December 18, 2010

Given and Gotten

This was a week for gift exchanges. At last month's Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting, I drew Wendy's scraps out of the bag. They looked like this.


I was kind of freaked out by the fact that the only print was something I would probably never buy for myself. And that there were only four fabrics total. We were only allowed to add one additional fabric. I decided to make fabric buckets.We were to bring our gifts to this month's meeting.


I followed most of the instructions on this tutorial at Ric Rac. However, my passable grasp of high school geometry led me to cut my fabric to a width of 17.75" instead of the longer measurement she gave. This worked nearly perfectly.


I was quite delighted that Wendy came to claim them with her young son, who promptly put one on his head as a hat. I wish I had a picture of that.


I'm totally doing this again. I want twenty of these.

For my gift, I received a quilted gift from Brittany. I had given her a baggie of Echino squares and coordinating solids.


Isn't it vibrant? 


I asked her not to be offended that I liked the back slightly more but how cool is that quilting echoing perfectly around the bus?

Now for work. My "secret spy" got me two new cherry prints, which I have decided are my new obsession.


For my own secret spy responsibility, I did some sewing. Pretty much everyone who works in my family planning clinic thinks the bags at Safe Sax are fabulous. However, because we're all working in a family planning clinic none of us can afford them. I thought it would be well received if I could sew one. So I got some colored condoms and...


I did! Working with vinyl is like kind of like working with Saran wrap. But it took just over an hour thanks to some keen planning. It's about 8x9 inches and I sewed it with a gusset, though I think it would have worked just as well to do a boxed corner design.


It was well received! Hope your week is going well. We got Christmas packages mailed today and that is a good feeling indeed.

11 comments:

Cheryll said...

What an excellent job you did with the scraps.. and then with the condom bag.. lol. You're very creative! Well done!

BubzRugz said...

Very clever condom bag... what a giggle.... I just love your fabric buckets.....
Best wishes for Christmas
Hugz

Michele said...

Had to get a closer look, those bags looked like they had condoms in them. And they did! How clever! Love your buckets and the little quilt too!

Victoria Findlay Wolfe said...

Great buckets! but the Safe SAX bags are Fabulous! I bet the clinic loved those! Clever is always good to promote a great idea!

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

What a clever idea!

Anna said...

great projects!!

Jill said...

LOVE the condom bag! So what kind of a statement would I be making if I used one of those as my diaper bag while walking down the street with my 2 kiddos.... Hmmmmm......

I didn't see the fabric buckets at the meeting, they turned out great!

Charlotte Scott said...

Ha! That is a cool bag (just don't leave it round where the teenagers could rip into it in emergencies!). Love the buckets too. Actually, love everything.

Suzanne said...

That's an awesome bag. Did you use a roller foot to deal with the vinyl? I almost wish you had a side-by-side comparison of your bag with theirs with the price of items needed vs. price of their bag. :-)

catnap said...

I love these buckets! I've never seem anything like them. Just now I was pulling out old gift boxes to wrap Christmas presents in (having been raised to be ever frugal), wondering if spending most of their time in the basement has tainted them with mildew. I'm wishing I had a washable, reusable gifting system. Maybe your buckets are the answer, somehow. I think I need to explore this idea more. Thanks!

Mama Pea said...

I love those buckets! I will have to check out that tutorial. Your condom bags are just fabulous. I bet your friends just loved them!

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