I tried flannel on my first one but didn't like it. I tried felt next and love it.

I ordered the large size in one of these and I liked it, but at some point I had some of the elastic things pull out that help snap the tupes together. Several months ago I got my husband to help me and we put the tubes together that hold it in shape, but not the legs. Then dh put picture hooks on the wall and we just hung it up. It has worked great and holds fabric pieces with no pins.

A suggestion for anyone looking for fabric to cover a design wall would be flannel printed with a grid. I saw this on Alex Anderson's show, tracked it down and got a big piece. I use it to lay things out and had originally planned to put it on the wall, before I did the Cheryl Ann's thing. :D

I bought a piece of tablecloth vinyl. It has a flannel back. I hung it on a rod that I can raise or lower, and it works good for me.

Eleanor Burns' son made her one out of car header (fabric that goes on car ceilings (or at least used to). He framed it very nicely, I just bought about 1 1/2 yards of the stuff at JoAnns
and tacked it to a wall in my sewing room. It has a clingy texture which holds fabric pieces.

My hubby just made me a design wall a few months back and I love it. We used the foam board (insulation board) from the hardware...we used the thicker board, I think it is 3/4 or 1 inch. My design wall is 6ft x 6ft. We bought 2 boards and cut them 3ft x 6 ft, covered them with batting which was cut to fit and only covered the front of the board to the edge. (glued that down with glue from Walmart, can ask my hubby if you need that info). <br>We then covered the batting with flannel and that was cut to wrap around the edge of the board and cover the back about 3 inches all the way around. I tacked the flannel to the front of the board with thumb tacks and then flipped it over and we glued the 3 inch flannel edge to the back of the board with the same glue. We spread it with a sponge paint brush and then just pressed the flannel to it and it stuck held and dried very well. After it was all dry my hubby screwed both pieces of the board to my sewing room wall with 3 long screws along the top piece and two down the side. The bottom board had 3 screws along the bottom and two up the sides. Hubby bought large washers about as big around as a 50 cent piece to use to keep the screws from being pulled thru the coreboard. He even painted the washers the same creme color as the flannel and after screwing it all to the wall he got a piece of paper and made a little hole and spray painted the head of the screw so it all matched. You barely notice where the screws and washers are. The design wall works great and I am really glad I used the batting behind the flannel to cover the boards. I will take a picture and post it as soon as I can if anyone is interested. I just love it and when I am not using it for quilting I use it to put up photos of my grand kids with a few stick pins. So it serves as a big bulletin board too.

if you need to put you desine board away i would make it out of foam insulation and make it a screen it is simple three boards the same size with hindges attached than it can be folded and put away if you need to it also makes it portable if you take your sewing on a trip with you i take my machine and everthing in the camper with me just love quilting

I just got the Connecting Threads catalog and they have Fons & Porter's design wall on sale. It is flannel with brass grommets that can be used to hang it up. It is 5' by 6' and is on sale for $20.

You might look at it to get ideas or see if this is what you want. I imagine it would work well if you need something that could come down and be moved easily.

Just thought you might check it out... :-D

Oh, they have books on sale, too!

I made my like Eleanor Burns, blue insulation board and car header fabric. The little threads don't stick to it like with the flannel/felt, etc. I didn't have to buy a whole role, my friend that owns the LQS store I love had her husband build a big wall and she's let me have enough to build my half wall. I took pictures, just have to upload them tomorrow.

What color is the header fabric?

My design wall is made from a buck board we don't use with our bed anymore. We have a pedestal bed, with drawers underneath, and if we used the buck board, the box spring and the mattress, we would be sleeping right up next to the ceiling! :shock: For those of you who don't know what a buck board is--it's the board that goes in between the box spring and the mattress. We have an oversized queen. The box spring is regular queen sized, and the buck board is the same size as the mattress and sits on top of the box spring. Anyway, after that long explanation, we took the buck board and covered it with flannel. We have it leaning against the wall in the basement right outside my sewing room. It is the same size as the mattress top, and works great! I love it when I can repurpose something like that!