I wanted to share what we worked on at our quilt guild recently, but I had to wait until after our guild meeting!
Back in January, we started a Mother's Day Swap. Everyone who wanted to participate put 5 FQs in a brown lunch bag along with their name. And we traded bags. No one was supposed to know who got their bag and we were to take them home and make something. Anything. Each person was allowed to include with their fabric one request such as "please don't make me a hat"! We could add anything to the stash we were given, but we had to use all the fabrics they gave us!
The exchange of completed projects would take place at our May meeting- hence the Mother's Day reference. The organizer said it would be fun to see who recognized their fabrics when everything was all done. I thought, of course people will recognize their stuff- they picked it!
Boy was I wrong! What fun reveal night was- a lot of people did not recognize their fabrics once they were created into a beautiful quilt,tote bag, apron or table runner (we had a lot of runners- I made one too!). One quilter made a beautiful doll!
So I thought I would show you what I made.
I wish I had thought to take a picture of the 5 fabrics I had been given- but I didn't. I had a very interesting Autralian print, two greens, a peachy orange fabric and a green, brown and white print. Hmmm.. what to do? Luckily for me, my quilter had included a full half yard of the Aussie print. So I decide to use that for the border and make a runner from our pattern Pinpoint. I made up some pinwheel blocks and after I had them all sewn together decided they were too busy. So, I took the runner apart, took some of the blocks apart and I made some more blocks- but not pinwheels. Much better! Here is the front of the runner.
Then, I decided I did not want to waste the other pieces, so I made pinwheel blocks from the rest and used them for a fun, pieced back. I only had small scraps left! I added only a rich brown to the mix, which I used in the back and for the praire points and binding. Here is part of the back.
After that I just needed to baste, do some quilting, make a label and I was done.
Not. I decided the top still needed a little something. In the original pattern, I had added some yo-yos to the center of the pinwheels but that did not seem to go with this runner. So off to the store to find some fun buttons! Perfect!
I used three different buttons and they added just the right touch to this runner! This leaf button is my favorite one.
I have to admit, when I first saw the fabrics, I felt they were a challenge but I think it came out great! And I think the owner liked it- that is the most important part!
I hope we do this again next year!
Happy quilting
Kate
