Dancing Sam!

Thought you might enjoy this video of a Skype with Sam and Keely yesterday with Phil playing 'Island Style' (John Cruz) on the Uke!!

Up-Cycled Quilted Turtle Pillows

Aloha!  Haven't been posting but I've been busy!   Have been making lots and lots of charms for jewelry and for trading with my charm buddies at Art Charms--one of my favorite things to do--but have been trying to spend time doing other fun art things too.  My friend Pam in Maine volunteers at a thrift shop during her summer teaching break.  She came across this great Turtle quilt square pattern kit for a quarter--what a deal!!  Of course she thought of me :)  How fun! (Mahalo Pam!) Went right to the closet when it arrived and pulled out my big bin of fabrics I've been saving.  Found a few old Hawaiian shirts of Phil's, bits of an old dress of mine and some batik strips of fabric that would all make perfect turtle quilt squares.  Ended up making four squares and wondering what I should do with them..... a full quilt came to mind... realistically I knew I'd probably never finish it.  Pillows--yes!  And sea turtle pillows would look so nice in our condo since most everything is sea related.  But four pillows?  They would mostly be on the floor.... Two pillows and a table runner?  Yes!  Back to the fabric bin.... I shortened some pretty yellow/gold silk curtains for Kyle's condo last year and couldn't bear to toss the 'scraps'. The 2 foot strips were just right for backing and accents.  I suppose this only will encourage me to keep saving things :)  but I do love it when we can recycle all those little bits into something new and special.  Thanks Pam for inspiring me to dig out the sewing machine!

Here is the first pillow.....

And the second.....

Don't they look great on the couch with Kyle's octopus painting behind it?

Here is a close up of one of the squares for the table runner....

I'll play with these today and actually have a project DONE!!  No UFO (un-finished objects) hanging around longing to be finished! (we had a fun swap in my BadBabyArt group a long time ago--we sent a partner one of our UFOs, no instructions, they finished it and sent it back....fun seeing how others finished something we started)

Hope you have a fun, art filled day!