Am I attached to my quilts?

Forrest Jane asked the question about whether we are attached to our quilts, in the sense of whether it is easy to give them away or not. I think for me, I generally am attached to them. If I have made something with the idea from the beginning of giving it to someone, I have no difficulty giving it away even if I love the way it turned out. For the ones I have made for myself or my family, the thought of giving them away feels a bit like giving away one's children. They may not be perfect, but I learned something from them and there is something about them I love -- either the pattern itself, or the fabrics and colors I chose. I did give away three smaller quilts to friends this year, and while I think they liked them, I am not sure I really should have given them away.

The quilts I gave away were ones that I basically liked. Now, if I really don't like a quilt, or think the quality is just too poor, I can't imagine giving them to someone else! How could I foist something I don't even want myself onto an unsuspecting non-quilter?

There is one quilt in my collection that I wouldn't feel too bad about giving away -- it is one of only two true UFOs -- the one that sat on my bedroom table for a whole year trying to guilt me into working on it, the one I intended to hand quilt before finding out how much i love machine quilting. The one for which I chose an absolutely boring background quilting motif of parallel lines, got 1/3rd the way through and lost interest. It is also too small because I ran out of fabric and figured it was big enough for a lap quilt at least. The Little Red Monster. My red Out of the Box quilt.

The Little Red Monster is acutally one of a pair. It uses wonderful batik fabrics I had on hand, against a bright red background. It's colors are...jarring. The other one of the pair uses the same batiks against a blue background. It is soothing and calm, and somehow refreshing. It was the first quilt I attempted free-motion quilting on. The free motion quilting could use some work, but I love the quilt with all its faults. It hangs on a decorative ladder in my bedroom because no one in the family will use it because it, too, is too small (this time because I was so happy cutting that I didn't realize I had cut far too many pieces and used up all the fabric that should have been for the borders). It will probably never be used at my house, and it would make a great gift for a child, but I doubt I will be giving it away. Maybe I need to work more on generosity.

I did post a picture last Wednesday of the Little Red Monster sitting on my sewing table waiting for quilting. It is probably going to be a major theme of tomorrow's post as well. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures handy of its current state or its more attractive twin. Hopefully, tomorrow I can remedy that situation!