"Oh, wow, I can see all the love that went into this. Thank you for such a thoughtful gift."
I had to do this when my elderly uncle took up quilting right after his wife died. He came to a family reunion with 15 lap size tied quilts. He used old sheets for the backing-not a problem except that he didn't cut away the hems and there's a questionable stain in one corner. What a wonderful mess it was. He thought that since he grew up with his mother quillting and all she did was cut fabric into small pieces and sew it back to together that he could do the same thing. He called me "you'lll never guess what I found up at the Walmarts...a razor blade on a stick!"
So he cut up my aunt's entire fabric stash into ~2" squares-now my aunt did not quilt, she made clothes so there was a wide variety of fabrics to begin with.
Then my uncle remembered that grandma would cut up all clothes to make quilts. So he cut up her entire wardrobe into 2" squares. Oh, my. It was fun looking at the squares to see what all he cut up-double knit polyester, bras, slips, upholstery fabric, pleather. He didn't remove any of the embellishments so there are little pieces of lace and beads too.
The batting is only in the center of the quilt, he was in the beginning of raw edge quilting before they even had a name for it, he didn't bother the turn under the binding. It's a complete wreck....but I love it because he did the best he could with his knowledge. I think it helped him work through the grief of losing his wife of 50 yrs.
It's sitting in the closet with all the other quilts that family have given me or I've made. I pull it out as an object lesson to remind me to slow down and pay attention to detail.