I am happily moving to a new house :-D and will have a whole room for my quilting! I have never had a design wall, and am trying to decide if I need one. What is yours covered with? Is it vertical? Or tipped slightly? How do things stay up there?

Oh I want to follow this thread. I too am working on getting my own sewing room and have never had a design wall. It will be great to get ideas. :thumbup:

I used insulation board like someone here on the board recommended. covered it in batting and it works great! :D

Nothing special here. Cheap and easy.

I have a large piece of cheap ivory flanel hanging up. By large ... it's 6' tall by WOF. There were already a bunch of nails in the wall where the previous owner hung a series of pictures. So I took those binder clips and put the hook over the clipped the fabric inside the binder clip.

I have two very simple ones. the bigger one is simply flannel that I stapled to the wall (stitched two lengths together to get it wide enough and made it about knee high to top of my reach)...inexpensive and does the trick. The other is portable - I purchased a piece of flannel backed vinyl from WalMart, stapled the hook side of two squares of vlecro to the front edges of my book/fabric shelf and stitched the matching squares of the loop side of the velcro to one edge of the vinyl. (just be sure to stitch it on the vinyl side - almost made that mistake!) This one I can hang and leave as long as I want, but if I need to get to the shelves, or want to work somewhere else, I just roll it up from the bottom and unroll it where I want to work.

Mine is my floor, lately it is the only wall big enough for my layouts. I lay out a piece of plain fabric, place my quilt pieces, pin them down. Then if I need to go longer and wider than my floor place, I can roll it up. I can transport it this way, too, if I have to.

I use a large CHEAP flannal backed table cloth about $5 from Walmart. Use the flannel backing and your squares cling like magic. It is cheap, can be easily taken down when not in use and rolled up with squares still on it to take to or from class.

My design wall is flannel as well. It has grommets in the top. I didn't have enough wall space in my sewing room to hang it so I hung it in the hallway. I used those 3M hooks that come off easily and don't mark the walls to hang it.

I have two design walls - both 4x8 foam board from Home Depot. DH used a wood frame to stablize them. Covered them in batting. If ceiling fan is on I do use pins, or the vacuum also will make them fall off. They will stick on the battting otherwise.

I have taken a $10 cork board from Hobby Lobby and cut it into 5-3"X20" strips
Run a line across the wall around 8" from the top, putting the strips of cork on the line and straight pins through the cork into the sheet rock (without ruining the paint or rock)
You can hang a quilt or a flannel sheet on it for a design wall, It will hold quilted quilts to hide what you are working on.
Sue

I use a plastic tablecloth from wm.

Describe it? Would "still at Home Depot" qualify? It will be Foamular board covered with flannel.

I use a piece of batting, push pinned it to the wall in the living room. Fabric just clings to it. Sometimes I'll put a pin in if needed.

Two pannels of high density insulation board (pink foam) covered with a very light batting to muffle the pink, and a layer of white felt. The whole thing (60 x 80) is attached to the wall. Single pieces of fabric stick by themselves very well; larger or pieced segments I stick a pin in to secure sometimes.

RST

LOL...she described it alot better than I did!! But that is EXACTLY what I did for mine :D

My queen size bed which is in the opposite end of the house from my sewing room. This way I also get my exercise walking back and forth. My dog also gets her exercise because she makes every trip I do.

I put a bunch of the Scotch removable hooks up, used the small heavy duty paper clips (the ones that you can flip the open tabs back on themselves) which I put on 2 large flannel backed vinyl tablecloths then slipped over the hooks. It goes from ceiling to floor. Cheap and easy....

I just stick the blocks to my wallpapered sheet rock wall with straight pins. I hate the wallpaper so I'm not too worried about hurting it.

I took a huge picture frame and inserted a piece of felt and cardboard and taped it all the way around on the back to hold it together. Works great:)

I wish I had a sewing room, but since I work in my dinning room. I have a flannel backed table cloth hanging from my china cabinet with skirt hangers. It works pretty good.
Enjoy your new room.

I have a king size flannel flat sheet on the wall. I use push pins to keep it up and it has worked wonderful for years.Very functional...lots of room...cheap ~which is good.
I have read alot about the foam insulation boards but I can't see where it would work any differently other than it would be prettier. ~(Is prettier a word??) =)

That is all I have as well!

