design wall
 

what do you use for a design wall. I was using flannel backed table cloths but they are about worthless now seems like the flannel is not very good on them and I purchased them at dollar store. I have looked other places for them in department stores but have not found any. So was at fabric store the other day and she said she used felt. So got some of that I do not have to pin everything

I bought two full sheets of Styrofoam insulation
and tacked them to the wall. I covered it with an old sheet and Pin to it.

I covered two sheets of insulation with white flannel on a curtain
rod...pinned the sides and bottom. When it gets dirty I can remove
the flannel and wash. Of course it will be more "sticky" when the
flannel is new. Putting a few pins to attach my blocks don't bother
me. Beats having to crawl on the floor or over a bed.

Fleece has been my favourite for design walls for years.

I tacked a Warm and Natural batt to my wall.

I don"t have/use a design wall. I sew in my dining room, and there is literally not any open vertical space to use. If I absolutely need to see how something "flows" I have tacked things to the front of my china hutch!

i've been using felt for nearly thirty years. it has always worked great. i clean loose threads with lint brush. i also make small design boards for my miniatures. last home i made a design wall with felt glued to heavy appliance packing cardboard & attached to sewing room wall with molly screws. current home i have a strip of flannel hung over deck window with wooden dowel in hem at bottom for weight and to keep out straight. i roll up or unhook when not in use.

i use my dining room also. open floor plan, ergo, i hung felt panel over windows to deck :thumbup:

Suggestion .... a piece of corroplast would slide behind your hutch, and would lean up against the hutch when you want to use it. Could stab pins through to hold blocks on to it. Or could cover the corroplast with fleece, and the blocks will stick to it without the pins.

I use my bed as my design wall. I don't crawl on the bed, it would mess up the quilt blocks. I just walk around the end and sides of bed, on the floor. Same as when I go to bed. After I like the arrangement I number all blocks W/ Crayola washable markers. Yes, the markers all wash completely out all the time and always.

i did that when i first started to quilt in the 80's. i have had degenerative spinal disease since teens. the bed trick didn't last long ..backbreaking in every sense of the word! :D so then i moved the dining table & and used the hardwood floor & hoped i'd finish before hubby got home from work and wanted his dinner :) so now ..hang a piece of felt and leave as long as needed :)

I bought sheet insulation then tacked batting to it.

I have three...one is white fleece attached to the wall with a quilt hanger that is a long magnet. Metal curtain rod in a pocket on the fleece and it clings to the magnet. One is fleece that is just pinned around a door in my sewing room (I use that for completed squares that are awaiting their quilt-mates)...and one is the wall in my daughters old room. We had a handy man attach some type of building material to one wall...making it is a HUGE bulletin board/design wall. I use all three. Actually they are all COVERED! lol

I bought a felt design wall with groments on one end and hung it in my sewing room with command hooks. I roll it with lint roller if it gets to many threads on it. I have had it for years.

Cream colored fleece attached with velcro - one side sticky to place on the wall and one side sew on for the fleece. That way it is easily removable at holidays so the family room can look like a family room, otherwise it's a nice sewing room - my sewing room turned into storage room. I don't have to pin anything, though a certain Border Collie blows off a few low placed blocks with her happy dance occasionally.

Bought 4 sheets of foam insulation . Was intending to hang them on the wall like a 4patch, but decide I like the portability of not hanging them. I cover them with Warm and Natural Batting .

I bought a flannel backed tablecloth at Big Lots on clearance about 7 years ago and it still works fine. I used push pins to pin it to the wall of my old house but I'm thinking about stapling it to an old roller shade bar for my new house so I can roll it up out of my way when I need to.

Cari

GENUS!!! Thank you Thank you QuiltE! I have been struggling for months on what to do with my design walls. I made them out of insulation foam boards covered with flannel. After I got them made (made 2 because the sheet of insulation was too big to stand up in my house, duh 8 foot ceilings, 8 foot board no fit) Anyway, I had them in my outdoor storage shed for a while, but very inconvenient to use. They would not fit under either of the beds, no free wall to hang them on, a real dilemma. Almost reached the stage of just giving them away or cutting them up. But you my new friend stated the obvious STORE BEHIND A HUTCH! I have a hutch in my sewing room and one in the dining room. I even have a huge chest of drawers in my bedroom, Not once did my old brain think of behind something, I only thought of under something. As soon as I can move that hutch away from the wall a couple of inches, I am golden.
Once again thank you so much for what I consider an absolutely genius idea!
Murphy

I had a nice design wall my daughter and SIL made me. It was plywood with cork board and felt. Used it for years. I recently took it down and put up a wide back piece of flannel. The old board just wasn't long enough for a bigger quilt.

I just received a Fons and Porter Design Wall for my birthday. It is 60 x 72 with 2 inch grids. Looks wonderful but I don't know how costly it was and refuse to look since it was a present. Now, to find a big wall.

