Finally!

I finally finished and hung some artwork in my bedroom, which I have been talking about for only 6 months! I bought this condo 18 months ago, and had big plans which were cut short by the insecurity of being on a medical leave and possibly needing my savings for living instead of all the fun home upgrades I had planned. So nothing big has been done. I don't consider my bedroom a decorating priority in the way many people do. I live alone, so my entire house is a sanctuary. I don't need a special one just for sleeping. But a bunch of my RMS friends "bullied" me into at least doing a few things, including putting up curtains and some art. I didn't even have curtains, just cheap white mini blinds. I'm pathetic, but I don't care. The rooms people see look great!
I got the idea for some really cheap inexpensive art that would make a large impact from my friend AnNicole at Our Suburban Cottage. She had shared this photo with a decorating group when we were discussing alternatives to doing a wall of plates. "I can do that!" I thought, "I even have tons of fabric and a few embroidery hoops I could use!" I'm not going to give you the timeline on how much I talked about the project. Suffice it to say it's been more than 6 months since I first saw the inspiration picture! Unlike Sarah, our Thrifty Decor Chick, I don't get inspired, shop, and finish a creation all in one day. I used to...
Cheap balsa wood embroidery hoops at A.C. Moore cost me around $12.00 for 13 hoops! Can you believe it?! I already had all the fabric I could possibly use. My mom and I picked out all the fabric we thought might work and threw it on the quilt. Anything that didn't blend in we removed, and then we went through what was left, choosing our favorites, which were about 15 different colors and patterns.My niece came over and we put fabrics in different size hoops, planning to use 2 of the same fabric at least twice, and finishing with an odd number of hoops. Once we were happy with the sizes we had chosen for the different patterns, she started laying them out on the floor in a horizontal oval. Once we were happy with the different sizes and colors and their relationship to each other, we moved things out of perfect alignment to be more random and took a picture. This all sounds simple, but it took us several hours of switching fabrics out of different size hoops and taking lots of pictures before we were happy with this arrangement. I love using a camera to see things, it gives it a whole different perspective! The hoops were very raw-creamy looking, so I used some acrylic paints I had around to dry brush the outer hoops in a mixture of gold, green and burnt sienna, aging them up.
My friend Mary graciously hung them for me. No one wants the girl with balance problems standing on a mattress when there is no one else in the house. She didn't even mind that her whole back was in the picture, not that she should. What confidence! We used sticky-tack to hang the hoops, so they can easily be repositioned, and no holes were made in the wall. Ta Da! I think it looks great! We ended up hanging 11 hoops with 9 different fabrics. It made a huge impact for less than $12.00! I love the feeling of getting something done! My next project is to make a ragamuffin valance or possible fringe for the curtains. I can do that with stuff I already have, too!