium grey. In addition to cutting unit 1's from that strata we cut also cut Units 12 and 13 and set them aside for Part 2b. Then in part 2b you suddenly change the window colour in Units 12 and 13 from medium grey to light grey. WTF????? To add insult to injury all your posted test blocks for 2b are pieced using yellow and medium grey for the windows in part 1 and light grey and yellow for the windows in part 2. It's clear your test blocks are not test blocks but the blocks you made when you designed the pattern. You then wrote the pattern based on those blocks but failed to test the pattern. Your blocks are NOT test blocks. Test blocks are the blocks OTHER people make to ensure the pattern instructions are correct before you release them.
What does this mean to you? I'm sure I'm not the only one telling everyone what a screwed up mess you've made of this and to avoid it at all costs. I personally know of one person that will never quilt again because she tried to make this quilt. I'm being very vocal about how frustrated I am and I'm sure others are too. This will cost you. Anyone who heard about the quilt along but has never bought one of your patterns will probably never buy a pattern from you. If your free pattern is so badly written they'll think all your patterns are as badly written as the quilt-a-long.
A parting reminder, a happy customer tells 10 friends, an angry one tells 100. A truely pissed off quilter tells a whole lot more than 100.
Dear Alison,
Mondays are hard enough. But thanks. Now I can go plot how best to kill myself.
Dear BlogReader,
I am very sorry for providing you with the opportunity to participate in the screwed up mess I created in the FREE Harry Potter quilt along pattern. Even my corrected pdf's have mistakes. I can't even get it right when people email me a thousand list of my mistakes. Apparently an unknown number of folks are still still waiting for me to upload corrections to the Harry Potter title block pdf.
The blocks were great until the title block. Something changed. What changed is that the young lady who had volunteered to help with the pattern testing, unfortunately, could not continue in the process. I have never had a pattern writer. Or a paid pattern tester. I wish that I could afford to pay someone to do just that. After all, if writing instructions is not easy, then pattern testing is even more difficult. My hats off to all those quilters who devote their time and materials to providing this service simply because they enjoy doing it.
In spite of the fact that I realize there are still existing mistakes in the Harry Potter Quilt Along, on Friday I went to the bank to see if I can get some kind of financial help. Turns out that I figured wrong when I surmised this separation and divorce proceeding would be over by now. I am struggling to keep my mental, emotional, financial and physical health. But oh, yeah....
It's very clear that I didn't just get in over my head, I jumped into the deep end without knowing how to swim and have been drowning ever since. I am not even talking about quilting. I am talking about trying to make it through each dang day. Meanwhile there are quilters everywhere all over the world that have had to correct cutting and piecing instructions for every block starting with the Harry Potter title block because I can't get it right. On top of that, the corrected the cutting and piecing for the Hogwarts Express to remove that really obnoxious seam running thru the large yellow square, provided by a reader, were also never published. Her block is has 3 fewer seams and looks a hell of a lot better than the one I made. And apparently the final block corrections I uploaded over the long weekend are still totally screwed up.
And I still need to organize the prizes. There are people counting on me to come up with at least one more post about this free quilt along. The one with the free prizes. Sponsored by myself and a slew of generous donors. I think I will just write it into my will instead.
The corrected pdf for Castle Part 2b hasn't got the fabric colours straight. WTF????? I don't think using a gun is going to work. Too messy. Car accident? Nah. I will probably survive as a paraplegic and be a burden to my family.
What does this mean to you? I'm sure you have already read somewhere on the internet that I'm a screwed up mess I've made out of my Harry Potter Quilt Along and out of my whole GD personal life. Because of me there is at least one person out there that will never quilt again because she tried to make this quilt. I'm being very vocal about how sad this makes me. Because I am. And I'm sure others are too. This will cost me. Anyone who heard about the quilt along but has never bought one of my patterns will probably never buy a pattern from me. If my free pattern is so badly written they'll think all my patterns are as badly written as the quilt-a-long.
A parting reminder, a happy person does their best to build others up. Not tear them down.
Lorna
