"Design wall"
 

I am just thrilled with my new sewing room, in the basement. :) I have a LOT of room, and therefore everything stays pretty neat.

My only issue is that things I am working on--such as BOM's--are just hung up on hangers, with clothespins, and then stuck wherever--like on the top edge of the door. I would like something where I could pin these up, sort of for decoration, and also for placing things when I get to that point.

The wall I want to use is cement block, so I would need something to attach to that (hubby could put anchors in or something--he doesn't mind doing so). I thought about a large bulletin board, but so far have only seen 2' X 3' bulletin boards. Not big enough.

Any ideas for me?

My tiny design board is a piece of foamboard from the dollar store. There's not room for a whole quilt, of course, but I do hang my BOMs on it. I thought about getting more of them and putting them on the wall with some command strips-I think it would work because they're so light weight. Let us know if you come up with anything good.:)

I used 3/4 inch insulation board form Lowes which my DH attached to a frame he had built in the wall. I only have room for 6 feet wide but 8 would be better for the queens sized quilts. I then covered it with batting and it works perfect. The only time I use pins is when I'm spray basting a quilt together and want things snug. I don't know what I would do without it.

Get you some blue board..now pink in some places about an inch thick liquid nail it to the wall comes in 4x8 sheets and then use flannel or batting to cover it (use spray adhesive) start in the middle and work out and will add some light and you can put lots of blocks on it. make it as big as you can mine is 12 feet long and 8 feet high..

My design wall is made of tentest (comes in 4x8' sheets). I covered each sheet with 60" black fleece. Then screwed each onto the wall. Total size .... 10ft x 7-1/2 high. It's worked out great ... I never need to use pins to hold blocks up. Even fully assembled quilts have been hung without pins!! :) The tentest is soft enough though, that you can stick pins in easily ... which I often do to hold up patterns or notes to myself about projects!

Make it as large as you can ... then you can have more than one thing up at a time if you like.

They make 4 ft. X 8 ft. insulation panels for houses, its 1 inch thick. Its coated with a silver product.
This makes a great design wall for your situation, it can be glued to your cement wall. Then add
a piece of flannel to the insulation board

I do not have a lot of room but I put sticky velcro on the tops of 2 door frames that were close and sewed ane sewed velcro on to a flanel backed table cloth. I leave my blocks there and can remove the table cloth when needed.

My design wall is a heavy weight flannel sheet (from the Vermont Country Store catalog...a little pricey but more heavyweight than I could find elsewhere) hanging on clip rings from a decorative curtain rod. I can pin blocks to it if they don't have enough cling or get too big. I also use it to hang up a finished quilt to take pictures. And just for display sometimes. I love seeing blocks on the wall.

If you go the curtain rod route, a couple of words of advice:

Get double the number of clip rings and space them closer together than you would for a curtain. Provides more support and the flannel sheet won't ripple as much.

My flannel sheet rippled more than I wanted so I sewed a 4-inch wide band of curtain header (the polyester type, not the heavier buckram) to the top. That eliminated the ripples.

Anita

We used the foam wall insulation board that you can find at Lowes. Then I covered it with flannel. This works great for me because I can either pin or press the blocks.

Here are a few ideas;
1st: you can use the cieling tiles (the ones that look like cottage cheese)from the hardware store mounted on firing strips or glued to wall; the great thing about this is that they are flame resistance so if you want to steam your blocks while hanging no problem there.
2nd: you can get the really long window roller shades and put flannel on them
3rd. You can mount a piece of wood and mount clips on it and attach fabric to that along your cieling

I also have the pink insulation board for a design wall. In the old house I had it backed with a piece of lauan and covering up the window to the kitchen from my room . When I moved, there wasn't room for it. I didn't want to give up my design wall so I took it off the lauan, cut the insulation board in half lengthwise. (it had broken on the way home from Home Depot so it was already about 6.5 feet tall) made a hinge with duct tape so it folds and that way I can move it easily and fold it when I don't need it. I have thought about getting really thin strips of wood and gluing them to the back for more support but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I also have thought about getting another piece to make it wider by 1/3 and it will still fit in the same space folded.

HI, my design wall is made from this house insullation I think it is called foam board. it is 4X8 feet and I covered it with white flannel, but you can cover it in black or cream if you like I pinned it on. I just put mine agenst the wall. If you wanted to attatch it or something else to the wall your hubby could use an impact hammer that shoots a 22 short then attatch the board or boards if you have room I find it would be nice to have 2 boards to lay out my quilts. Someday I will get my room set up Good luck and happy quilting

Wow romaojg you have some fantastic Ideas

Ii wouldn't use those curtain holders with teeth. They can damage your fabric a bit. Another option would be to use skirt/pats clamps made to put onto those plastic clothes hangers but come separately. I got mine at Target or Walmart. I made grossgrain ribbon loops through the tops and put the loops over electrical conduit and had a great way to display my quilts without hurting them. There are lots of resources for design walls here on the QB. You might want to do a search. ali

If you have the $$ Fons and Porter has a gridded pannel for a design wall. I have also seen people use the flannel covered side of a vinyl tablecloth.

if you are on, or close to, the cement block, it should have a coating of moisture blocker

This is what I have -- DSIL made it for me about 10 years ago and it is still going strong. I love it!!

