I’ve been meaning to write this for a week, but I’ve been waiting for a package to be delivered to the recipient before posting about it…
In my last post, I shared a photo of the cat quilt I made. Amanda, a long-time blog reader who has always been very kind and supportive, said that if she ever made a dog quilt, she would “be the first in line to order one.” When I read that, I started debating whether I should offer to make one. I usually don’t like making things to sell because I’m not very confident in my abilities and I would feel really bad if the recipient didn’t like it. Also, I only want to make things that I really enjoy the process of working on, and if I’m doing it to sell, it would be more work than fun.
I mentioned Amanda’s comment to Jerry and he said, “You should make it for her as a gift and give it to her as a surprise!” I loved that idea. There is literally nothing that makes me giddy with excitement more than giving someone a gift that I know they will like and appreciate. (I also have a hard time making gifts a surprise; I always want to give it to them right away or tell them what it is, haha).
I bought the fabric and got to work on the quilt right away. (Here is a link to patternif anyone is interested). I ended up getting COVID, which wasn’t fun, but since I couldn’t go anywhere or be around other people, I had a lot of time to work on the quilt. I worked on it every free moment and I love how it turned out. I used different colored backgrounds for each block and I like the color scheme better than my cat!
I really like the backing and I did a much better job on the quilting part…my stitches were (mostly) even and it only took me one try (it took me three for the cat one).
 |
| This dog was my favorite 🙂 |
Duck’s favorite part of helping me quilt is when I place him on the floor to pin him in place to prepare for quilting…
I was very excited to send it to Amanda, but I was also very nervous because I would be crushed if it got damaged or lost in the mail after working so hard on it. I researched the best carrier for something like this and UPS was the winner (best reputation for getting things to their destination without getting lost or damaged). Also, I didn’t really trust USPS because when I made a million masks and shipped them in the early days of COVID, only about half of them made it to their destinations.
I had some fabric left over from the backing, so I even made a cute little bag for it…
I took it to the UPS store a week ago last Thursday and asked them to package it for me. Again, I wanted to make sure it was done right! Normally, I wouldn’t talk about the cost of things when it comes to a gift, but it’s kind of relevant here. Shipping was about $20 and the box was $10.50 (!), “packaging materials” $2.00, and packaging “labor” $2.00. I was surprised by the cost of the box and the person working there told me I could send it in a cheaper envelope, but I said, “No, I don’t care how much it costs; I just want to make sure it arrives intact.” What was the value of the contents and I joked: “Blood, sweat and tears.” Anyway, she assured me that it would arrive safely and be delivered last Saturday.
I was SO EXCITED for him to get there. On Saturday I looked at the online tracking and it said: “Package damaged, returned to sender.” I immediately burst into tears. I’ve been going through a lot of emotional things lately (I seriously feel like I’m reliving two years ago) and I couldn’t believe this was happening. They didn’t include a photo or tell me if the quilt itself was damaged or anything. And I wasn’t going to get here until Tuesday. So I had to sit and wait three days, imagining that the quilt I worked so hard on would arrive in shreds.
They delivered it to the UPS store on Tuesday, so I had to go there to check it out. When he showed me the box, I was a little relieved because it seemed like only the box was damaged. But then I saw the “15x12x10” box that I paid $10.50 for and I got mad. They were actually two small boxes packed together and taped together. And there were no “packaging materials” (I guess there’s bubble wrap?). THEN, they told me they couldn’t give me a shipping refund because I would have to file a claim online. And if I wanted to resend it, I would have to pay the $34 dollars again!
 |
| This is how it was when I picked it up. |
I said no way and decided to take it to the USPS and hope for the best (if the quilt was intact). But first I took it to the car and opened the “box”. I was VERY relieved to see that the quilt was okay. The greeting card, however, was cut in half, missing the envelope and the other half of the card. I was wondering how the heck they cut the card when it was in the box! (I thought maybe it started in a different box, which they opened with a box cutter, damaging the card and then crushing it in the makeshift box. I don’t know. Neither did the clerk.)
But I stopped and got a new card, then took the quilt to the USPS. I bought a box there (same size as the one I paid for at UPS) and the total for the box and 2 day shipping was only $17. I gladly paid for it and just prayed it would get to Amanda. Estimated delivery was Thursday (yesterday).
When I got home from the post office, I went online to file a claim with UPS. I tried for a long time but it wouldn’t let me do it. I was finally able to talk to someone who told me that the claim must be filed by the person who printed the label, which would be the UPS store I shipped it from.
I was ready to tear my hair out at that point, because the store had told me I had to do it online. I called the store and spoke with the manager; She was very helpful and filed the claim for me. I haven’t heard anything yet about the status of the claim, but at least it’s out of my hands now.
On Wednesday night, I received a message from USPS saying “Your package could not be delivered due to an incomplete address…” I almost started crying (again) when I realized that I receive that exact text message from once in a while and it’s a spam text that wants you to click on the link. That was a relief; Of all the times I received that spam message, that was the worst.
Anyway, yesterday I spent all day watching the tracking and my email, just hoping that Amanda would arrive. And last night I was SO relieved to see that it was! Amanda was surprised and excited about the quilt and sent me this photo with her two dogs…
It was a lot of fun to work on and like I said, I love the background colors. I feel like I’ve aged quite a bit over the last week while worrying about it getting to Amanda, haha, but it made my heart so happy!
