Originally Posted by tallchick

I would thank the person who made it and probably keep it on the bed in the spare room; I love hand made gifts and appreciate the effort and time that someone spent in "thinking" of me.

My step son (who lives with us) has burned holes in my sheets and comforters, and has never washed his bedding for the year he has been here. When we move (no HE IS NOT moving with us I draw the line here) I will keep that bedding to put on the bed if/when he spends the night. I would not even put a quilt that I did not like on the spare bed when he is there. At 28 there is no excuse!!!!!

Originally Posted by charity-crafter

"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.

Originally Posted by Bibliogirl

My grandmother made beautiful quilts. When she died she left several blocks of the 1950s "Maple Leaf" for a quilt she never made. The blocks were beautiful. My sister took them and had them put together and handquilted. There were 3 of us girls and my sister wanted the quilt rotated each year among us. When I saw the finished quilt I wanted to cry. All of the blocks were sewn together, no plain blocks in between or any sashing to set them off. It was a hodge podge. The sister who had it put together has since died and the quilt went to me. I showed it to my other sister for her "turn" and she refused to have it because it really was ugly. I am the only one of the 3 of us who quilts and I am thinking seriously of taking the quilt apart and lay it out the way I think my grandmother would have done it because she had made the same quilt pattern several times. It would be quite a job, but I think my grandmother would not like this quilt. Should I try to make it into the quilt it deserves to be?