When I want to try out new blocks or ideas I will scrap up a lap size quilt to try it out. I quilt and finish them and stack them up as I know they will all find a home somewhere. I had a stack sitting on the stairs the other day when a friend came over to visit with her 2yr old foster daughter. The little girl came over to the stack and picked out a very bright orange/pink/purple quilt and wrapped up in it. There was no way she was letting it go and there was nothing in the universe that would inspire me to try and make her. It was her blankie, even thought I had not met her when I made it. I told her that it was her blankie now and also gave her a rag doll I had just finished which she promptly wrapped up in the quilt. The look on her face, her bright eyes and soft almost a whispered "thank you" was priceless and is exactly why I make blankies. She spent the rest of our visit sitting quietly in a chair next to me while I showed her mom how to make the dissapearing four patch block. All during her visit she held on to the doll and the quilt on her lap.
I am now making her a doll quilt and some dolly PJ's as she wants to take the doll to bed with her.