Art Inspiration on Vacation

I didn't do any crafting while on vacation (though I did help my sister-in-law build shelves for her closet; that was a new experience) but I did see some beautiful art while in DC.

This was at the World War II Memorial:

This is a floor at the Library of Congress:

The Jefferson Building is just amazing. 

I had to take a picture of this painting since it's on the LOC Authorities site:

Quilter's Corner

While visiting North Carolina, I spent a few days with Amanda, famous here for her awesome Christmas ornaments. She and Chris welcomed me to their guest room with this personalized chalk board.

They attached the loopy side of Velcro around the edge so they can customize the board to the guest.

They also had a nifty sewing table in the room, and I just had to take a picture since I have a Singer as well, but the table is not this cool.

Map Bunting

I keep seeing bunting tutorials all over the place. It seems a bit excessive for something so simple, and I never thought I'd have a use for bunting. However, there is a lot of empty wall space in my office and it occurred to me that bunting would be a good space filler. Most tutorials are for fabric bunting, but I decided that I didn't want to bother with fabric for work. So I pulled out my Mod Podge and my abundant stack of maps, raided the recycling bin for cereal boxes, and got to work.

I needed to cover a 10' wall so it's too long to get a picture of the whole thing. I used 5 flags for every 2'.

I put buttons on the ends:

My favorite:

I'm glad Traverse City didn't end up upside down. You can even see Glen Arbor and Leelanau! The eyelet covered up the Homestead. However, the eyelets make a huge difference. They look so much more polished.

Each flag is 3" across the top and 3.75" high. I got 12 flags from the front and back of each cereal box. I used maps of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Virginia, but I didn't need that many so Virginia got dropped because it did not quite match the other two. Since I Mod Podged the maps and then cut the flags apart to save time instead of doing them individually, some of the maps ended up upside down, but the writing is pretty small on most of them so you can't really tell from a distance.

Clothes Pin Quilt Hangers

I decided all my mini quilts needed clothes pin quilt hangers. I used smaller 2" clothes pins for the mini quilts. No gluing required for the smaller versions; you can just clip a 1/8" dowel in the upper hole of the clothes pin.

Pretty Paper Balls

I saw this polyhedron tutorial and thought these would be another ideal decoration for my office. The balls are connected by embroidery floss and will hang from the light fixtures in my office. The larger one is made from 3" circles and is approximately 5.5" in diameter. The smaller one is made from 2" circles and about 3.5" in diameter. I used 2 sheets of 12"x12" scrapbook paper and connected them with mounting squares. Cutting out circles is tedious, but they didn't take very long to put together. I absolutely love this paper! However, the tutorial does say to use lightweight cardboard. I probably should have at least used card stock, but that wouldn't have been nearly as pretty. I do hope they don't fall apart.

Sprucing Up My Machine

Before:

After:

My machine is old. The foam on either side of thread holder was disintegrating. I decided to replace it with green felt so it would look nicer and stop shedding.

Flag Cards

These are the cards I made for the grandparents for the Fourth of July. Happy 4th!

Money Magnets

Now if they would only actually attract money! I have a couple handfuls of foreign coins from countries I have never visited. They have been sitting in my jewelry box, and now they are spread out on my dresser as I brainstorm and solicit ideas for what to do with them. My sister suggested magnets, which is a great idea since I love magnets and some of the coins are already magnetic. However, I already have far too many magnets so I still have a lot of coins to repurpose.