Thing 1 has been working hard for over a year from attending meetings to fundraising to be able to attend the National Boy Scout Jamboree that happens only every 4 years. There is just about everything a young boy would want to do from archery to gun ranges, skate board parks, to mountain biking, rock climbing to scuba diving. With all of these wonderful activities to do, one of their favorite activities is to patch trade. Scouts come from all around the country and even a few from around the world to jamboree. Each troop designs a set of patches that represents their area. For instance, a set of patches from Detroit is all about American built cars. Being from the Northwest, our patches were Native American artwork. Scouts meet other scouts from all over the country and trade patches with each other. As soon as we found out about this activity for Jamboree, I knew Thing 1 would be interested in this in a big way and managing the patches could be a messy thing if he was just throwing them in his duffel.
What's a quilter to do? Design a bag of course! I designed this bag to be large enough to hold all the patches but small enough to be able to throw in his day pack. It had to be masculine so he would actually carry it. It has just a simple zipper on the top with a ribbon tied to the pull. Inside there is one divider. One side stitched with KEEP and one side stitched with TRADE so he could keep his council patches that he wanted to trade with others separate from those he had already traded for.
When you give a hand-made to a 14 year old boy, you have to accept the fact that you might only get a "thanks mom" type of response. You know the one. Small voice, no inflection, no emotion. It's the same response you get at the end of a school day when you ask how was their day. "fine". Thing 1 surprised me by being super excited about it and gave me a genuine "Thank you Mom" with a hug!
Bag front
Bag back
Bag inside with divider
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