Originally Posted by Sadiemae
I was told once not to make foster kids quilts too fancy, because if they went home the parents would sell thm for alcohol and drugs. Most don't ever go home, but it could be something to consider.
Many foster children DO go home. The goal is always primarily reunification with family, until it is proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the parents just cannot or are unwilling to care for their children. But I wouldn't make a quilt ugly on purpose to give to foster kids just because there's a chance that their parents might sell it for drugs/alcohol.
I make my charity quilts for CASA, and they go to foster kids. I adopted my two children from foster care, and so making quilts for this purpose has a special meaning to me. I don't send anything that I would be ashamed of, or that I would have been offended if someone had given my children before they came to me.
But I love the old fashioned scrappy look, using all sorts of fabrics together, and I send a lot of those. I make them for myself and I make them for family members, so I have no problem giving them to charity. My main concern is durability - if I give a quilt to friends or family and a seam comes undone, I can fix it for them. If I give a quilt to charity, and a seam comes undone, it may be thrown away because the person doesn't know how to fix it.
Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. I took some quilts to the CASA office and the lady there enthused over all of them - especially the scrappy sampler ones, while I though that the ones my MIL had made with coordinating train fabrics were cuter. Kids will enjoy either kind, I think (especially younger kids; they have a lot less preconcieved notions about what is pretty). The important thing is that care and effort go into the construction.