Recently in Tote Category

This weekend is the annual Art By the Bay art show at the Stanwood Fairgrounds - Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Amy and I have been busy finishing up projects for this show. We will have beautiful quilts, decorator pillows, quilted wall hangings, unique place mats, quilt patterns, quilted arty totes, and handmade collaged cards for sale. I finished this quilted tote just a few hours ago. Don't you love those oranges?

The other side of the tote has a very 'fishy' pocket.

We hope that if you are in the Seattle area, you will come by and see us, and enjoy the work of other local artists, eat some good food, and hear great music on the stage.

Yesterday we had a day of sun with not a cloud in the sky. Islanders hoped it was a sign of warmer and drier days to come. I've had in my mind to photograph our totes together. As I got settled out on the deck, the totes arranged and perfect for a photo, the rain started. I did get the photo, and you can see drops on the deck. These Here2There totes have bird art and bird houses worked into the design. These are ready for upcoming shows and sales.

This is a peek at our collaborative tessellation quilt which is still in progress. Here I have just sewn on the binding. After this photo, I did more quilting on the shapes. I'll post photos of the finished quilt soon.

Other Here2There projects continue to be worked on both here and there. With each piece, Amy and I both say that it is the best one so far...and now, we have said that many times. But really, this one just may be best one...until the next one anyway.

Look what arrived in the mail today!

This is a completed tote for a holiday commission... "black and silver," we were told...but, really... the touch of red is just right. Opal did a beautiful job finishing it, putting it together, and quilting it. And, I have to admit, I had fun with the panels. These are colors I love to work with... and yet this is a really different flavor of the colors than I've worked on recently. So, it was a nice change of pace!

After this one... I moved on to pink and green... with black. Opal's finishing that one now.

Well, there is much in progress on my tables... a few custom orders for totes have kept me busy with paying work, and I've got a list of projects for family for the holidays. I mailed off three custom photo pillows yesterday. They were a beautiful trio to work on. Ironically, the three colorways (for three separate recipients) ended up mostly reds, greens, and golds... so when viewed together, it has a beautiful and rich holiday feel to it. Just happy to see... and rewarding to know they're on their way to new homes... as special gifts.

Last week I worked on panels for a black and silver tote... and I know Opal is finishing it up. This week, I've been working on a pink and green tote... with a healthy balance of black. I'm finishing up my panels today (I hope), and it will be on its way to Opal for her to assemble and quilt.

But my photo today is of pottery... these are samples of the work Opal's husband does at the Camano Island Pottery. I've got orders in for "Doodle Mugs" shown here... I'm very excited about them and about giving them.

While Opal worked on her birdhouse border on the "daybreak" piece (we keep waffling about the name), I worked on panels for a tote using one of the stack of birdhouses we had out. Iroinically, it was with the thought to make a larger piece with several birdhouses that we started this week... and branched out and worked on the "canopy" piece with the black strips and integrated small bird prints. So, while she camped out in the dining room with the big cutting mat, I worked in the kitchen at the bar laying out a new tote. It's shown above in a very early moment.

It's Day 3, and we are working on many things and having a good time working... coffee or tea at hand, iPod playing, sewing machines running, the constant back and forth to iron or to rifle through one of the many bins or bags of scraps. I wanted to show this photo today, however, of the two totes Opal finished and brought with her... the orange one is hers; the pink one is mine. They are similar in feeling even though their treatment is different in many ways. I think they turned out amazing, and I'm glad that this week I'll get to see the process of constructing one of these totes first-hand. I know there are four layers of fabric here... and yet the totes feel wonderfully light and thin.