Lunch sack gift bags

Had our Christmas meeting at Rose City Quilters last night.
We had to make a lunch sack gift bag and deliver it ahead of time so a gift could be added and on the night we got our swap. The pattern is here.
Fully lined - love this turquoise/lime colour combination

This is my finished bag - used a button from my grandmother's dress to fasten it.

And this is what I got in return.

Love the spots and especially the heart button closure.

And inside - a gift from the club...with a catch

The catch is that we are encouraged to use this piece of fabric in a challenge for our Annual Quilt Show "Tote and Gloat" on 5th May 2012. You need to use a recognizable piece of the fabric in the challenge - there are a variety of categories. The standard of entrants is always high - see previous winning quilts here. Will have to think about this one.....
We were also very entertained by the committee last night - they did a wonderful rendition of "The 12 days of Christmas" - each stood up wherever they were in the audience to sing their line, and held up whatever they were singing:

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me

12 new thimbles
11 lovely buttons

10 cotton reels 

9 fabric flowers

8 rotary cutters

7 measuring tapes

6 velcro hanging sleeves

5 paper pieced leaves

4 rolls of ribbon

3 library books

2 pairs of scissors

and a brand new sewing machine

They had decorated hats, held up items or attached them to clothing, and my favourite was the '5 paper pieced leaves' by Erilyn

- see details of how she made them here.

The evening finished with some demo's of simple things to make for Christmas, or to help with your quilting creations.

Loving these tree ideas :

Wool wrapped around polystyrene cones and secured with pins.

Simple but really effective.

And this one of fabric scraps is really sweet : make one yourself with instructions from Quilting Arts here.

Happy creating for Christmas.....