Hawaiian Batik Bag

This is my very huge quilted bag I take to classes with me. It's 28 inches wide--big enough to carry my two 24 X 36 cutting mats, plus various sizes of rulers and tools that I may need--and has straps long enough so that it sits on my shoulder nicely. It has two side pockets for narrower rulers and cutting tools. In addition to classes, I usually take this bag to my trunk shows. I can stuff several quilts in this bag. (I used to show up at trunk shows with all my quilts in pillowcases; it was getting embarrassing.)

I winged the pattern according to the size of my cutting mats and rulers. The nine blocks are the "Kaleidoscope"pattern. I used stash fabrics and thrifted shirts, and whatever was on hand.

I had fun with the quilting, can you tell? As if it wasn't busy enough with ginghams, batiks and Hawaiian prints. You can click to enlarge any of these, by the way. Just guard your eyes, okay?

The reverse:

I haven't made many Hawaiian-type quilt blocks, but this is one of them. Hand appliqued, and I hand quilted it in the traditional fashion before I put the bag together:

I've heard that the Hawaiian quilting designs are supposed to look like you dropped the (appliqued) object in water and the quilting should appear to emanate outward from it, like ripples in a pond. It's a very peaceful idea, which is in complete contrast to the wild reverse.

In other news, the meeting with the accountant is over and I survived. More on that tomorrow. Thanks for your good wishes; a hug and a virtual slice of Hula Pie to everyone who wished me well!