Design wall...
 

I finally moved my huge metal shelving unit away from the wall so i can use the wall for design. well looking online is fun. Two places I looked at later on when i looked again, had put the price up!! Grrrr. Now I must find a place that does not do that.
I was looking for Fon's and Porters flannel design wall with two inch grid lines. Not any more. Too expensive.
so flannel. Missouri star seems to have some for that. Anyone purchased anything for a design wall lately? I need to get one so i can continue to clean up my sewing room and finish this quilt.

I just use batting, has worked well for me.

Yes, i was thinking flannel... I have some on the skinny closet doors of polyester and they don't work too well. But i do pin and don't mind having to do that. I just want something large.
JoAnn's wanted too much to ship my order and Amazon kept raising the price each day i went back to look again.

Mine is made from some of that insulation foam board that you can buy at Home Depot/Lowes. I think we bought a 4' x 8' board & cut it to 4' x about 6 1/2' to fit my space. I used flannel for the front. I had to piece my flannel to get a piece large enough to wrap around the board edges. It works really well. That being said, I sometimes wonder if the foam board is dulling my pins that I stick into it. They seem to be getting dull over the years.

I think “dull over years” might be normal wear and tear. Read somewhere that back-when there were needle and pin retirement services. Think it was Japan.

It took me 10 minutes to find mine, as I never use it anymore. May have used it three or four times as I don't have a solid wall and tried to hang it over my open pocket doors..... blocks kept falling off. If you are interested PM me and let me know.

I just pm'd you. Sorry it took me awhile to look in here again. Had to fix lunch!
oh the time on here isn't the same as my time. OK, so it's not as late as I thought it was. good!

I’ve had a few design walls and to be honest Warm & Natural batting is what has worked best for me. My blocks kept falling off the flannel wall I had, especially if they were bigger blocks. Why don’t you pin pieces of several different design wall products you’re thinking of using? Then you can stick some blocks on them and see how well they stay, and make a choice from that.

I have flannel. Works fine.

thanks all. I am getting one. I figured flannel best. Time will tell. Maybe this will even help me get more done. Ya think? I certainly hope so.

Go cheap and get a flannel backed plastic table cloth from the dollar store. (Or use the old one that you had for the picnic table :) ) My basement walls are cheap wallboard so I just stapled mine on. But my friend got a piece of dowling and stapled hers around it. Then hung a couple of hooks on the wall to hold the dowling. That way, it is removable.

Meant to add--you could always draw your own grid with a sharpie or pen.

I've heard of the tablecloth ones. Not a bad idea!

Excuse the mess. I have a very large design wall area. The piece in the center is one of those Fons and Porter design walls with the grid (which you can't see on the fuzzy side--duh what's the use of the grid then?) The pieces on the left and right are those cheap fuzzy backed table cloths from Dollar Store.

I have multiple projects in the works or at least up on the wall so that I don't forget about them. Right now I am working on my second Labyrinth walk and concentrating on Block B.

I had cork board installed on my wall, then covered it with a light weight batting. Most of the time, blocks stick to the batting but if I need pins, they easily go into the cork board. If you didn’t want to install on the wall, you could get a large cork board at an office supply place and cover it.

I was given 3 rolls of flannel backed plastic. Used a piece on wall for my design wall, and it works great! My walls are unfinished, so I used push pins.

I used insulation board covered by fleece. The fleece is sold by the yard and is over 50" wide. It comes in a lot of colors and I bought an off white. It works great.

WHAT? Please explain.

Several grid pattern flannel by the yard Are available. Kaffe fassett has gridded flannel by the yard. There is also another brand I will search for you.

I found the other source.It's Robert Kaufman Gray flannel grid and it's available at hancocks of Paducah. I think I paid 9.99.

I wonder if she was referring to hari kuyo as described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari-Kuy%C5%8D


Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
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Yep. That’s it.

Those pins and needles, served us well. Now, put to rest.

I bought my flannel cover years ago but finally just put it up last month. Yes, I know it took awhile before I finally had a moment when nothing was on my design wall. Anyway, I'd also had bought the 2 insulation boards at 1.5" x 4 x 8 and cut them down to fit my space. I used screws with large heads to attach it to my chipboard down here in the basement, then used 505 spray over the insulation board to attach the flannel which was 120 x 120. I'd trimmed it down leaving at least an extra 2 inches to wrap around the edges of the insulation board. Of course my ornery kitty found a loose edge and started playing with it so I went around the sides with straight pins so she couldn't remove it on me. So far it's worked very well for me. I'm so glad I bought what I needed years ago as I didn't realize the prices would jump so much due to the pandemic and greed.

