This happens to me all the time. I have all the best intentions (which I see through to the end) of making up the quilt for someone. YOU BOND WITH A QUILT! Don't laugh! I bond with all of my quilts. Why, you ask? Because while you are working on it, things happen! Happy things, sad things, funny things, ridiculous things. And they become sewn into the quilt. I have found that when I make a quilt regardless of who it is for, I make a book. Each block has a story - what I was doing, how I felt, what the headlines were, what the weather was, what I was planning on doing that day. Sometimes I will put in the story of the block (a little research necessary there) because I know the recipient of the quilt will better understand the meaning of the quilt. I have done this for every quilt I make. I keep it in the computer until the quilt is done and then I print it all up, put it in a folder and put it with the quilt. It is a lot easier to part with the quilt that way, knowing that the recipient has a part of you in the quilt and will better be able to understand the ways and idiocyncrasies of a quilter, our whims, and fancies, why we changed the color in that block from this to that and the meaning to you of that particular little square. I made myself a memory quilt and it is my life from 1938 to 2008 (735 squares). Each little square in every block has a special meaning and I can look at it and remember every little detail of my life.
I love to quilt for other people. Sorry for my ramblings, but this article is special to me. Not only are you giving them the gift of a quilt (which, to me, is the epitome of gifts, because it is so truly from the heart), but you are teaching them love, value, caring, of what was a bunch of pieces of fabric into what is now an extremely valuable gift, priceless and given from the heart. Edie