Everyday Art: Organizing the Walls

What a crazy week it has been! Last Saturday, with the prospect of Spring Break just one week away, I worked on something FUN! This is something I’ve had in my mind for a LONG time now, put there by the famous Sally Shim of shim + sons about 2 years ago! I haven’t had time to write her for permission to post, so just take a look at one of her wall + pockets here, I’ll wait. Oh good, you came back! I know, her stuff is beautiful, isn’t it!

You know that I LOVE to be organized, well I love it when it happens, and try to be organized. Life often gets out of control though! A couple of places in my house that A) need some color and B) could be centers for organization – above our phone in the kitchen and close to the boys desk. So I’d like to make so bulletin boards with pockets to hold paper and pencils for these 2 areas. People have been making bulletin boards out of homasote for years (Martha Stewart being the most widely published, but there are lots of folks out there.  Homasote is a type of building material made of recycled paper. It’s used for sound proofing, and is very light. I asked hubby to get me some a LONG time ago, and for a year or so he couldn’t find it in Lowe’s or Home Depot, but then he noticed they were carrying it again an brought a big 4′ x 8′ piece home last month. So we now had the right material. Now, for some inspiration and time!

Melody has been having a Quilt Along with Melody this month, the only real focus to use up stuff already in the stash. So I’ve been using this as an excuse to use up scraps. And for a wall pocket this fabric needs to be strong and not too finely woven so it can take being poked again and again. And BOY do I have some perfect scraps! All my bags are made from cotton duck ( a type of canvas) that I hand dye all scrunched up so I get some cool visual texture. And I’ve got a HUGE bin of scraps:

So I decided I would try to work with these. I didn’t want the board completely covered with small bits, in order for this to be truly functional, it needs to be able to be covered up! Although I could use more of my bag canvas to cover the whole board – dyeing this stuff is literally a pain in my hands, so I want to save the big pieces for more bags. If you’ve read my blog for awhile you know that I try to work exclusively with my hand dyed fabric. But I needed to find a thick fabric that would play well with my hand dyes. Although a thick linen would work, it’s out of my budget range. I also wanted a bit more texture than what I can get from linen. Enter osnaburg. Apparently it was what feedsacks were made of. I’ve used it before to make simple valences, so I had some at home too, so I dug that out of long term fabric storage! As you may know, the thought/image of home/houses is a recurring theme with me, and one of Melody’s quilts this month featured simple houses pieced like you would flying geese, so I decided to add a strip of houses to the board. Any old who, this is what I came up with:

There’s a pocket for business cards/dentist appointment cards/tickets, another pocket to hold letter size scrap paper that’s been cut into in quarters. I used Jessica Jones’ (from How About Orange) tutorial to make some fabric covered buttons, except I used some Dazzle Tac jewelry glue (from Modge Podge Amy) rather than hot glue cause I was worried about how strong hot glue is,

I’m especially proud of this pocket for 6 pencils:

So, I wish I had an in site shot of this one about the phone for you, but it isn’t there yet! ARGH! Hubby the engineer has an idea on how to stabilize and support the homasote what would allow this to be used more heavily, but it hasn’t happened yet. 🙁 Thus, in site pix will have to wait, as will the building the bigger board.

I have 2 questions for you, dear readers:

  1. Would anyone like a tutorial on how to make this? I took lots of pix…
  2. What do I call this?

One last look:

Thanks Kim

Thanks Amy

33 Responses

  4. I love your creative use of your handdyed fabric scraps! I really love your wall organizer, especially the patchwork houses on the side and the cool pockets for pens and pencils! I don’t really have a good name for it in mind… maybe something like Heart Home Organizer or something? Good luck with that! I’d love a tutorial too!

  5. You did an amazing job! I love the little pin holder part, and the pockets, and the little buttons! Thanks for bringing your great project to the party! I need one of these. I had one with magnets, but I just gave it to Goodwill. I needed something fresh!

    ~Kim

  10. Wow! This looks great — I’d love to see a tutorial, and especially pics of the back and how you finished that off. I agree this is a new product for you! Names for it? Home Port (where everything comes back to roost — be it pencil, pad, or notes!). Although you might do some with some of your stitched motifs rather than houses and then Home Port wouldn’t work! The name will come to you.

  22. cute! could you make this and then stretch it onto a wooden frame so it would have a little more weight? then line it with the homasote or something? Just an idea.

    You are really ingenious. First the fish growth chart quilt, then this. Awesome!

  31. Pingback: Candied Fabrics » Blog Archive » Meetup: March Goals
  32. Pingback: Candied Fabrics » Blog Archive » Introducing: The Pocketin Board!
  33. Pingback: Candied Fabrics » Blog Archive » Pocketin Board Tutorial Ready for Download!