[QUOTE=Quiltwoman44;8594411]I finally moved my huge metal shelving unit away from the wall so i can use the wall for design. well looking online is fun. Two places I looked at later on when i looked again, had put the price up!! Grrrr. Now I must find a place that does not do that.
I have a Fons and Porter design but all I use it for is to cover my plants in the winter time. I could get nothing to stick to it. I went to Walmart after Christmas, bought all the flannel backed vinyl tablecloths they had. Two I use for my design wall and the rest join the Fons and Porter keeping my plants protected in the winter.

I bought one several years ago on sale from MSQC and it's served me well. I don't know how I managed without one.

protecting plants!! good idea. I have some elephant ear plants i had to put some big plastic over when we had a Polar Vortex come through. their tops still died but they are coming back well now. whew!

I've used cotton batting; it worked well for me, but I just don't really have much wall space. Then, I moved to a Cheryl's (I think that's the name, it's a portable design wall that collapses). It's okay, but units and blocks often fell off. Now, I have 2 panels of the foam insulation board that I covered with an inexpensive flannel sheet from Amazon. It's been the best solution yet for me. I can kind of lean them against the wall, then move when not needed.

I just use the bed or floor. Trouble with using the bed to lay out my squares is that I have to pick everything up when it's time to go to bed.

he, he. I am getting too old to get things up off the floor and my bed, well I have one cat who claims my bed for her own during the day. So it's difficult using that space. I'm hoping a wall will help me get on with things faster.

I have 2 of the foam insulation boards. When I'm not working on something big, I put one behind the other and they stand nicely against the wall. When I'm working on a big quilt, I close the closet door and stand them side by side so I can lay out the whole thing. I don't have them fastened to the wall. I felt that would limit their usefulness. Now I can move them wherever I want them.

I never used the gridded flannel. I figured that would be too hard to me to get straight on the boards and I probably wouldn't use it that much anyway.

I actually drew a few reference lines on my cheap plastic table cloths. The most useful was a 90 degree corner in one upper area. I extended the lines across and down so that it forms a nice starting spot for laying out blocks or rows.

I also covered my ironing board with a heavy canvas and have drawn reference shapes on it.

It's time for me to replace the felt fabric on my design board. I use a sheet of insulation board covered in felt or flannel. (I've used both, and they both work for me, so I look for the best deal I can find-including flannel sheets)
This time it will be felt again.
because I found this at JoAnns:
It's polyester...not acrylic. All the same to me.
2 yards of 72" yardage for only $8 is the best price I've seen in a while.
https://www.joann.com/premium-felt/2109114.html


I think it may be a lighter weight felt this time, not sure, but that will still work.

thanks, when i tried to check out, the price went up a lot.

You might want to check again, Quiltwoman. I just clicked on the link and its $3,99/yard now.

yes, but per yard and they must mean you pay more for their measurement, they just don't warn you of that. not buying. Some companies do that these days.

I bought auto headliner fabric...at Joannes....I had a 50% off coupon...attached to a pole...hung pole on top of my fabric cubbies...I can unroll it when I need it...roll it up out of the way when not in use..I have no wall space either...works for me

Huh! didn't know they had auto headliner fabric. My car is falling apart inside, hmmmmm.

That's odd.
They only charged me $3.99 /yd but they did have a 2 yard minimum requirement. That is what I wanted, so I ordered it.....well I started to order it.
At checkout, (online) they wanted to charge me $11.25 for shipping. They said it was unavailable to pick up at the store in my area.
Decided I didn't need it that much.

That auto headliner fabric is expensive now! I can't find it for less than $20 / yd. most of it is higher than that. and I can't find it in white either.
hmmm

Hmmff. I only asked for two yards also. total went up to $38.99 I think it was. twice. I gave up. Didn't really need it anyway. too many things on my plate. even Amazon has done this to me, if i'm interested in one thing and look at it later, price goes up! most frustrating. crooked business practices to me.

I bought the biggest flannel backed vinyl table cloth I could find - Walmart. Works great.