A Gift a Day Gift Thirteen (and Fourteen): The Quilts

One of the big "special" gifts I wanted to make my kids this year was a quilt for each of them.  See, I made a quilt for my son last year, but it was the first really "big" quilt I'd ever made and it is kind of an odd size (cute though).  So, I wanted to do these quilts right.  I made both quilts twin sized, although I made my daughter a "tall" twin sized as I had the material, the batting and the quilt binding to pull it off, so why not?

For materials I used sheets.   Yes, sheets.  I buy three per quilt in whatever size I want to make the quilt in (and actually in the case of these quilts I'd end up with a full sized quilt in one pattern I liked and twin in another.  It worked out fine).  I just look for sheets that are in nice shape and in cool patterns and buy them for 1.00 to 2.00 a piece at the used stores. 

For Armina's quilt I used a really pretty butterfly sheet I found for 1.50 at one of the used stores that was queen sized and a pink sheet I found for free at C&D (the dump used to let you go through things people didn't want and pick up stuff) years ago.  For the backing I used a tan sheet I bought for 2.00 at the used store as well.

For Alvah's quilt I used a circular pattern sheet (full sized) I got at the used store for 1.50 and a dark blue top sheet I'd had for years that my husband and I never used on our bed (husband kicks off top sheets and they end up on the floor...gave up on top sheets a while ago because of that).  The backing I used was a twin sized super soft microfiber like sheet I got at the used store for 1.00.

The batting for both quilts I'd bought new.  Armina's quilt has all natural cotton batting that I bought on a super online sale at Jo-Ann fabric last year.  It cost 14.00 for a full sized batting, so I had that to use for hers.  Alvah's I used a medium loft hypo allergenic batting I got at JoAnn's  on some sale  (it was like 11.00 for a twin size).

So, all totaled, each quilt cost me about 20.00 for the materials I used, although a lot of it I got over time, so I didn't have to pay it all out of pocket at once.  For the out of pocket expense for the actual PROJECT I spent about 13.00 total for both quilts. 

I got thread for the actual quilting of the quilts so it'd at least somewhat match the fabric and the quilt binding...I got on sale on Joann's website on a super sale for like 1.00 and some change per package last year (same sale as the cotton batting), although I did get the last package of my son's quilt binding at the brick and mortar store for 50% off on their Black Friday sale (since it wasn't on sale I used a coupon on it) because they'd only had two available for purchase online during the sale I got all the other quilt binding on.

Total Time to Complete Project:  Boy, I'd say 14 to 18 hours per quilt.  Which, really, when you consider cutting and such, isn't that bad.  Quilt basting spray, by the way, was invented by a genius.  Just saying.

Total Cost Per Project:  About 20.00 per quilt, batting and thread the main purchases.