What's wrong with people???? Yikes.

A few years ago I made a t-shirt quilt from t-shirts from one company. I took it to show them and they asked if they could hang it for the duration of the show. I said yes, but was concerned how they would hang it. You can imagine my relief when I went back the next day and it was hung using bulldog clips that were hung on pins in the wall. No damage was done to the quilt.

I can (to some degree) understand the viewpoint of "once you gave it away, it is no longer yours". However, I do believe that there is a great difference between being used, and being abused. Some of the stories I have read here made me cringe. I have mostly given to family and friends who know the amount of time I put into my projects. The ones I have kept for myself will (hopefully) be appreciated when I am gone from here.

I made a quilt for my father-in-law for Christmas about 3months0 years ago. When he opened the gift he merely peeked in the corner of the box to see what it was and never took it out of the box. He died about 10 years later. We found the quilt still in the box with most of the wrapping paper still on the box. He never saw that the quilt had been personalized with embroidery.

That is how I feel too, depending on the person I give it to. My in-laws were at first very nervous about sleeping or sitting on my quilts, until I convinced them that each fabric on the sofa quilt was from the thrift store! I only give quilts to people would appreciate them and aren't dirty. I never gave one to my parents because my Dad is heavy smoker. Unfortunately I saw how they treated gifts from people and I didn't want my quilt to meet the same dirty fate. They were the type with the "everyone owes me" mentality.

There's a lot of people who don't value anything they get for free, which is why I charge for my quilts. Most people tend to take better care of something they gave a couple hundred bucks for.

Perhaps we should all add hanging sleeves to the back of our quilts. Even bed quilts then hopefully you can explain that this is in case they want to hang it they simply run a rod thru it and hang it up on some sort of bracket. I use drapery rods with brackets.

I was at my son's house as my husband was helping put up shelving in son and DIL's basement, a storage basement, not lived in. I saw a stack of articles on the floor and my DIL said that she was sending the stuff to a consignment shop and to take anything I wanted. Near the top of the stack of stuff was a wall hanging snail's tail quilt that I had made for my son before he was married. It hung in his apartment before they were married. I told her that I wanted the quilt back if they did not want it any longer. My son was nearby and heard me say this and he was very upset that the quilt was in the discard pile. He told her that she was not getting rid of it. I told my DIL that if there was anything that I had made for them that they no longer wanted then I wanted it back. My feelings were hurt.

I made a throw quilt for my mil a few years back for Christmas. It was mailed to her and she never said thank you. She's recently been nagging me to make her another one. I'm not really in a hurry to do so.

I made a queen queen sized quilt for a young couple getting married six months ago. I bought modern fabric per the bride's mom's recommendations and spent hours and about $250 just in supplies. Again, no thank you. I heard via her mother that they love it, but that's it.

Is a written thank you a thing of the past?

Yes, there are times I do think thank yous are a thing of the past. One Christmas I made quilts for two nieces and their parents and did not get one thank you. I often wonder if the wonder why they do not get anything other than a Christmas ornament (hand made ) from me anymore. I doubt it.