Hi Heart - check out my previous post re: my moveable design wall.

I have two design walls. One is just flannel stuck up on the wall with pushpins. Works great.

The other one is also flannel but it is hung in front of my shelving system. I have a wall of IKEA shelves for bolts and projects. I needed to find a way to have the new design wall in front of the shelves but still allow me to access behind. I stuck 3M Command Strips on the wooden upright top portion of my shelves. Then attached my flannel with bulldog clips and hung the clip on the command strips. I can lift the flannel as I need to, to get behind it. Works fine.

This system is not quite as nice as using a foam backing but does allow me the flexibility I need.

thank you grannyagnes! I have been using the foamcore covered with flannel, but never made the leap to hanging with the binder clips! you may have just helped clean up a little bit of my sewing room! thanks again.

Margo wrote: I used fleece, but it has a definite stretch. I used a nonwoven fusible interfacing on the back of the fleece (the second time that I redid the boards because the first time the fabric stretched). I don't know what type of glue I used, but it wasn't spray. Love my fleece covered lightweight insulation board. Eliza Pryor Lucy said to use a neutral and that was what I had at the time and I love it. In a class with Hollis Chatelaine, she told us to turn the batting to the back because the white grabbed her eye and that was what she saw, not the quilt.
Regardless of what you do, it is so amazing when you look at your project upright and from a distance. You have a better perspective.

I have to say I think glue, stapler and/or Velcro for my fixes. My portable design wall has Velcro hinges and Velcro closure with twill tape carry handles. I used foam core board, stapled the flannel over the edges on the back and glued on the Velcro and twill tape.

For the wall mounted boards because I am in an apartment I didn't want the same type design walls to the wall so I just spaced two nails and hang the board with binder clips as visible in photo.

I've got a set-up I've used for years. I had a handy-man type guy make it for me. Took two 4 x 8 sheets of fiberglass insulation (one inch thick), framed them in wood with a piano hinge between them so it's collapsible and moveable, yet quite sturdy. Covered the fiberglass w/ felt, stapled on the back. Easy for anyone with a little bit of skill to make. I'm still using it after about ten years. If you get threads & stuff on it, just take your vacuum hose and have at it. There is a terrific video by Eleanor Burns - still available on her web site, where her sons build her a design wall and cut a machine insert in a table for her. All kinds of neat studio things. Check out the video if you want to see how experts do it!

I tried three different products before choosing cotton batting for my design wall, including commercially available sticky flannel (?). Whatever you decide to invest in (time and money), see how well it holds (1) a single block; (2) pieced blocks; (3) almost a whole queen-size quilt, pieced. Each product will do the job differently. For me, it's nice not having to pin and re-pin every single block up on the wall as I construct the quilt top. With the cotton batting I used, I do not have to use pins until I'm putting the almost completely pieced queen-sized quilt on the wall. I also used a thin lathing strip to attach the batting to the wall at the top to eliminate sagging.

Renee

Lots of things will work! Flannel, fleece, felt, or even cotton batting! If you have something you think might work, give it a try!

The advantage of having a backing for the top fabric is so that you can stab pins into it, but it's not necessary.

Just be aware that the larger (and heavier) the piece you want to adhere, the more likely you will need to pin it somehow to the fabric.

Hi ! Just thinking of making a design wall after I move a sofa-bed to clear the space. I've heard that a flannel-backed table clothe would work, but other than that, would a flannel sheet (like to make abed in winter) work just as well? Or does the flannel have to be a certain quality - like the flannel/felt that is used for crafts work better? Does it have to have a frame or can I just tack it to the wall? Any advice would be appreciated.

Would love to know where you get the gridded flannel. It sure looks neat and tidy, mine has bunches of threads and is sagging. Needs a lift...just like me :shock: Sandi in FL

Anne, what a gorgeous work area you have!!

Love this post with all the great design wall ideas. I don't even have a clean wall to put one up! But I just got a cabinet that I'm going to hang in there once I get it painted so maybe will have to keep cleaning to get a space for a design wall.

Thanks for clarifying the different glues, Anne!

bunny9 wrote:
Bunny, the problem may be that you used 505. It's a temporary repositionable adhesive. The company also makes 404, which is a permanent repositionable adhesive.

I used 404 to attached gridded flannel to donacona insulation screwed onto my sliding oak doors. When I realized that the cat thought it was a giant scratching post, I used a warm, dry iron to press the claw marks out of the fabric and stick it back down. Then I tacked clear vinyl over the bottom three feet of the design wall, to persuade Jazzy that it wasn't hers. Five years later, it's as good as ever.

The fun in making your own design wall is the many options you have. For instance, a traveling size can be as simple as blue painters tape and a yard of flannel (tap the flannel on a classroom wall). Or if a wall isn't available, a bi-fold poster display board (often sold at Michaels craft store -under $6.00 or at an office supply store) cover with flannel with duck tape on the back (I purchased the poster display board and cut it to make it fold accordion style covered with two layers of white flannel). For home if you have a small sewing area, try hanging two over the door wreath holders on a door or better yet the closet doors, the hang on it a long dowel with your flannel fabric (or even the back side of a flannel backed table cloth) draping down (for this you may have to use safety pins for your fabrics or painters tape to hold them up.

Well thats a few ideas, just remember be as creative with what you have as you do with your quilting and have fun with it.