Design wall .... redux

I have tried many, many things.....and finally I have something I like. I had my DH make one of those quilt hangers that is two narrow boards the width of the wall.....one lays on top of the other and has screws at the top to tighten. Instead of placing a quilt in it....I bought a good quality flannel sheet, think it was LL Bean and hung it from the quilt hanger. I put dowels through the hem in the bottom to make it hang straight and flat.

Betty in WI

I got the foam insulation sheets at the home improvement store. They are 4' x 8', and come in various thicknesses. Since it was cheap, I got the 2", the thickest one they had. I spray glued batting to both sides.

Normally, these lean up against the wall, but if I need to, I can swap them out or take them to other areas of the house. I love, love, love them.

I was using felt and it was working just fine, until I saw this stuff that had markings (1 inch grid) on it and thought that it sounded great! Well, I bought it and nothing stuck to it very well. Soooooooooooooo my suggestion is to stick to the felt.

Sunny: Here is what I have ... and like very much. I bought a 4' x 8' sheet of that foam insulation board, about 1.5" thick ... the aqua kind. DH attached to wall with some bolts and included a thin washer on the foam board so it won't slide off. Then I covered it with white cotton flannel ... maybe it is a poly blend. I folded top and bottom to size and tucked over the edges. Long pins, maybe T-Pins, secure the fabric around 4 edges. If I did this over, I would put a cheap white or natural muslin on the board to prevent the aqua from 'shadowing' the flannel. Too long, but I am too lazy to edit. HTH. Enjoy your new room!! PAT

I have done it wrong twice. My first was a sheet of leftover paneling covered with awfully cheap poly terry cloth. It held blocks very, very well but I really need a grid. The 2nd trip through this adventure, I tried the stuff made for a design wall. It costs me more than $ 40 to cover the 4 x 8 panel. The grid is sort of 2 1/8" squares. Who the heck decided on that? And it does Not hold anything without pins or paste made of leftover spaghetti sauce. I think maybe a spray of that quilt basting stuff might help but it would be a royal pain to carry it outside to spray it. (Through whining now.) I love having a design wall. It helps me create and sometimes I just put something I love looking at on it. Eager to see the rest of the solutions. Did you say you're going to have a sewing room of your own? Polly

I am so glad you posted this question! I am getting some great ideas for my new room!!! I just have to figure out how to get a wall space to put it on. My room is 9.5 x 9, not a lot of space but its MINE .

~KK in BC~

Here's another idea for you to ponder. You know those kinda cheap roll-up bamboo matchstick shades - think Pier One or Cost Plus if there is one near you. Anyway, wait for a sale or use a coupon to get the best price. What you are really after is those tough, strong, lightweight top & bottom bamboo poles (pre-drilled mind you) and all the pulley hardware!! If you carefully unscrew and remove the pulley hardware & pulley string, you can then cut the upper & lower threads to get rid of the interior "matchstick" material. (It's kinda heavy also.) Save it for another project if you'd like, maybe a floor covering. Once the inner shade is removed, you can replace it with a nice quality flannel sheet. Simply thread the poles through the top and bottom hems of the sheet, poke the little holes in the top area for the hardware to re-attach at the top pole, rethread the pulley string and waa-laa, you have a flannel roll-up shade!!! It's extremely portable and lightweight. I take mine to retreats with WIP's still attached, simply hang, unroll and go. BTW - buy the shade the correct width for the size of sheet you are using, ignore the length because it will end up being the length of your flannel. Sounds like a "duh", but it almost tripped me up once in making one.

Lorraine in La Center

A cheaper and easier version would be to buy a wide vinyl roll-up shade, remove the vinyl, staple on a flannel sheet, take rod out of bottom of vinyl and put in bottom of the flannel. A possibly easier version would be to unroll the shade and apply the flannel sheet to the vinyl with a spray adhesive. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Does your DH think you need something to stick pins into? The whole idea of the design wall (mine's a big piece of felt stuff from Keepsake Quilting, tacked over wood panelling) is that you can just smooth your blocks onto it and they stick. Easy to move around until you get the design just right. I'm not opposed to cork, of course, but make sure there's a way to cover it with the clingy material of your choice. Roberta in D

"Sunny" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com...

Thanks for confirming that this could work. I was sure I had seen someone post about doing this a long time ago. The new house we are hoping to move to has a wall of bookcases in the loft I plan on using as my space and I was thinking of a roll up system for a design wall that could pull down over the bookshelves when needed. Geez, we don't even own the place yet and already I want to run out and buy a blind and a sheet!

Patience, Patience...

Marilyn in Alberta, Canada

hey Debra, I like that idea! I have mine on foam board, but it isn't big enough. Your idea would work great in my studio which on a couple occassions / year has to double as a spare room for children to visit.

On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:48:37 -0600, Sunny wrote (in article ):

My design wall is a piece of foam board covered with felt (the felt is stapled to the back). I can stick blocks up on the board or pin them if I so desire. When we made my studio, David came up with this idea. The board is in a light weight wooden frame and I can prop it up on the ledge of the chalkboard I have.

There is a photo of it in the sewing studio album:

I just took a quick look at these. They are very old, I really should update those. Of course, that means I need to take new photos, then figure out how to get them onto my laptop since the thieves, while they did not take the camera because it was upstairs, took the cradle and USB cord to transfer from camera to 'puter.

Maureen

The only time I use pins on my design wall is when I have the design finalized, and I don't want my "helpers" to rearrange things. Otherwise, I just stick them up. My design wall is a large piece of Warm & Natural cotton batting, stapled to a 1"x2" piece of wood, 6' long. This is then hung by hook and eye, mounted to the ceiling moulding. I thought I might want to be able to take it down... but that's never happened. ;-P

Wendy

Roberta Zollner wrote:

Howdy!

My design wall is on the living room floor. ..oh, wait, my design wall IS the living room floor.

This means I have to clean the floor before I throw down blocks.. er..carefully place my well-planned designs on the floor, which is not a bad thing; even Casual Housekeepers will clear & clean the floor for a good cause. The hardwood flooring makes a lovely backdrop for any fabric, I can slide around the fabric so easily, re-place and re-submit the ideas as many times as it takes, the lighting is good so I can actually see what I'm doing, and I can leave the project right there until I'm ready to move it (take digital photos of new design layout before taking another breath!). My designing process usually takes a day or less so I'm Finished before the floor is required for anything else, but I'm not done until I'm durned good&ready. Of course, Stanley dog is NOT allowed in that room during this creative endeavor and he responds well to the "Out!" command when I can tell that he's just thinking about taking that next step. There are no small children or clumsy-footed visitors in the front room, either. And I can work in the heart of my home. YMMV

Ragmop/Sandy--I'm cheap but I'm easy 8->

I can send you 4 cats to help arrange the blocks. They'd love to help. Gen

Ok, I'm a bit weird this way. My design wall is whatever big open space I can find at the moment. However, what I do is buy the batting for the size quilt I want to make and pin it up on the wall. Then I put blocks up on the batting itself until I have it just the way I want! So not only am I storing the batting and getting the wrinkles out of the batting, I'm also adjust my quilt top to make sure I'm getting it the right size!

I do have a small piece of leftover batting hanging in another spot on a wall to put up a block or two of long-term projects that I can just leave up for inspiration.

Dannielle

Oh, what a great idea. Debra in VA See my quilts at