I think home made gifts are an excellent idea. But just try and not let your feelings get hurt if the family isn't always appreciative as you think they should be. Look how many times people work so hard on a quilt (put in all that time, effort of love, and material expense) and some people just don't appreciate it at all.
If you want to make the guys in your family quilts, maybe in the course of conversation you could ask them which of these patterns do you like the best. Maybe sometime people aren't appreciative because they just don't like the pattern.