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design wall


Robin

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I want to put a design wall in my studio and am sure you all have great design walls in your studios. Please share what your design wall is like and how you made it...or where you bought it!

I'm thinking of using that styrofoam stuff they put on the outside of houses before they side them and covering it with felt. I thought I would mark grids on the felt for when I place blocks on it. You could either pin or just self stick blocks on the felt. I'm thinking of using velcro hook and loop tape to attach the styrofoam to my wall. And then maybe I would hang a quilt rack with a big quilt on it to cover the design wall when not in use. Or maybe that could be my quilt display rod for customer quilts when they come to pick them up. What do you think???

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I put a Vanishing Design Wall in my new studio. I love it! Its a shelf "that has the retractable insert made of heavy flannel with vinyl backing and mounted on a steel rod with a super heavy duty steel spring which enables your design to "vanish" when you aren't working on it!" (as quoted from the website)

http://vanishingdesignwall.com/index.html

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I did just like Caren. flannel backed table cloth on the wall in a spare bedroom. I take it down and replace it with a quilt if I need that bedroom. The blocks stick great to the flannel. Cheap, too. (never did like that table cloth anyway!)

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I have a drapery rod and rings with clips. I clip a flannel sheet to the rings and I can pull it aside to get into the closet behind it or when I am not using it. If I have more than one top in progress I can use more than one sheet and just clip or unclip as I need them. I don't have room to have a fixed design wall but this has worked quite well.

Sue

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I did the "fancy" thing like Caren. I have a few flannel backed table clothes thumb tacked up to the wall, 8 feet by 10 feet. DH says he never knows what the decor in our room is going to be. But he always has a comment for the current project. Usually nice or sometimes something he thinks I could do differently. I'm just lucky he doesn't mind and I have a nice big space to use.

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This is my design wall. It's over 10 yrs. old now. Still in very good shape considering how much use it gets. I vacuum it once in awhile to get all the stray threads off, and spritz it with water to "tighten up the batting about twice a year. If you have space for a design wall make it as large as you can. My design wall is priceless to me. It is the most "used" item in the sewing room---I wish it was larger, but I have a very small sewing space.

This design wall is directly behind the sewing tables. It is made with Homasote, a core board type product purchased at Home Depot. It's covered with Warm n' Natural batting which is stretched around the edges and stapled in place, and then the whole thing is screwed to the wall. Approx 8 ft. long by 6 ft. tall.

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I bought a 4' x 6' white board at an office supply store and hung it long ways on the wall because that is where I had space. I use magnets to hang my pieces. I liked the flannel / batting idea but I have a large black dog who sheds and I knew that I would hate the flannel almost immediately. The white board can also be used for writing notes and practicing quilting designs before "drawing" them on your quilt. It wasn't exactly cheap at $100 but what is cheap in LA quilting?

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My design wall is much like Angie's (Sparkles) above only my boards are hung from heavy duty, overhead rolling tracks like closet doors and behind them is a closet the length of one wall where I keep my stash protected from the sunlight, hide my tv, and rent some of the space to my DH for his golf clubs. I had nice, deep drawers built below to raise the design wall off the ground. The drawers make great storage for thread, stencils, blocks and large pieces for applique. Sorry...not able to post a pic.

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My wall is made from foam core. I was able to purchase larger sheets of it at a craft store (Pat Catans) and then I went to Joanns and found flannel by the bolt for $15 for the entire bolt. Covered the boards using duct tape and then used drywall screws to put it onto my wall. I found that my blocks always didn't stick to the other methods I've tried, and this way I'm able to use T pins to hold heavier items such as a whole tops totally sewed together, or rows that are sewed together. :)

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Thanks for all of the ideas gals. I don't know why I didn't think of wrapping whatever kind of board I use with warm and natural batting. Of course blocks would stick nicely to it. And it's something I have plenty of on hand. I was not liking the idea of buying yards of flannel to cover the board with (although the $15.00 per bolt flannel would be just as cost effective). I wonder if a person could use that spray adhesive on whatever kind of board I use for the back and just stick the batting on that way?

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Guest Linda S

We just had a projection screen fall off the wall in our conference room (the kind that pulls down like an old school map). It got a crease in the screen when it fell, and the faculty complained you couldn't see images on it properly. I took it home and fused some flannel onto the screen. Not only did it pretty much straighten out the crease, I now have a design wall that I can get out of my way when I don't want to use it, and if rolls down when I want it!!

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Thanks again! Love the projection screen idea, if you happen to have one of those to recycle! That and the vanishing design wall that is available for purchase are great ideas for people without the wall space. For me, I think I will use a little something from all of your ideas. I will cover the styrofoam stuff by spraying with batting adhesive and sticking one of my extra wide flatter battings to it and wrapping it around to the back and securing with tape. Then I will hang the styrofoam board on the wall with sticky back velcro. Then I will put up a curtain rod with clips and hang a quilt over the whole thing when not in use. This would also be a good place to hang customer quilts when they are coming to pick them up as the wall I have chosen is right at the bottom of my stairs.

Well, I have it all figured out...now I just have to do it!

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My sewing room is above a garage so it's mostly sloped ceiling/walls which prevent locating a permanent design wall. I created a design wall on rollers using an inexpensive rolling garment rack and a frame of PVC pipe covered with wide width felt. I can move the display to a distant location for 'pondering' and then right next to sewing table for piecing. I generally pin blocks rather than rely on friction but that's easy because both sides are accessible. And I actually use both sides, generally auditioning borders on one side, blocks in progress on the other. It's probably a little more trouble to create than covering foam board but I do love how it works for me in this situation. I can send a few more details on the products I used if you'd like. (I'm new to posting so haven't posted pix yet, but as a 'wanna be' LA quilter, I can figure that out!)

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  • 1 month later...

Robin, I used an adhesive spray on the insulation foam boards without any problems. Just make sure you are spraying in a well ventilated area. You may also need a third hand to make sure the batting or flannel is held taut/flat as you lay it over the boards.

My LA studio is also over a garage with sloping walls so now I use a collapsible design wall from 'Cheryl Ann's Design Wall'. http://www.cherylannsdesignwall.com/

The frame and the stand are made of those tent-pole type poles which can fold down to a much shorter length. The wall itself is cotton flannel with channel pockets stitched along all 4 sides for the poles. I love it. The whole thing folds down to fit in a small tote bag & that makes it easy to take to quilt retreat too.

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I actually have 3. One is insulation foam board I stuck to the wall with T-pins. It covers most of the wall and is behing Freedom so I can't get good pictures. Then at the end of Freedom is another with the foam board. I like it cause I can make notes and pin them there so I can refer to them when I want. The 3rd is the foam board glued to 1/4 plyboard. The plyboard has a hinge and I can fold it up and take it to class when I teach. It has a handle so it works great.

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This is what I did for Susan. I bought 2 - 4x8 sheets of blue foam and framed them with 1x4" pine. as you can see she has pinned extra wide flannel to it to hold her pieces. This wall is in the basement on a wall in our gym area, the Liberty is in the bay to the left.

I plan on installing a Vanishing Wall in her sewing room to save her steps.

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