A few oldies but goodies:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

A rose by any other name smells as sweet.

Don't rain on my parade.

PAT in VA/USA reminding you all that it is 'more blessed to give
than to receive,' so please give me some quilts

Tara Henderson wrote:
I agree, but the fact of the matter is that only a minority of
quilters ever do fine work of ANY kind. We're talking about everyday
stuff here, not the cover of QNM. Everyday mediocre handquilting is
more beautiful than everyday mediocre machine quilting.

They weren't proud of the way the stitches looked, as such. They were
showing off the fact that they could afford the latest gadget. Much
like the current machine quilting and embroidery craze. You can buy a
Bernina or a Viking, but (Roxane and Thimblelady notwithstanding) you
can't buy the ability to make really small hand stitches. That takes a
very real and ongoing sacrifice of time, which is so much more
precious than money. Unlike what another poster said, it's not time =
money = love, but time I could have spent otherwise equals love. The
people who receive our quilts understand that, which leads to the
continued perception that there is more love, care, concern or what
you will in handmade objects. There is more of your personality in the
little irregularities of handwork. That doesn't mean that people who
simply can't do handwork because of health or lifestyle don't love the
people they sew quilts for. Each person is different and noone can
measure the personal sacrifice in any given project. For me, sitting
at the machine kills my back so if I machine piece to get it ready by
so and so's birthday, that's more of a sacrifice. But for MOST healthy
people the choice between handwork and machine work does TEND to
reflect a difference in personal outlook. For example, handquilting a
bedquilt for your spinster aunt in the same amount of time you could
have churned out 14 wallhangings for all your coworkers babies.
Strictly speaking there is the same amount of self-giving in those two
choices, but deep down we all know the difference.