tessagin

Couple quilts I made for showers went to the dogs when whelping bedding was needed. My sons and DGDs saw photos of it. They asked who made the bedding. When they found out I did it, they let the recipients know about how they thought it was disrespectful. I just found this out within the last week. It has motivated me to get started on my family. Tears through the smiles and loving my family all the more. DH and I are working on couple charity whole cloth. He likes the Sharon Shamberg method of basting. Who'da thought?

Onebyone

I learned a long time ago, relatives only get rag quilts. They think they are awesome, they are easy to make, and I use mostly scraps to make them. The rag quilts end up getting used, not put away or given away. I always tell them this quilt is for sitting on at the pool, picnics, back of cars, play mat. Don't fuss with it, use it.

sprice

Gosh, I crocheted a throw for my parents back in the 60s. It still sits folded up on a closet shelf! Guess it will eventually come back to me to figure out what to do with it. I'll probably pass it on to Project Linus since I have plenty of quilts around my house now. Also made a full size lavender and white quilt for my niece--sent to out to be long arm quilted--which she then let her dogs sleep on. It was used up in about 2 years. Now I make simple quilts that fulfill my need to create and work with fabric. Almost all go to Project Linus. I tell myself that they are appreciated!

bj

I mostly quilt for family and friends. Once I gift it I don't worry about it. I make them because I enjoy quilting and love the recipients. You can't control it once it leaves your hands.

tessagin

Just got off the phone with my sister. Her DGD (my little "protégé") made two small quilts for a friends' little boys. With gma's help she birthed and tied the quilts. These were 40"x40" finished. One was accepted very happily by one mother and boy; he's 18 months old and loves to wrap himself up into a corner and take a nap with it. The other one was rather shruggish and said how cute. Her little one tossed his out the back door and it quickly went to the dog house. Mother of the boy laughed and said Oh well. The mother asked if she could make a better one. "Protégé" said she had no more fabric to "make them another". When my sister told me this, I said, "Karma is not nice is she". Then she remembered about the time I made a quilt and diaper stacker for "Protégé" when she was born. Karma will come back like a boomerang!!

NatalieF

Seriously??? I'm just shaking my head. The gall of some people is truly astonishing. Good on your DGD for recognizing early on when to not waste her precious energy.

Daylesewblessed

I make quilts for new babies in the family. They are personalized as much as possible. and I want them to be used. If they wear out, then the memories will be kept by the pictures of the babies with their quilts. People who appreciate family heritage will cherish their quilts. Others not so much.

I do lots of quilts for charity, and those are simple, but nice. I use materials on hand for them.

By far most of my quilts go to the Bible Camp quilt auction. There, I figure if a person is going to spend money, they must like the quilt. Of course, it may be given by them to someone who doesn't, but that is ok.

I quilt because I love quilting!

Dina

I have been happiest giving a quilt when I had the input of the one who was getting it. In each case I told them I would like to make them a quilt, if they wanted one. If they didn't, that was okay too. I let them select the pattern, from 6 or 7 that I said I enjoyed making. I bought the fabric, based on emails back and forth, for three of them.

That worked well, but after that, I left the fabric selection up to the one getting the quilt. Two purchased fabric, based upon the "recipe for a quilt" that I sent them and mailed it to me. (They live many states away.) Four were work friends, and we met for lunch and then headed to the fabric shop where they purchased the fabric and the batting. (I had warned them that making a quilt was not a cheap process. I don't think they believed me until then...)

I think we were all pleased. I knew they would like their quilts and each seemed to enjoy the selection process.

Dina

ekuw

The 2nd or 3rd quilt I ever made I gave to my mom. I specifically chose fabrics that I thought would be suitable for her house ( I did not have any stash yet). I made the quilt because I had just been bitten by the quilting bug and wanted to quilt. When I gave it to her I told her if she did not like it or want it (she lives in Arizona, not sure if she really has much need for a quilt) to feel free to do whatever she wanted with it. When I was there last spring I did not see it anywhere in her house. It occurred to me then that quilts are just not part of what she would choose to use. Some people have very specific tastes in what they want in their homes. I think that is the case with my mom as she is very into "decorating". She is VERY supportive of my quilting and ooh's and ahh's over the quilts I make, but again, quilts are just not her thing. She did ask me to make my Dad a lap quilt after he had a stroke and needed something besides a hospital blanket :-) I quilt because it is a creative outlet for me; once I give a quilt to someone they can do what they want with it :-)

Prism99

My family and friends are simply not very interested in quilts.

I remember years back when the Japanese wife of one of my husband's co-workers gifted me with a wall picture she had made. The craft involves carefully cutting up greeting cards and then painstakingly gluing them at different heights to re-create the picture with dimension. I was stunned by the amount of work that went into this picture. However, the nature of the picture (old-fashioned children playing in front of a cottage) was *completely* out-of-keeping with our tastes in home decor (I have to hold my husband back from buying only stainless steel and glass furniture). There was no place I could really place this picture, which held no meaning for anyone in the family. It was really sad, but I ended up donating it.

Given my experience and the understanding that my family members really do not appreciate quilts, I make only quilts that I enjoy making. A lot are currently UFO's. Of the finished ones, some I keep and some I give to charity. I want to leave behind some of my favorite quilts because my bet is that my family members will one day cherish them as memories of me. And I am making a few that can be used for grandchildren some day (assuming I ever have any!).

I think it's fine to make quilts simply for the pleasure of making them, and it's fine to simply make quilts for charity. I'm a big one for *buying* shower and wedding gifts (or giving cash). If someone wants a special quilt for a wedding or new baby, they can ask me. Or, as someone else mentioned, if someone comes over and loves a quilt hanging around in my house, I would consider gifting them with it.

Personally, I don't want to put a lot of creative energy into a quilt or wallhanging only to find it used for a dog bed by the recipient. If that happens, I have to consider that it was *my* mistake to gift them so inappropriately in the first place. If it happens once, okay. It's not going to happen again, and it's not going to happen routinely to me because I'm not going to assume people who don't understand quilts are going to cherish a quilt made by me. I'd rather have my quilts go to auction and be purchased by someone who loves them.