I'm a hand quilter, working a full time job and running a part time summer business on the side, so my quilting time is pretty much limited to the winter months. In other words, I don't produce a lot of quilts. I have some stored in a quilt box - lined with foam core for a barrier from the wood, and individually padded with acid free tissue and wrapped in muslin - can you tell I work in a museum for a living? The rest are in large bins - large plastic ones that are see-through so I don't have to dig - and some are stacked on a closet shelf - again padded and wrapped. Of course, there are one or two on each bed - Gee, maybe I have more than I thought

I want to learn to machine quilt to speed things up - which is really a stretch for me because I have always been such a "purist". So maybe one of these days when I have the time and feel confident enough in my skills I can make quilts for Quilts for Valor - such a worthy cause. But, I hope even more that by the time I get around to it there won't be a need to send quilts to our soldiers in foreign lands. Hopefully, they'll all be home.

I am a starter not a finisher, so that will never be a problem for me. My goal is to make --- and finish a quilt for everyone in my family. But, in the between time, I have been honored to make a couple for special reasons..... our nursing home and for an injured soldier.

The comment about Quilt of Valor is an excellent choice for some of those extras. I was personally able to present mine to the soldier and he was so proud and even mentioned when I explained about the QOV program that he remembered some folks getting quilts from home and wondered what they represented.

I wish had more finished than unfinished projects. I'm working or fixing that....

Just keep on keeping on I say.

Vonna in Texas

There's nothing wrong with stacks of quilts around the house!! But here's a suggestion....quilt for charity. Donate some quilts to Quilts for Kids, or the Linus project, or thru your charity quilts at your guild. I do several quilts a year for charity, and a few for myself. I just have to quilt......

To be honest, I really do have a lot of quilts "backed up" (stacked on shelves 'cause there isn't enough room to show them off). So I will probably be handing them out to my kids (who are salivating for them) and even donating a couple for raffles. There are those I will forever keep (and my kids will inherit) and those that could move in with someone else (who will hopefully love them). A quilter-friend says she always keeps a quilt for one year before it might go to someone else.

I think there's a difference between "an outsider" asking this question, vs. a quilter... even to the painter analogy, if you're continually producing but not parting with your art, there comes a time when you run out of room! So back to the original question, I'd say (since we know there's no such thing as too many quilts) that if you've run out of beds, walls, tables, it's time to buy more quilt racks, shelved armoires/cupboards, etc. as a way to keep the "back stock" visible between "rotations" in places of honor! As a practical storage place, if space really is in short supply, you can "store" a LOT of quilts layered on one bed...

I think there's a difference between "an outsider" asking this question, vs. a quilter... even to the painter analogy, if you're continually producing but not parting with your art, there comes a time when you run out of room! So back to the original question, I'd say (since we know there's no such thing as too many quilts) that if you've run out of beds, walls, tables, it's time to buy more quilt racks, shelved armoires/cupboards, etc. as a way to keep the "back stock" visible between "rotations" in places of honor! As a practical storage place, if space really is in short supply, you can "store" a LOT of quilts layered on one bed...

McCQuilter wrote:
You hit that right on the head there. I was just thinking today that I can't stand to NOT have a quilt, or two, or ten in the works . I literally get jittery unless I have some work in my hands any more. I see a pattern and something in me says "You have to make that, and you can take it one level higher. I ALWAYS change up the patterns somehow or other so they are uniquely my own.

McQuilter: what a wonderful way to describe what you do and how you feel about it. I now have my own answer and am kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner

---

because when I painted (before the quilting bee stung me)that was exactly what I said. thanks again Ann

You know, I'm less concerned about what I'll do with a finished quilt than I am about the need to make it. There's an inner drive in me that makes me just have to make a certain quilt. I can picture it in my mind; it might be because I saw a particular fabric, or a color combination somewhere. But I just have to make the quilt. So when people ask me, "What do you do with all your quilts?" I usually ask in return, "Would you ask an artist what they do with all their paintings?"

all of my family has gotten their first quilt and most of them have gotten a wall hanging and the girls got jackets in I have also made wall hangings for my cousins. or at least the ones who keep in touch

the step grandchildren who didn't quit calling us grandma and grandpa when son and their mother divorced have gotten theirs. also
numerous friends got wall hangings last year this year I am sewing primarily for us but then where from here. certain friends stand out a likely recipients but who knows then I suppose I will have to go out and seek strangers because I do not intend to quit. i will do some small things for our chartly in the park and then decide who else i am going to give to is up in the air. I know who I won't give them too. If someone says that is too much or it is too pretty to use etc etc that person will not get one

Teddy Bears or other stuffed animals - I know a lady who turns worn out quilts into stuffed animals to give them a new life.

http://operationbabyblanket.com/

or Quilts of Valor, there are so many chaitable organizations.

I guess I need more time to sew, I haven't run into this problem yet!

My husband and I do not have kids, but we have a niece and nephew that we are fairly close to. Every time I make a quilt and my husband ask what am I going to do with this one. I reply, "Not my problem. It is my niece and nephew's when I die.".