ruby2shoes

Whenever I have made a quilt as a gift for someone I have always been mindful of their favoured/preferred colours, size required and their preferences of styles so I can make a quilt that they will really like and use. So, when I decided to make a table runner for my sister I made the same considerations...I asked her about her colour preferences, asked her to send me a photo of her dining table and asked her what style she would like.

I was really pleased with the table runner I made for her....I was able to "fit the brief" perfectly so it was with great excitement and a sense of real accomplishment that i drove down to visit her today and present her with her gift. I gave it to her...she unwrapped it...and loved it......and I was thrilled....until.......

Until we put it on her table. Oh no! The one thing I hadn't considered was that her table is in a very well lit room with large floor to ceiling windows that let in floods of light during the afternoon. So much light in fact that the beautiful dark feature colours of the table runner are completely washed out to a rather dull, nondescript wash. I don't think my sister noticed as she hadn't seen the colours in any other light to compare, or she was too polite to comment on the blandness of it.

I know she will love it as it is a gift from me and there is nothing I can do about it now anyway but I do know that from now on, every time I make a gift for someone I am going to include in my considerations "where" the gift is going to be used and what sort of light aspect is there. My daughter wants me to make her an identical table runner and you can be sure that this time I will be taking some samples of my fabric choices to her house and seeing how they "look" in her "lighting" before making my final choices.

I wonder if anyone else has had similar happen to them?

Snooze2978

I also take the recipent's likes/dislikes when making a quilt for them. I get their colors, styles and size quilt they would like..................look for quilt patterns that would work for them and add it to their pile on the shelf so when their name gets drawn fromthe basket, I'm ready to start. I may go back to them again to make sure their preferences haven't changed if its been awhile since I last asked them. Made a mistake on the size for one recipent so from then on I ask beforehand. What they do with it after its been given to them is up to them.

Onebyone

When she sees it when the sun isn't shinning she will think she has a color changing runner. LOL One thing the sunlight will do is fade the colors in no time.

lmanna

Oh yeah - I do the same. I conduct an initial "interview" with the receipient and set up a pinterest board of patterns I think they might like. I ask them to weed out the ones they don't like. This way I know they will like what they get and they don't know exactly what they will receive. Sometimes I use their favorites from their pinterest board as an inspiration to come up with my own design.

As far as colors - another tricky thing. If they are local I bring in paint chips in different shades/hues of the colors they like and have them pick a few that would make them happy. I then use those paint chips to select fabric. If they are not local I ask them to basically do the same but let me know what they have selected. I then go hunt down the paint chips myself.

It's funny - one of my persnickety friends/coworkers was pregnant with her first child and I wanted to make the perfect baby quilt. She's not a quilter and struggled picking a quilt pattern from the pinterest board- mainly because she was having a hard time looking past the colors and/or fabrics in the pictures. It took a couple of iterations before I felt confident I knew what would work for her. When I brought in the paint chips to pick colors she said - "this is too much work, whatever you pick will be fine". I forced her to select colors and in the end made something I know she loves. While she was on maternity leave she called me and apologized for being "so difficult" in the design phase. She said one of her husband's coworkers made the baby a brown and yellow quilt that was everything she did not like. She said she would never use it and asked what to do with it....I recommended she donate it. I never want to be that maker.

bearisgray

I was going to make my sister something- she suggested blue pillowcases - I asked her to send me some paint chips so I could get a blue "in the neighborhood" of what she might like.

Her response was "What's so difficult about 'blue'"?

Grrrr

SillySusan

Some people have no clue!! Grrrr is right on!

Mkotch

Won't your table runner also be seen in lamplight, when it's dark, or on gloomy days? The colors and fabrics will look different then. Don't forget that "it's the thought that counts." (As my mom would say)

liking quilting

Mkotch and I were thinking alike. In the evening hours, she will have a new perspective and will love it as you put the thought and work into making it. When we moved into our house years ago, the carpeting was dark, multi-colored greens. I was astonished how different the colors read in the night vs. daylight. (It's long gone now).

psquared52

One additional question I always ask if there are any colors you dislike.

bearisgray

i also try to not give someone something that is in their " thank you for thinking of me, but you really should not have" category.