I agree the design wall sure beats the floor also. good luck making yours.

I have a Fons and Porter design wall that I got with my 40% of Joannes coupon. It was only 29.99 to start with and it works really well. Then I bought a second one and cut it in half and put the halves on some small wall spaces I have, it is an inexpensive and effective solution.

I am lucky that I have 3 large design walls make with insulation covered with washed flannel. I prefer the 1" insulation because if needed, I can push pins in. It is important to find what works best wherever we live.......

Good Luck with your birthday wish !!

I'm only 5' and I have to keep a step stool for everything! :) But, I do the same thing - I put a design "wall" over the sliding closet doors in the spare bedroom where my sewing machine is. I can easily take it down if I have company.

I made a basket quilt years and years ago, a king size quilt with basket blocks set on point, with sashing and although I didn't have a design wall per se, I did hang up a king size sheet and pinned the blocks on the sheet to figure out the placement of the blocks. It worked, but a design wall would have been much easier.

Last year I looked high & low for these so called table cloths with flannel backing, no luck. Then I remembered some flannel I bought at an Estate Sale (can you guess from all my post that I LOVE Estate Sales lol) I thumb tacked it to a wall & I am happy with it as is my 13yr grand daughter. But I am now making Queen size quilt that we laid the blocks onto my King sized that worked perfectly since the queen is smaller than my King bed. Just tonight her Momma came to get her as we were laying out the blocks and of course my daughter had to jump in with her opinions LOL me & grand daughter were just looking at each other & smiling...my daughter never got into sewing so she don't know about arranging the lay out of a quilt. I was fun though to have the 3 generations working & playing with my blocks.

Agree, it never seems big enough. I have a double design wall. I use two flannel back tablecloths, while it is huge, it is not big enough.i think I need taller ceilings! I would also like a bigger sewing room, in my dreams.

One of the most important things a design wall allows over a bed is the ability to step back and look. If you don't have a design wall, you can lay the quilt on a bed and look at it through the wrong side of a set of binoculars. That will make the quilt appear further away and you can see it as if you stepped away. Sometimes it helps to stand on a chair to do this if you have good balance.

No room for one. Can't use bed - back hurts. However, I have EQ5 and Photoshop. I can recreate the blocks and colors, then print them out. I like having a printed guide.