Friendship Bag Exchange

Yep! Another exchange with the NNC group!!  This time it was a Friendship Bag exchange.

Mel and I were partners for this exchange, sending to each other.  When I saw the mail lady pull up at the end of the driveway, instead of right up to the mailbox, I knew that the package was from Mel.

Here are photos of what Mel sent to me:

 

See the bird on the bag??  This year MW added a 'challenge project', a bird, for the Anniversary Meet.  I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of birds going back and forth between members.  This one is the first!

The bag is reversible!!  Even the handles!!!  She is so clever!!

And look at all that was in the bag!!  Buttons, ribbon, brads, fabric, tiny clothespins, thing-a-majigs (how do I explain this one?!?  you use the thing-a-majig to pull string tighter, like what you might have on the string of a hat, to keep it from blowing away), and a small cross stitch key chain kit.  The white and black tin, to the left of the bag, has 2 smaller tins inside of it; they'll be great for tea, buttons, endless possibilities...

Mel, thank you so, so much for all the goodies!!!!

One of the requirements was that you had to make the bag (the other requirement was that you had to fill it!).  Now, this was totally new to me.  I fretted over what I was going to do, searched online for various patterns and tutorials, and finally settled on a version of a bag that Martha Stewart made (check out this tutorial:  http://www.marthastewart.com/254095/heart-felt-bag-1).  Instead of felt, though, I used fabric.  But I used her idea of an interfacing between the two fabrics...  However, my bag was definitely going to be without handles... sorry Mel!

One of my favorite colors is yellow, so I decided to theme everything I was sending to Mel around yellow.  It's like sending a bag of sunshine, no??  I went through all my yellow fabrics, and came up with something bright yellow with flowers.

Here are photos of the bag and goodies that I sent to Mel:

Even without handles it's not THAT bad looking...

And some sunshine goodies!

I do so enjoy these exchanges with the Needles 'n Crafts group!!  Check back in a couple of weeks for my posting on the Anniversary Meet; I'll be posting about what I made for the exchange gift, as well as that &@#* bird that MW chose as our challenge project.

Thanks for dropping by!!