Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas: A Personalized Keepsake Quilt Your Children Can Make

Perfect For Their Grandparents and Teachers

If you want a gift that will be remembered, a personalized keepsake quilt is the answer. The one my daughter made for her fourth grade teacher still hangs in the classroom, six years later. Grandparents adore these quilts and children enjoy making them.

The idea may seem daunting at first, but it’s a very easy project. Your children are going to use fabric paint on quilting blocks and you are going to sew them together using thin strips of coordinating fabric. All you use is a simple straight stitch and the only ‘quilting’ you’re doing involves tacking with yarn.

The project is reasonably priced, and if you purchase the items I have suggested, you will be able to make two quilts with those materials.

You can purchase fabric at any store, but Walmart sells sets of precut fabric blocks, which makes the whole project much easier. Purchase assorted solid colors and cut into quilting blocks. The blocks can be square or rectangular. Make sure they are at least twelve by twelve, and all blocks must be equal in size. If you have purchased the Walmart sets of precut fabric blocks, all you need to do is quarter their blocks to have an appropriate size to work with.

Buy a set of fabric paint in assorted colors, three yards of printed fabric (fabric with some type of pattern or print on it), one inexpensive king size blanket, one king size flat sheet in a solid color and a handful of scrap yarn.

Divide the quilting blocks into sets of twenty, using assorted colors. This will make two oversized lap quilts, five by four blocks. You may choose to make two larger quilts by dividing the quilting blocks into sets of twenty-four, for a six by four quilt. If you have chosen to use the Walmart sets of precut fabric blocks, you can just divide those blocks in half to come up with two sets of quilting blocks for two quilts.