I think you're right, maybe a little cynical, but right. I dont know if you all remember my mirror experience from last Christmas, that I made for my DIL. Fortunately I did get it back from my son a few months later, since she obviously didnt like it, and even made a face. It was a nice mirror, southwestern style (which supposedly was her style), but she does not like home made "crafts", as she called it, although she wouldnt hesitate to pay a lot of money for this in an upscale gallery (so she can brag about it). I lateron sold it to a friend, who really liked it.
So, yes I think your questionaire is very smart.
May I use it?
Bianchi

Bianchi-EEww your DIL made a FACE! UGH.

I think a lot of people these days think "store bought" is better. WHAT? that cheap junk made in CHINA?

I hope my son's girl likes her mirror!! My step daughter will, she's been asking me to make her something!

Maria

I wrote this on the heels of responding to DIYTRYING's Quick Vase thread. I probably should have left it alone. But sometimes you really do wonder... I am trying to decide if I really want to put the time into the Christmas gifts I am considering. Small ones, it's getting kinda late... But I don't want to put time into even small gifts made from the heart, and have them go unappreciated. Some people really WOULD prefer a gift certificate... I gotta let the boot go!

I feel for all of you who have had to go through that heart-ache. I so far have been lucky but I know there will come a day when what I make wont be good enough for the one I make it for. Oh well I figure it will be there loss and if it suddenly disappears from there home and re-appears at my home..well Im sure they would be the last to say something!!!! Seriously though, some people really do enjoy getting the homemade gifts..and the others well...now you know those people and maybe you should just get them a subscription to the jelly of the month club...a gift that keeps on giving!!! Ha ha!!!

#4 - Would you prefer to have a subscription to jelly of the month or fruitcake of the month?

Pat

PAT ROFLMAO!!!!! Fruitcake would be good.

Ronnie. I am sick about your boot. I LOVED it. I even told hubby about this just now and he remembered me showing him the boot. I thought it was so thoughtful of you.

I have had it happen to me too and I do not make things for my family and friends any more. Too many things were never appreciated for the thought time blood and tears that went into them. I saw a special crochet rug go at a yard sale for 5 bucks. I was tempted to buy it back from the lady I gave it to but ducked my head and pretended I did not see it. Sad, now I wish I had bought it back from her. It took me so long to get the perfect materials for her in her special colors. And so much time to get the rug just right. Oh well.

I also did a mosaic table top for what I thought was a friend. When we took it to her she was not even really happy with it and it was so pretty even if I do say so myself. So in sinc with her theme of her house and life like your boot. By the time we left her house it was already filth covered and stacked with boxes and more of something just in the way for her. I was heart borken. I agonized over the piece.

Chris

Oh, Pat, I like your #4 :)
Funny, I was talking to my mom this morning, and she is making fruitcake today. Now call me crazy, but I LIKE fruitcake! Especially Mom's :)

Wait a minute - I've missed something, what happened with your beautiful boot?

I made my daughter a beveled glass centerpiece, saw one in a catalogue for $385 plus shipping/handling...she liked it, so much that she asked me if I could make her one to give someone else for a Christmas gift this year. I said,
"Sure, but I don't think you can afford me". When I told her how much it would cost she really didn't want to spend that much on her new MIL. They simply have no idea the amount of work, and sometimes literally blood, sweat and tear that goes into a piece.

I guess that's why what we do and make, need to be personal and not expected to go very far, unless it's already made and someone wants to purchase it.
I made a crocheted blanket for my mom...(not to be too specific or nit picky about the time but it was in '77...July, I believe)..lol
when the colors were autumn and natural materials were really catching on..
this afghan was in all the rust, greens, browns, golds...and had a fringe edge.
I worked on that sucker for a month and gave it to my mom.

next time I was at here house, it was the couch cover for the dogs to sleep on. full of shedded hair and looking bedraggled.
you'd think I could let it go...but what's it been?
30 years?........and when you post something like this, you gotta know that you're for sure not alone in this boat!

I also gave her a latch hook wall hanging...the one that anyone over 35 has seen, of the dark brown tree with the blazing red and orange background, with the bold yellow sun, behind the tree trunk and had bare branches, all reaching outward!
she hung it sideways, in the hallway, behind a door...I let her know it was a tree and should be upright but she told me she liked it that way...
and there it stayed...along with the frayed, matted crocheted afghan.

