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The following article was published in the January 2000 issue of Quilt Ohio magazine.
On June 14, 1999, I had the unique experience of sending off two of my babies on the same day. In the morning, I put my 12 year old daughter on an airplane to travel alone from Ohio to Portland, Oregon where she would meet her grandfather for a month long trip down the West Coast in a motor home. In the afternoon, I shipped my newest quilt, "First December in Ohio", to Omaha, Nebraska for the National Quilting Association's 30th Annual Quilt Show.
Later that day, as I was joking with my oldest daughter about how much I was going to miss my babies, she asked me which one I was more worried about. I immediately exclaimed, "My quilt! I know Bethany can speak up for herself, but my quilt is at the mercy of whoever is handling it!" Little did I know how prophetic that statement would be.
In anticipation of sending my quilt to the show I meticulously removed every piece of dust and lint I could find. I carefully folded it and lovingly wrapped it in a plastic bag and placed it in a box which was the perfect size. Step-by-step I followed the shipping instructions and then I went over each one a second time with my husband. Lastly, I placed the envelope with my entry form, the return shipping instructions and the payment for return shipment on top of my quilt. I handed my precious quilt over to the employee of a well-known shipping company, who taped it closed for me, and I blissfully left, believing my quilt was now securely on its way to the quilt show in Omaha.
The most I can do is guess at what happened next. Apparently on the way to Omaha, the envelope containing the entry form, all my shipping instructions and the check for return shipment somehow became separated from the box containing my quilt. Had the tape or the box broken and the instructions fallen out? Had someone opened the box for some reason and taken the instructions out? Somehow, that envelope was returned to me twenty-four days after I shipped the package. The quilt continued on to the show by itself.
LESSON NO. 1: When shipping a quilt, always securely tape your shipping instructions to the plastic bag containing your quilt. Use a strong, new box and tape every edge.
I never imagined the instructions and payment for shipment would become separated from my quilt! But, in the case that a box is opened or broken, if the instructions are attached securely to the quilt, hopefully they will stay with the quilt. Also, tape every possible opening and edge which could get caught in machinery and cause the box to be torn open. Don't let anyone else do it for you. Do it yourself and do it thoroughly.
The quilt did well at the NQA show and received second place in the Wall Quilt, Mixed Techniques, Machine Quilted category. After the show, on June 28, the quilt was shipped back to me. More than a week went by and I had not received my quilt. I called the shipping company and a tracer was put on the tracking number but they could not locate the box.
LESSON NO. 2: Don't assume that because a shipping company uses tracking numbers that your package can't get lost.
I was told that it was possible that the label or the box had gotten damaged and that now the only way to retrieve my quilt was for the shipping company to open the box and identify the quilt. The problem was finding the box.
What a nightmare! Two shipping problems with the same box during two separate trips? Unbelievable! By now I was really upset and worried. I got almost no sleep, tossing and turning, trying to figure out what had happened, how to get my quilt back and hoping it would be in one piece.
On July 13, one of my babies came home! My daughter, not the quilt. The wall in her room where the fireplace quilt used to hang was still bare.
LESSON NO. 3: People are much more important than things.
I count my blessings that I only lost a "material possession."
I want to emphasize that human life is infinitely more valuable that any quilt, but I was struck by the fact that nearly everyone I spoke to about my lost quilt related it to the loss of a child. It was a very traumatic experience. I never anticipated being affected so deeply emotionally by losing a quilt.
Click here to read the conclusion of this article.
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