Because I have pocket doors on the sewing room, I put Command Adhesive Hooks above the door on the inside of the room and purchased the Fons and Porter Design Wall from JoAnns ( it has grommets) with a 60% of coupon. I can take it down when not in use and no one see's the hooks from anywhere except inside my room. Works for me.

I also tacked some batting to the wall. I will eventually get styrofoam to put up, and then either flannel or the batting again. The thing I don't like about the batting is it attracts strings, and needs to be cleaned off. I don't think flannel will do that.

You're most welcome!
Other places til you get that hutch moved .... behind a couch! :)
Just take a few inches off the bottom of that 8 ft and you'll find it easier to work with.

Once you have come down off the ceiling with excitement and discover that you need more design wall space ...... corroplast is thinner, so you can store more of them behind a hutch. Plus, can hang it on the wall with simple picture hangers, if you want to stabilize them more so, than just leaning allows for.

I have a whole family of design walls .... started with taped to the wall, and soon sold myself on permanency. Love that! However, I next discovered that I never have enough design walls, so my next foray was the corroplast for the light weight and portability. I have them in so many different sizes now! And all of mine are covered in fleece.

Glad to have helped you figure out .... what you already knew, but just hadn't remembered!!! :):)

Me too! Actually, two years ago I had a room set up and designated as my studio. It’s since been broken down, and I took down my walls. They now move around the house to where I need them at the moment. Currently, they are on the deck awaiting photography.

I have a wide-width piece of white flannel thumbtacked to my wall, on top of a couple layers of batting and some headliner foam. I like it thick enough that I can drive pins into it, so wagging doggie tails can't send lower blocks flying!

Next time I create a design wall, I think I'm going to put styrofoam behind it - I know I am hitting the wall with my pins sometimes even though I really try not to, I am not eager to see how that wall is going to look when I finally take it all down!

I use foam insulation board with warm and natural batting. I cut it to 7 x 2 and used the part I cut off for a couple of small ones to use by my machine, They are1 foot x 1 foot.

I bought the real cheap rolled up fleece at Walmart, was $2.50 this week. I put one up at my bi-fold closet door, it kind of sticks to the door but tuck it in at top and sides. Works perfect for me as well.

2 large pieces of thick cardboard with a $3 fleece blanket from the dollar store. Taped the 2 pieces of cardboard together so it can be folded and used binder clips to keep fleece on it. Cheap and portable. Would like to find a folding room screen that could be decorative on one side and fleece on the other so it wouldn't look bad in dining room if company is over.[ATTACH=CONFIG]583290[/ATTACH]

I use insulation covered with flannel. I have 2 of them and they are not fastened to the wall. I can move them around where I want. If I'm working on something smaller or just at the start of a project, I put one behind the other to save space. When the project is larger, I shut the closet door and put them side by side.

I like to stand back and look at what I am creating so the floor or bed will not work for me. My husband put up 2 sheets of insulation board and then we covered it with batting. Works great. It's the one thing besides my sewing machine I can't do without. Use it ALL the time. :)

I stapled felt yardage to my wall! For basic blocks I don't have to pin, but once I start joining a quilt together (like rows) or make a big block (like a Lonestar) I need to pin. Then I just use small silk pins. I've been super happy with it. Every once in a while I use a lint roller to clean off all the thread fuzzies!

How did you attach them to the wall?

Either flannel or felt works. Felt is 6' wide so fits nicely but it isn't easily washable. For a 'portable' design wall, cover a acoustic ceiling tile (2' x 4') with flannel. It can be stapled, tacked or duct taped to the back. Fairly easy size to store in a closet, under a bed or transport in the back seat of most cars.

Felt. Stapled to the wall, stays up 24/7/365.

I use warm and natural batting too. Tack it up with push pins or thumbtacks. Holds squares without pins. Whole pieced tops need to be pinned. Easy and works well

I use cafe curtain hanging clips to hang a quilt batt along the top of some sliding doors on a storage cabinet. This works well, as long as I don't need anything from the cabinet, but I do have to pin because the wind from the heating/cooling vent on the ceiling in that area sends pieces flying.

I don't have design wall, but a design board, to make blocks and not have the pieces slide around. I used spray adhesive to glue felt onto a poster board sized foam board. I was making sunflower blocks with several dozen pieces, and could rearrange as I liked, and not have to move them off my card table to work on something else.

I picked up a design wall at Joann's by Fons and Porter. It is a vinyl lined with flannel, has grommets on the top and I hang it above my bi-fold closet doors in my quilting room on command hooks which I leave in place. Inexpensive and very functional. I actually have two that extend the width of the wall when I am working on queen sized items.

Previously I used a Cheryl Ann's portable stand alone wall that I assembled and used as needed. Unfortunately, space was at a premium so I sold that one. The new wall is much more usable, less expensive and practical!

You don't have to fasten it to the wall. Mine stand up by themselves. The bottom only has to be a few inches from the wall.

Mine is made of felt attached to 2 pieces of 4’x8’ insulation board. I just lean it against the wall. I like the insulation board because I can pin to it. The felt does need to be lint rolled periodically.

Rob