FYI - The 72" felt sold at JoAnn Stores is made from recycled plastic bottles!....And it is washable. Interesting huh? If you can get it on sale or with a coupon, it's a great buy

I'm another with fleece ... quilt blocks stick with no problems at all.
Many times I had a completed flimsy on it and left it for extended periods of time, with no problems and no pins!
Yes, a large quilt top at 100"x100" !!!

I chose black for a few reasons ... I had seen too many cream/white design walls in stores that just looked outright grubby and filthy. Also, a designer once told me that black let us see a true colour better.

No matter the colour, stray threads and such gather. A quick wipe with a lint brush or roller, soon has it looking as good as new.

The width of fleece is a nice bonus, with fewer seams. I wrapped each board separately, and then screwed the board to the wall. There's been no sagging. Those joins work great to help get things lined up and straight.

I've had mine now for well over five years and have had absolutely no regrets ... other than wondering why I had not done it sooner. I was fortunate that I was able to cover a whole wall, 10'x8', which for a big project it is amazing. Or I can have several smaller projects on it at a time. You can never have enough design wall space ... and yes, I even have a few portable ones for even more space! :)

My design wall is covered with Warm and Natural batting. It works really well. I have never considered washing my design wall and rarely even pull threads off of it. I sort of like the thready design. :) It still holds stuff up, despite the pieces of thread.

Dina

Me too. Everything stays up just fine.

I paid $2.50 for my flannel backed tablecloth. Guess I should have shopped around! :D

Regardless, it works great.

Watson

Joann's polyester felt is indeed washable. Makes great fillers for crayon bags, purses, wheelchair bags, etc.

Same here. I have 4. One of my tops are layed and wrapped in a flannel back tablecloth. I use skirt hanger to hang on my curtain rod in my sewing room. Mine also have the gingham look with one inch grids.

When I made my design board I just used batting I had laying around but with nothing behind it so pins don't stick well. 1st mistake I made on it. Just recently I read where someone used auto headliner with has a sponge type backing on it so will be replacing my present design wall with headliner fabric next. Thinking on either a pale beige or pale grey as there aren't a lot of choices in colors for headliner fabric. Also will make it wider.

Geesh! I like the idea of using fleece which I have tons of it here and no use for it at the moment. Might have to change my thoughts on the headliner if I can make use of the fleece. Have some still in plastic totes since 2007 so time to get it out.

I've used headliner for velcro boards for my son who has special needs and uses velcro backed symbols for communication. I don't think it would work all that well for sticking fabric blocks up without pins. I do think it would be nice in that not a lot of thread or lint would stick either. If you want to use pins and want a very sleek look with fewer seams, I think headliner might be a nice choice.

I should clarify that I've not personally tried using headliner fabric for a design wall, and it might work well. It's just my experience using it in another application that suggests to me that you'd want to use pins to secure blocks. Since I like information shared from a place of actual experiment and trial rather than suppositions, it's only fair that I apply that same standard to myself ; )