This was origianlly made for my good friend Cecilia. I’ve known Cecilia since 1987. We met on a Contiki tour in New Zealand. To my horror I noticed that no other Australians would talk to the Asians on the Tour. I of course invited myself to join the 6 of them for breakfast one morning and from there we have had a wonderful friendship for 20+ years. They’ve visited me wherever I lived. I’ve stayed with Cecilia and her hospitable family innumerable times in Singapore. My wish was always to live in Singapore, as it had become my second home with my Singapore families. I eventually got my wish.
Cecilia is a bank branch manager and she takes her lunch and drink to work. This replaced her lime green plasticized mesh one. The outside fabric is a Furoshiki, bought recently whilst in Japan visiting a quilt show. Furoshikis are a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth that are frequently used to transport clothes, gifts, or other goods such as lunches and I even recently saw a major painting being transported by a tiny man half its size. I bought the Furoshiki at Asakusa Bashi Market in Tokyo, it was dark and night and I could hardly see what I was buying but I recognized the Mon (family crests) and just loved it. I’ve stippled stitched heavily around the Mon, and they appear puffed as they are not stippled. (unfortunately the photo makes the Mon look quite flat)
The bag is fully reversible. The inside fabric of course is batik from Indonesia. Not bought when I lived there, but bought years ago as a sarong, when I was a tourist in Medan Indonesia with Teresa another of my Singapore sisters. The sarong was a great purchase because I didn’t buy it from a grumpy merchant who was so unpleasant, but I walked on and got it from a pleasant woman offered to me at half the price of the "grumpy (not-so-) old" man.
Cecilia is a bank branch manager and she takes her lunch and drink to work. This replaced her lime green plasticized mesh one. The outside fabric is a Furoshiki, bought recently whilst in Japan visiting a quilt show. Furoshikis are a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth that are frequently used to transport clothes, gifts, or other goods such as lunches and I even recently saw a major painting being transported by a tiny man half its size. I bought the Furoshiki at Asakusa Bashi Market in Tokyo, it was dark and night and I could hardly see what I was buying but I recognized the Mon (family crests) and just loved it. I’ve stippled stitched heavily around the Mon, and they appear puffed as they are not stippled. (unfortunately the photo makes the Mon look quite flat)The bag is fully reversible. The inside fabric of course is batik from Indonesia. Not bought when I lived there, but bought years ago as a sarong, when I was a tourist in Medan Indonesia with Teresa another of my Singapore sisters. The sarong was a great purchase because I didn’t buy it from a grumpy merchant who was so unpleasant, but I walked on and got it from a pleasant woman offered to me at half the price of the "grumpy (not-so-) old" man.
With the same piece of Furoshiki, I made two more of these bags and gave them to my two Japanese friends Kumiko and Reiko that I had met at the Yokohama Quilts Show last year. They are members of the Quilt Association of Japan. I still keep in contact with them and they met my tour group at the Tokyo quilt show this year, when I returned to Japan in January. Kumiko displayed one of her quilts at the Show. Reiko is a fashion designer and makes beautiful quilted clothing. I humbly gave them my little bags which was followed by much appreciative bowing. (Japan is my first love and 3rd home!)
FABRIC: Japanese Furoshiki (lighweight but very strong cotton) and Indonesian Batik (also lightweight)
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