I have a 'magic wand' story--We were invited to our dear friends' daughter's wedding and DH asked if I was going to make them a quilt. I said 'No, not enough time' but once the seed is planted....I got up early, stayed up late, and managed to make a queen sized top in 2 weeks and my favourite LA'er squeezed it into her schedule as a favour. I machine embroidered the binding with the wedding info and several sayings about love and marriage. The wedding was beautiful and we had a lovely time. The bride and groom did not open their gifts until a few days later when I got a phone call from the bride telling me how wonderful our gift was and how they would treasure it. Her mother has said several times that they use it constantly and that made all my time and effort worthwhile. Sometimes we are lucky to have that magic wand.
On the other side of the coin my sister in law wanted me to make them a king sized 'heirloom' quilt. When I told her an approximate cost of just the materials, she said that was not a problem. But knowing her, I figured there would be an uh-oh in there somewhere. Turned out that she wanted an exact copy of the wedding quilt I had made our niece (her daughter) right down to the same fabric. I could not denigrate our gift to our niece by copying it for her mother. I gave my SIL all the info--pattern, fabric line etc. and suggested she contact a LQS to find someone else to make it if that was what she wanted. We will be seeing them this summer. Wonder if I will see a familiar patterned quilt on her bed.