Tomorrow is my daughter's anniversary. I embroidered a sampler and took it to a frame store last week. When I stopped to get the finished piece, the framer told me that there was a problem and it was not ready. I didn't think anything of it, but when he didn't call me at the time he said he would, I called him.
It turns out that after framing the piece, the framer thought that it looked slightly crooked and showed his boss. The boss took the sampler, unframed it, sprayed it with water and stretched it. The original framer and I had had a discussion about cleaning my piece. I told him not to do anything to it. I had already blocked it. Just put it in a frame, and that is what he did. His boss, however, decided to do it differently.
"You must have used the wrong thread," his boss told me on the phone, " because it bled and looks awful, so I tried to call someone to see how much it would cost me to buy another one."
I couldn't believe what I heard. This man tried to clean my piece after I told him not to. He used water on embroidery. That is not acceptable. He talked as if it was my fault for using the wrong thread. He's going to buy another embroidery piece! Does he know that it took me a year to complete that work? Why would I accept a bought piece? The whole idea was that I made something special for my daughter.
I took several deep breaths and reminded myself that the damage was done and could not be repaired. I told the gentleman that I would stop by tomorrow to see the piece. If it's not acceptable I want my money back. I can always make another project for next year, I thought. This year I'll send a card with the fancy Japanese rice paper. That'll be special.
But, then I stewed. How dare he not tell me what he had done. How dare he blame this on my using the wrong kind of thread. it took me an entire year to complete that project. I paced the house, wrote a note to my daughter, ate some chocolate, and mailed the pretty rice paper.
No use crying over spilt milk.
Tomorrow I'll go to the store and look at the finished product. If it is as bad as both framers say, then throw it in the trash. I'll buy another kit and begin again for next year. They will return the money I spent on the frame. It cost $117.00. Humph...I think they should give me the frame as a consolation prize! Maybe I should charge them for a new kit and the time it took to make it.
I'd like to punch...