Yes, it's a cement block wall--but an interior one.
I may just pick up a flannel-backed tablecloth--seems like the most inexpensive thing to try first. :)

I'm going really high tech here..I bought a queen size flannel sheet many many moons ago for $3 on clearance and push pinned it to the wall. I can move it anywhere and have several times. Its perfect for me but far from fancy. Since you have brick that wouldn't work for you..but you have some really good ideas here. Hope you find your perfect fit. =)

Here's what I do with cement block walls and a quilting design wall.

I bought the large 3M plastic wall anchors. I stuck them to the wall about 3 inches below what would be the ceiling or floor joists and 12 inches apart. Next I bought flannel backed rectangle plastic table cloths. I folded down one edge of the shorter side of the table cloth. I then sewed button holes running the length of the buttonhole parrell with the edge of the table cloth. By running them this way it will allow for ease when hanging and if you are off a bit it won't matter. Then simply hang up the table cloth with the buttonholes slipped over the 3M hook.

I made a new table cloth for each of my current projecgts. I tend to have 3-4 going all the time, so it's easy to hang up just the one I want to work on.

Other benefits that I find works well with this notion.

I like to go to retreats and this makes transportation very easy and at all the sites there hasn't been and issue with applying 3M hooks to the walls which are easily removed when time to leave.

Also before transport, I add a few pins to the top portion of fabric pieces to keep them in place when unfurling and hanging up a project.

Spray basting smaller projects directly on the design wall makes it much easier for repositioning than laying it out on the floor and the spray basting adds to the stickiness of the flannel of the table cloth.

If the tablecloth looses it's tackiness, add more basting spray.


I've also cut the table cloths into 1.5 by 2 foot pieces, for laying out a new block and carrying them all to the sewing machine to keep them in order.

Watch for sales of table cloths at the end of various holidays. For $1 you'll have a great sewing aid.

LIONESS - thanks - I understood your directions perfectly.

My DH made me a portable design wall that I can move anywhere in the basement - it's on wheels. It uses the foamular insulation boards from Lowe's. It has panels on the front and back of the base that slide off and can be leaned against a wall side by side when I'm working on a larger project. I have Fons & Porter's design wall taped to to front of both sections and plan to put a darker flannel on the backs so they will be reversible. It works great for me.

I use an inexpensive flannel backed tablecloth tacked to the wall. A friend of my built a design wall with a foam insulation/acoustic board covered with car overhead liner fabric. Our local Hancock's carries a wide variety of colors. Since her sewing room is in the old dining room, her husband built a frame around it. She used a grey colored liner.

Lioness, I really appreciate your ideas. However, your last idea helps me the most:

" ... cut the table cloths into 1.5 by 2 foot pieces, for laying out a new block and carrying them all to the sewing machine to keep them in order."

My design wall will be in a back bedroom, out of the way, so having smaller pieces of flannel backed tablecloth I can lay out a row of quilt blocks, roll it up and take it to my sewing machine.

I often get turned around from my original ideas. Your idea should help straighten me out! Thanks! :eek:

I've been contemplating how to make a design wall the least expensive way possible. Found some BRILLIANT ideas here! I think I'm going to try the vinyl tablecloth first. I just bought one the other day so I'll be tacking it up on the wall when I get home tonight! Thanks ladies!!!

Wow, love to see photos of your design wall.

Lots of great idea thanks quilters.

Design Wall
 

I used hollow core doors and sprayed them with adhesive and covered them with flannel and hinged them together. They work awesome and fold up when not in use.

I don't have a design wall yet but have been talking to my husband about it. Time for us to put our thoughts together and decide what to do. There are some great ideas here.

My quilting room is in the basement too. My hubby got two interior doors (hollow core) and put the two long ends together with brackets on the sides. Then he put large eye screws on the end and hung it from the ceiling beams with chains.
It makes a great design board and if I need a larger area on my table for basting, I just take it off the chains and lay it on the table.

1) cover a piece of poplar in batting or fleece and just lean it against the wall (I use the full sheet, which is the size of a piece of drywall) just used a staple gun to put the batting on OR

2) Use one of those vinyl tablecloths....they have the fuzzy stuff on the back. You can either leave it hanging on the wall, or roll it up in between sewing sessions. Voila!

i used an 8 ft wooden dowel used for closet rods. hung it from the basement ceiling with a sheet strung on it. works fine in my basement. have to pin the blocks or quilt to it. see my DJ quilt done. ...

Anita,
I've been thinking of doing this too. Did you use the two hangers that come with the curtain rod to hang your design wall? If you did, did the design wall hang out from the wall? I wasn't sure how to tackle this.
Thanks,
lots2do

Table cloth, that's my vote to. If it doesn't work, try something else. It will also let you see for sure where you want your wall, before you put up something more permanet.

I got a 4 x 8 insulated wall board( not sure exactly what it's called ) at Lowe's .. I think it's for putting under vinyl siding. There is different thicknesses, I got the 2 inch, then I covered it with headliner. It's the stuff that is used for the ceiling inside your car. I got this at Hancock Fabrics in Louisville,KY I'm sure other fabric stores have this. It works better than felt or fleece, I love it

This is wonderful...neat idea

I use an outdoor table cloth for my picnic table, flannel side out of course. Use Velcro to hang on wall.

Now this is what I call a brilliant idea!! Thanks for the pictures too...

Great ideas - at my house it is called a climbing wall - my cats love to climb the wall and sleep on the top while I'm sewing

My husband bought me 2 large sheets of wall insulation. I taped them together and it doubles as my design wall and I use it to spray baste my quilt layers. It works great. Large enough to hang a king size quilt for spray basting. It leans against the wall behind my cutting table ready to use whenever I need it. I love it!