Osewme, one would think that someone would appreciate knowing how much work went into something, but when it happened to me the response was "yeah, but what a great learning experience for you. Think of how much easier it will be for you in the future when you do these kinds of things" .... ummm.... yeah. The learning experience was "I will NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER work with a client's old fabric ever again." Because you're never supposed to say "never", if I do, I will ask to inspect the entire piece at length, not just a quick peek at it with only the best part showing. I will do a burn test on it because in spite of the fact I was told it was from the 1940's, it definitely wasn't because it was a poly blend and those didn't exist in the 40's. And, no matter how simple of quilting is being asked for, I won't take the job for less than $650 -- at even that's a bargain. It took me WAY too long to find usable pieces of fabric, to stabilize it (poly is not as readily stabilized as 100% cotton), square it up & add fabric to it to get it the right size. And stupid me, I thought it would be a quick, easy quilt (just add border, sandwich & quilt with a 2" crosshatch) so I only charged $50/quilt ... she wanted 3 of them. Worst job ever. It took me 20 hours just to do stabilizing PER QUILT -- I was on the Customer Support line with Pellon because I didn't realize their products are only designed to work with 100% cotton fabrics & it didn't bond properly. Total nightmare.
And T-shirt quilts are nearly as evil. Now I stick with new fabric & my own designs and am so much happier. When a dear friend showed me a 100+ year old quilt she had inherited from her mother, I commented what a stunning quilt it was with such intricate hand quilting & suggested she really needed to take it to a restoration specialist. I told her that when she was ready for that, I'd be happy to help her find & interview one.