Wall Hangings

Earlier in the summer, I went home to CT to stay with my mom for a few weeks, and since it was such a long visit, we finally had the chance to go on a long put-off trip to the Berkshires.  I went to high school just south of the Berkshires, in the northwest corner of CT, and we had always said we would go on a trip someday, and now, 10 years after I graduated from high school, we finally made it.

           It was a great 3-day trip, which we packed with sight-seeing, and drove home with a list of 3 more days' worth of things we'd like to see and do.  Maybe in 10 or 15 years we'll make it back up there.  Anyway, our first stop in the Berkshires was Hancock Shaker Village, and that's the inspiration for the projects I'm blogging about today.  Mom and I love Shaker style furniture.  The very simple designs are totally classic and timeless, and in many ways the Shakers were ahead of their time.  One of their big things was putting pegs on every wall so you could hang stuff - coats, hats, buckets, even chairs - up and out of the way.

             When I got back home, I decided to do some redecorating, and I used this idea in a little bit updated fashion in my bedroom and my (new) craft room.  In my bedroom, I used navy blue 3M command hooks to hang purses under the cutest little canvas art work that I found at Michael's for $1 each.  You can't really beat that; I put this whole wall together for probably less than $20 (not counting the gross amounts of money I've spent on the purses over the years).

            In my craft room, I used the 3M command sticky-tape to stick clothespins to the wall, which I spaced out 5" apart, so that I could display stuff: mostly pictures of past projects, but also a few of my prints from my screenprinting class.  I'm probably going to get some more clothespins soon so that I can have another row or two of wall-hangings.

            The last project isn't inspired by the Shakers, but belongs under this post-heading nevertheless.  I went out and bought a queen-sized (excessively large) piece of batting so that I can lay out my quilts on a vertical surface.  The only problem with this system is that I won't be in such a rush to sew the quilt together since it's already nicely out of the way, unlike when I used to lay it out on the floor and then sew it together quickly to get it out from under foot.  But, the quilt blocks make a pretty nice piece of art on the wall, so all in all, it's not a bad situation.