Museum Quilt Guild Brown Bag Challenge

What do all of these items have in common?

For the second time this year, Kathi Everett and I hosted a brown bag challenge for our guild.  Anyone who wanted to participate received a brown bag full of these elements.   The brown, gold and black fabric was a "must use" as were 2 "prompts" on 2 small slips of paper - which said  1.  Use an unusual fabric and #2 add a straight line.  The rest of the items were a cork, set of washers, mini clothespins, 2 beads attached to a ribbon, candy wrapper, piece of suede fabric, a tassel, piece of gold cord, dryer sheet and coffee filter. We could omit any 2 of this last group.  As before, the creativity of our group never ceases to amaze us.

Mine was literally, a brown bag.  It is a purse with the parrot made from the suede, silk, and dryer sheet.  His eye is from the washer covered with floss and the beads are used for feed to hang on the perch which is the straight line made from the gold cord.  The tassel is the zipper pull and the coffee filter is the half circle on the back.   I also added a lot of beading on the back.

Lori Anderson's wash day on the left and her daughter, Bethany on the right.   Beth did a lot of painting with her elements.  For a young artist, she never ceases to amaze.  Lori works a lot with miniatures and that is reflected in her wonderful little quilt.

Cynda Watroba  - whimsical tree on left and Gloria Crittenden's peaceful home scene on the right.

Tracy's bouquet - loved that she used the background from a previous workshop - she is probably the one for whom this was the most a big stretch.   Love the butterfly.   Mary Ellen Casey did the owl - she is always so creative and works larger than I would dare most of the time.   So realistic!!

Another Mother daughter duo - Mary Ann Watson was inspired by wash day also and even joked that it is sad when laundry day is her main inspiration for a quilt.   Her daughter Melanie Watson did the piece on the left which is a journal cover for the book that houses information about our community service quilts.   Love that she was so practical - and yet it is such a lovely keepsake for us.



Kathi Everett did hers totally by hand.   She is the queen among us as to using unusual items in unusual ways and this is no different.   She calls it Harmony.   Love that she is so creative doing all by hand.

Alex Hammon did the sash for her bear, Cinnamon.  Such a lovely story about the first bear she ever purchased and the sash contains all the elements.

My final comment is that I don't understand why the blogger cooperates for all by the last 2 pictures.   I couldn't get them side by side no matter how hard I tried!