Over 17 years ago I made a baby quilt for my nephews son. It was my very first quilt and had many mistakes in it. It was received with many thanks and I forgot about it for several years. One day his mother mentioned that her son loved that quilt and carried it around all the time. Now 17 years later we were at their house after Thanksgiving dinner and she suggested that he go get that quilt to show me. He brought it out and it was in rags. I could tell by the look on his face that it was loved for many, many years and was in that condition because of his love for it. I can't tell you how wonderful I felt seeing that quilt again.
We laughed at the condition of the quilt after all these years. This wasn't a misused quilt, it was a quilt that was loved by a young boy (now a young man). I have made quilts now for all my grandchildren and have gotten great responses from them. I only hope that in many, many years theirs looks the same as Joeys. If they do, I will know that they were loved and appreciated.

I too have gotten great responses from every quilt I have made for people. The gifts I made this Christmas were recieved with great joy...my son and daughter absolutely LOVE thiers. One thing I do however, is personalize every one of them with something that means alot to the recipient, so they can't help but fall in love with them.
When I made my cousins snowmobile quilt a few years ago he was soooo afraid to use it. I finally convinced him that it was made to be used...and now he gets upset if anyone sleeps in his bed when he is not home because his quilt is on it:>) LOL! My neighbor now makes his bed every morning and leaves the door open hoping that anyone who goes to use the washroom can see it when they walk by LOL! Every one of my quilts is very well cared for and loved. My Aunt cried when she saw a pic of hers that I sent her...she has not recieved it yet...I have to mail it out. teehee! I LOVE making people surprises!

I have gifted many quilts over the years with a wide variety of reactions.
the most hurtful one is my youngest son does not want a quilt and so i have honored his wishes. however, this year is the year i will make one for him and put it in a box with his name on it for after i pass. just in case he might want one then.

my brother dutifully held his up for pictures at christmas some 10 or so years ago. best memory of a quilt given? my dh saying to my brother as an aside, "you are one lucky guy a LOT of work goes into one of those" dh also does not want a quilt. go figure, eh? oh and that LOT of work was plain ole 9 patches with black that seemed to take forever. it was about 7 feet long and 68" wide and considered a lap quilt :)

A few yrs back i made quilts for each member of dh's family for their birthdays (so it spread out the gift giving) as I announced this at christmas that year at my parent's house dh asked" does that include spouses of family?" I said sure! I had completely forgotten that his nephew's wifes b'day was in January and I had less than two weeks to figure out, make and ship the first b'day present that year!

i do not quilt as much anymore but i hope to begin to get back into the swing of it again. right now i'm making those criss cross potholders and they go together so fast and are so appreciated that i'm making a LOT of them to be able to just hand out when I want, PLUS use up some of my huge stash.

Have a wonderful New years, denise/deBRAT in extremely windy tampa bay florida

I was talking to my MIL via phone on Christmas morning and she opened my gift then (it was a table runner made with autumn colors and yoyos as flowers). I heard her opening the papers and then the words "Oh thats nice". Then I said "are you looking at the right side?". Then I knew she turned it over and saw the quilted top. Then her words were "Oh thats beautiful, I love it". Made me feel good. Merry Christmas everyone. Blessing in the new year.

I find the most reward is in making quilts and giving them to people for no reason. They turn out to really appreciate them.
Giving a child a quilt at Christmas or a Birthday, is not a good thing, they would rather enjoy the presents that are toys more.
They will all love the quilts you gave, maybe not today, but they will.

Here is my Christmas quilt story. I made two lap quilts. One for a man in the family, it had like 50's pinup girls on it with winter stuff - skis, snowshoes, and stuff like that. The other was for a woman in the family. Kind of neutral - greens, browns and mild teals. Well, we draw numbers to see who goes first, then do the choosing thing. #1 goes, then #2, if #2 wants what #1 has, then #1 picks again and so on.
Well, my brother(crazy in a good way) of course wanted the girly one(flannel), and the war was on. My niece who loves to downhill ski wanted it because of the skiing stuff on it, then my Mother wanted it because it was nice and soft. It was just a hoot. Then the other one was opened and it started all over again. The back of the woman's one was hydrangeas. My SIL loves those flowers, so she wanted that one. She did like the front. It was just too funny. Then my Mom wanted the womans one. This went on for the longest time.
Well, my brother was thrilled - they ended up with both quilts. He was like a little kid. So was my SIL.
It made it worth the work that I put into them.
I was lucky that they were wanted by everyone this year. Sometimes you just don't know. I guess I will do this again next year, but I WILL start them much sooner.
Hey, if I start looking at my stash and patterns, I could have them done in no time..... ;-)

That is an swesome idea for that game! Haha...cause you know somebody in the group is going to love it and fight for it and you know it goes to a person who really will love and appreciate it! Love the idea!

Not sure how my quilt gifts were received. I have only made 2 quilts in my life and I gave them to my father and BIL for Christmas. I also sent 3 sets of quilted place mats to the women in the family. While talking to my Dad on the phone on Christmas Day, he said, "You spent a lot of time sewing all of those things." Nothing about the college-theme quilt that I did for him. Oh, well, I did it for love and can't take that back! Haven't heard from BIL yet.

This reaction doesn't surprise me as my family is not "into" homemade gifts. Nevertheless, I am already working on quilts to give as gifts in the near future. I love quilting!

Well I made quilts for people a long time ago. One was appreciated one was probably used for a rag. So I didn't make anymore for them . Made quilts for my nephews at my brothers request . One nephew thanked me again yesterday I gave it like 3 or 4 years ago. The other has yet to say anything about the ones I sent for him his daughter and new twin sons. So. I no longer really make quilts for anyone. I will make one for the humane society to raffle off. I stopped making for the auction. I want to see how this goes. I just want to make what I enjoy so I will make and let them pile up and let them all sort it out when I am gone. LOL

I gave a quilt to my mother in law. She opened the box, lifted it up slightly, and said, "oh, I love it." Then she shoved it back in the box and pushed it away. Oh well. Her loss. You would think that after 15-20 hours of labor that she could actually open it up.