A friend and fellow guild member was recently gifted six boxes like this.
The boxes are full of drapery samples, approximately 12.5" by 12.5" in size with a card attached to one side.
She brought the above box with her to guild last Saturday and spent the meeting ripping out the stitches that attached the cards to the fabrics. We got to talking about these and what in the world one could possibly use these for. The only thing we came up with was bags. I have since thought about pin cushions too. Do you have any suggestions?
The other catch is that we are suppose to use these for charity. I don't think these would make good quilts. Many of the fabrics probably aren't even washable. Our plan is to make bags (or something else) from them, try to sell them and give the money to charity or spend it on supplies for charity quilts.
She gave me the box of samples to play with. I have several ideas but have only had time to execute one so far.
A simple unlined bag. Three of the edges of these fabric samples are already serged so I didn't even do french seams on the inside. The handles are left over nylon webbing from another project. It's not a large bag, about 9.5" tall by 11" wide. My other bag ideas involve lining, boxing the corners, and adding separate side and bottom pieces. I'm just going to play until I come up with something I really like. The above bag is nice and simple, but I think I can do better.
The boxes are full of drapery samples, approximately 12.5" by 12.5" in size with a card attached to one side.
She brought the above box with her to guild last Saturday and spent the meeting ripping out the stitches that attached the cards to the fabrics. We got to talking about these and what in the world one could possibly use these for. The only thing we came up with was bags. I have since thought about pin cushions too. Do you have any suggestions?
The other catch is that we are suppose to use these for charity. I don't think these would make good quilts. Many of the fabrics probably aren't even washable. Our plan is to make bags (or something else) from them, try to sell them and give the money to charity or spend it on supplies for charity quilts.
She gave me the box of samples to play with. I have several ideas but have only had time to execute one so far.
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8 comments:
My first thought was bags too. You're right, too heavy for a quilt. Maybe table runners though? Or floor mat?
We had the same thing happen in our small quilting group. We cut the fabrics into squares (if I remember correctly it was 4" squares) and stuffed enough for a bag into baggies. We tied them up with cute ribbons and tags and sold them to guild members (very cheaply, I might add). We made tons of money and then donated it to charity. It was a fun experience.
All groups of quilters must think alike. Same decision here with a couple groups who had access to the drapery samples. When we ran out of the bigger samples, we paired up a couple complementary fabrics for a different front and back, and a third fabric was used for the handles.
Great fun, and so much better than letting the samples go to a landfill (as one store said they did).
Our guild has talked about using some of these bags to hold the share quilts/donation quilts we've made for homeless shelters and youth homes, etc.
They are very cute!!
How about patchwork rugs/floor mats? I could see these neutral tones in a rug for near the kitchen sink.
My first thought was what in heaven's name would you do with these. I should have known you'd come up with some clever ideas. I love this bag. I like nice and simple and I like the size too. Can't wait to see what else you do with these samples.
The bags are cute and a great use of the pieces.
The bags are cute! What about stuffed animals out of some of them? That could be cute. That sort of fabric is tough to come up with ideas for. Throw pillows?
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