Quilt Guild Brown Bag Exchange

We had a brown bag exchange at Quilt Guild today. Two months ago, we put 3 pieces of fabric, along with our name in a brown bag and exchanged them. The goal was to take those 3 pieces, add any other fabrics we wanted to and make a small item for the person who selected the fabrics. The guidelines said that the pieces needed to be at least 8" square.

I got Ruth's brown bag and she had put in 3 8" squares of fabrics that did not really coordinate with each other. I looked at them for several weeks. There was the problem of them not going together but they were also so small that it was difficult to make anything out of them or find other fabrics to use with them.

I finally decided to make a sewing tote. I used pink Sandcastle for the actual project but did a small English paper pieced flower on the front, using two of the fabrics that Ruth gave me.

The third one was used for one of the pockets in the tote. It holds a small cutting mat and has pockets for cutter, scissors, etc. She seemed to like it!

The creativity of the group is amazing. The completed projects included a teddy bear, small wallhangings, tea cozy, pot holders, table runner, a doll, larger wallhangings and others that I can't remember.

I got the best one of the day - made by Lisa.

The above is a close up of the top of the calendar holder and the bottom one shows me holding it. I put 3 fat quarters in my brown bag and I am sure they were a challenge for Lisa. Mine were the bright lime green she used as the background, the multi-color she used as trim and bound with and the purple that she made the letters with.

It is beautiful and colorful and wonderful. Lisa put hanging tabs on the top and included a great Maxine calendar so I can use it forever by getting a new calendar each year. I am so lucky to get this wonderful gift.

The whole guild loved the projects and it made for a wonderful program. If we do it again next year (and most want to), we will change the rules slightly to have you put in 3 coordinating fat quarters as a starting point. This will make it easier to choose projects to make.