I put a strip of sticky backed Velcro near the ceiling on a paneled wall - too adhesive for a painted wall, then I stitched sew on Velcro to a 7 1/2 long piece of fleece, so I have a space almost ceiling to floor and 5 feet wide that removes easily. The sticky Velcro stays up, but it's not a very public room and I can live with it. The fleece is very grabby. It was a lifesafer laying out thie current quilt as it's mixed colors and I had to do a lot of rearranging of blocks.

I really want a design board. But my sewing room has two walls with big windows, and the 3rd wall is the shelves. So I can't hang one (I love the sunlight). So I use the bedroom just down the hall, and have to put little pieces of masking tape on each piece so they transport in the same order to the sewing machine.

I have sliding closet doors in my sewing room and I covered them with light colored flannel, this works well for my design wall. the fabric will cling to the flannel on its own.

I have two flat single flannel sheets with sides sewn together and a rod pocket sewn at the top. This "design wall" is hung at ceiling height on an 8ft long thin metal rod. The rod rests on two brackets so it can easily be taken down and stowed away when necessary. I also sewed a small rod pocket at the bottom of the sheets for a dowel which keeps themweighted and hanging straight. It works great!

I have tried flannel and its OK but the best design board is made from headliner fabric, purchased in the home dec dept of Hancock's. You don't have to use pins, blocks "stick" and stay. I have a quilt I'm working on slowly and the blocks have been on the headliner attached to my wall for at least two months and not a single block has become loose. I also have a second design board made of the insulation board from Home Depot. You can pin things up on it.

2 screws in the ceiling on which i have 2 loops of chain--i sit curtain rod across from one to the other----pin on flannal back table cloth also from the cheap shop get a canvas [[ready for painting] staple flannel on about 40 cmsx 40 cms place block layout on carry the whole thing over to machine pick up +sew stays in order-----MUST HAVE A DESIGN WALL-----it makeas a world of difference check out you tube

I put a white sheet on top of the bedding on our kingsize bed in the master bedroom. All fabrics show up well on the white background. I like the walk between the bedroom and my sewing room on the other end of our house. If I do that walk enough times each day, I figure I don't have to use the treadmill in the winter. lol We walk at the beach the rest of the year.

I have mine on a basic roller blind and a fabric attached that is gridded and made specifically for a design wall so that fabric sticks to it

thats what I did too

Mine is simply a piece of queen size 70/10 batting stapled to a batten of timber (about an inch by half an inch) top and bottom. The top batten is nailed to the wall, the bottom just hangs to keep it weighted down. Everything sticks to it without pins - even a full quilt top.

I just made one for my sewing room! Mine is a 4'x4' piece of insulation board covered with 1 layer of batting and then an ivory flannel sheet. I secured the batting and flannel sheet to the back of the insulation board using duct tape. My husband mounted it on the wall for me. Fabric squares stay up well on their own, though I will sometimes secure with a pin especially if I am adding and moving squares around. I chose ivory flannel vs. white flannel as I had read other posts on this board and several folks stated that the white flannel was too bright...plus I already had an ivory flannel sheet I wasn't using!

Be sure to do a search on "sewing rooms" on this board. I got all kinds of great tips and idea's for my sewing room. Currently, I am working at folding/organizing my fabric stash. I can't begin to tell you how much fun I've had researching/planning/organizing my sewing room with all the great idea's from the generous quilters on this board.

Have fun!!!!

El cheapo! A flannel-backed vinyl table cloth that I found in the end-of-summer bargain bin at the supermarket for 99 cents. I have it pinned to the wall with push pins. It works for me.

My dear quilting neighbor, friend's husband made her this design wall of fomular insulation board covered with light gray felt like fabric. They retired to AZ and her husband and son walked this light but approx 12ft x5ft design wall down to my house. It is priceless!

Extra wide ivory flannel cut to width of room- put it up with quilter's pins.

I dont have one. Put up some pictures.

Help, this newbie doesn't understand why you need a design wall. I spread blocks on a bed and pieces on a table. What am I missing? Also, thank you to everyone for all the good info. and tutes.

I just got my own sewing room as well, as my design wall was the first thing to go up! Very cheap and easy - a piece of plywood cut the the correct size with a piece of insulation board nailed (carefully) to it and covered with batting. The whole thing was mounted to the wall with screws and is a DREAM!

Lots of ideas, where do I start?

Thanks