handmade christmas, part one

For several reasons, including our budget and my sanity, we've kept Christmas gift giving this year fairly simple. And for even further simplicity, I've done most of my holiday shopping online. With the little bit of extra time I created by doing so, I've been able to tackle a few handmade Christmas gift projects.

This year Santa will be bringing Caleb a new dolly and a dolly stroller (Caleb loves baby dolls, and there is no way I'm going to inhibit that attachment, at least not yet, because hey, if I can't seem to produce girls, I'm going to take any hints of softer, sensitive sides in my boys and run as far and as fast as I can with them; also, it's really adorable watching him take care of the dolly he already has). As any little girl could tell you, dollies need accessories, so Santa commissioned me to make a small dolly blanket.

I used fabric scraps that I already had on hand for the quilt top, and so only had to buy fabric for the backing and binding. In place of batting, I used a piece of the backing fabric instead, which worked great -- I didn't want this blanket to be too thick, and it didn't need to provide warmth, but it still needed something sandwiched in there for substance.

I think it turned out well. Since it was a small quilting project, I decided to try my hand at machine quilting it myself. Nothing fancy, just a few straight lines parallel to the seams of the patchwork pieces. I only had to re-do the binding 2 1/2 times (and it's still not quite right), but I don't think Caleb will notice the flaws, and he's more than worth the bit of extra effort anyway.