The 2010 Homemade Christmas Objective...

Oooooo...sounds like a secret government program doesn't it ;). 

I know I mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating since you all are going to be along for the ride.  I decided that during 2010, I want to make as many Christmas gifts as I can for as little money as I can and still give classy gifts this year.  I really just want to get back to the basic idea of the holidays, which is that it is the THOUGHT that counts, not monetary value.  I have some very awesome ideas of what I'm going to be doing this year, so stick around.  My objective is to make at least two gifts a month for the next 12 months (thus 24 gifts will be done come December), for as little money as possible (and I'm planning on making birthday gifts as much as possible too, so that'll be interesting).

Today, I finished my first gift, so I figured I'd give a quick recap of what I did and how much it cost to make.  The first Christmas gift is for my son, which is a home made toddler quilt.  Here's the finished project...

I am, what we quilters would call, ummm...*Light bulb goes off over head*...oh yes, "A crappy quilter".  Seriously, I do everything wrong.  For instance, the template I used for the blocks?  A roseart marker box because it was handy and about the right size (and the nifty black marker was used to draw said blocks so I had lines to cut along).  How did I get the size?  I looked at a toddler comforter I got to use for batting for a quilt for my daughter and just kept going with block lines until it looked about right.  The boxes don't match up exactly.  I didn't use one pin on the entire project, just sewed the squares together.  I didn't iron my seams, I just used basting spray and got my layers together, sewed on the machine freehand to get the diagonal quilting lines as close to looking right as I could.  I then cut around the edges to make it at least somewhat straight looking and sewed the binding on.  Voila!  I broke like every single quilting rule my mom quoted me and it still turned out looking like a quilt, so I guess I did something okay.  It's nothing that will win an award at the state fair, but I sincerely doubt my son will care. 

I mean really, how many of us can really BE Martha Stewart?  I know I can't.  Especially with kids helping me sew by stepping on the pedal of the sewing machine so I can't stop in the middle of a line.  But, I've always wanted to be one of those mom's who makes things to pass down to her children.  So, I have to live with the talents I have, and quilting is not at the top of the list.

And honestly?  I know I'm not a great quilter, but I'm okay with that so long as my kids feel loved and know that I made that quilt for them.  It's not perfect, but neither am I.

So, cost breakdowns?

The material I already bought when I found out my son was a boy and I never did get around to making the quilt.  The binding I found at a used store and batting were both purchased at a used store years ago for like .50 a piece (I got tons of blanket bindings that way...actually I have gotten tons of FABRIC that way too).

So, total cost out of pocket for this project (out of pocket now anyway)?  Nothing except my time. 

I'm going to (at some point) make a pillow case out of the leftover airplane fabric I have, so I think it will all look pretty cool when I'm done :).  And to all the quilters out there who do things meticulously right...sorry ;).

Onto the next project!