I have since dared to crochet for anyone..
two of my older kids. one, while she was in college..she still loves it and has it neatly folded on the end of a bed, in the spare guest room at her house. she's been out of college, married, two kids and had her seventh wedding anniverssary already. (she did appreciate it)
and the other one, for an older son, that it got packed and put into storage with my things, right as he was in the process of a 'young age' divorce..he still asks me for it
and now he's 26...guess I better be looking for it..lol

otherwise, no, I don't do crochet.and I don't make things to give away...just to make things and have fun doing it.

my thinking on the subject at this time, is.....teach..
teach the craft, teach the art....let the others do the projects and share their abilities....
you get satisfaction, they get satisfaction and it keeps going on and on...
good gift idea...a certificate to a class of their choice, or at least an introductory first lesson.

Yeah roni, I missed the boot story too. Wazzup?

You all know my feelings on this - never, ever, ever, again.

It hurts too much.

Seaglassic, my mom crocheted an afghan for each of her children and grandchildren. One of my brothers married a second time and she was a very snippy young thing who immediately had a large garage sale and there was my brother's afghan that Mother had made for him, marked 25 cents. My mother never recovered from that. She fumed about it for years. Those afghans had thousands and thousands of stitches in them and lots and lots of love.

Ronnie, I've been thinking about this as I ran to the grocery store after I read this earlier. Maybe it takes us to be more observant people of the ones we are going to give to. Such things as do they prefer one of a kind or one of a million items? Are they crafters or artists? How do they value their possessions?

My daughter gooshes over my stuff which is very surprising to me because her decorating style is so modern. She is very artsy but I didn't think she would like it. She is my best cheerleader. My DIL has never said anything so I haven't made anything for them. It doesn't hurt my feelings because that is not her style. My MIL burned me 30 something years ago with an embroidered pieces that never saw the light of day after I gave it to her. We never forget.
Anyway, just a thought.

I don't recall what happened to the boot, either...
what happened?
I remember it was a really cool, country blue one, with a star and all on it......

I was thinking last night. (amazing huh?) Maybe we should make something for someone that we wouldn't choose to buy that item at a store for them. Does that make sense?

I also have made several things for my daughter and her whole house is very modern. So the pieces I made for her are modern and she really likes them and displays them. My DIL's house is southwestern, so I thought the mirror would be a good fit, but live and learn. d3bbi you're right, if they dont say anything, they probably dont like it. I now know how my DIL feels about "homemade crafts".
On the other hand some of my friends think I should give them things for free, because its only mosaics and not a painting, like theirs. So they have this snobby kind of attitude, like; its not really art! Never mind that they have not sold one painting, however I have sold quite a few things. Interesting, isnt it?
I'm not really doing the questionaire, but I know how you feel, ladyronnie.
Bianchi

Never again for me either..you know my auction story...same kind of deal.

Ok. Here goes. I apologize for starting this thread. I knew I shouldn't, but I did it anyway. I was feeling yucky, and now I feel like I have just caused some other people to dredge up old hurts, and I am truly sorry. About the boot...my friends did not emote when I gave it to them like I had imagined they might, up to the level of love I felt like I had put into that project. Now, I have furtively looked around their house each time I have been there (nearly weekly), and I don't see the boot. I have let it gnaw at me. Maybe it's there. Maybe it's actually in some place of honor not in the public eye. Until I find out for sure, it is unfair of me to assume it has been put in a box or a yard sale. Please forgive me.

Roni

Roni, you shouldn't feel bad about this thread. It's comforting to know you are not alone when something like that happens. Yes, it has happend to me, but I choose to go on and create from my heart for the people I care about. I would hope they'd appreciate it, but sometimes in this "ready-made" society, they don't understand all the thought and time that goes into it.

Oh Ronnie, huge hugs for ya.

I reread my earlier post and ofcourse I didn't make myself clear at all.

What I was saying was, we shouldn't make something that we wouldn't have purchased for the person. That way, we remove all extra meaning of effort and care. So if we got done with something, maybe we should stand back and think "if I were shopping, would I...?" ya know.

When I was kid and my Mom got a present from someone and she didn't particularly care for it, she made SURE she put it out at least a couple times when the person came over. She said it was so that they could see she used what they got her.She didn't want to hurt their feelings. After that she felt it was fair game to put up somewhere.

I guess people don't do things like that anymore.

Maria