I was able to purchase the thickest cotton flannel I have ever seen at an Amish/Mennonite owned quilt shop near me in central PA. The fabric is thick as felt about 54" wide and absolutely lovely - no blue shadows showing through. It was very reasonably priced - $6.99/yd. The name of the shop is Verna's Fabrics located in Mifflinburg, PA. She is listed in the phone book but does not accept credit cards. I don't know if she does any mail order. It might be worth a try to get hold of her. The fabric is wonderful.

I used fleece (polar) that I had on hand to cover an insulation board. I had to stabilize the back of the fleece with iron on interfacing because the fleece has a stretch. I glued it to the board and wrapped it to the back and secured with Gorilla tape. Only heavier pieces such as pieced quilt tops have to be pinned.
It is secure enough that I can vacuum, on a low suction, the surface to clean off the threads.
I used a brown to act as a neutral back ground. Eliza Prior Lucy suggests a neutral rather than white. I remember in a class Hollis Chatelaine said that white jumps out at you.
Works for me,maybe not for others.
If you have never had a design wall, you will be amazed at the different perspective that upright and distance gives you in designing, selecting colors.
PS. Eleanor Burns uses headliner fabric that is now available in most fabric stores, such as Hancock.y

My first design wall--I used a heavy flannel that was extra wide--it was great but is on the wall that I can't pin into. The second one--with DH not waiting for me--has the writing showing through the flannel. Like Margo, I am not happy with it but since he also glue it with and industrial adhesive to a thin plywood, I am kinda stuck with it unless I decide to try to recover the whole thing. Regardless of how it looks, it works. I guess that is really all that matters.

I like these ideas Betty!

I used foam core (the heavier one) for my DW. I duck taped pieces together on back to get the proper size and covered with felt. I punched several holes along the top and put ribbon through them and tied a loop to hang on Command Hooks. I also made several smaller sizes to do individual or several blocks at a time. For these, I clamped two binder (bull dog) clamps along the top, leaving the prongs in the up position, and hang them on Command Hooks. These come in very hand to lay out a block and transport to machine for piecing. Betty D

The flannel that I put up is very thick and I don't have a problem with my blocks sticking to it without pins, but I'm sure batting would work as well if not better I just found it cheaper to buy the flannel.

Here are 2 websites that show sewing rooms.....studios.

http://www.aprairiehomequilts.com pictures of sewing rooms
http://www.younge.com real sewing rooms

there is a link from the first one to the second.
Anne

Thanks for all of the great suggestions. The timing is perfect for me as I will soon get my first permanent design wall. I've used the Command strips before on my temporary flannel backed tablecoth design walls, along with thumb tacks and masking tape. They weren't velcro though. I will have to look for those. I'm not sure yet, but the smaller panels sound like the easiest to do.

That's what I'm thinking too Michelle. Now I'm thinking that I will wrap the panels (which are a manageable size) with leftover batting pieces to control the shadow through and mount them with the Velcro command strips, then just pin that big piece of flannel over the whole thing for a solid backdrop.

I have been using flannel on my floppy wall and was thinking of using it again on the new wall. But I wonder if cotton batting is 'stickier'?

The 108" flannel from fabric.com is a great price! And they are only about 5 miles from me!! A friend of mine used king sized flannel flat bed sheet on her wall in a pale grey green and they don't have any show though. But I think I prefer white.

Also, I do like the wall shown in that link and wonder if using narrower panels and wrapping each and butting them together is better... or wrapping larger panels as one? Smaller panels sure would be easier to handle and get set up!

The reason I used flannel was because I found some 108" wide flannel and just 3 yards of it covers my whole wall!!
I got mine on a sale table at Hancock's of Paducah many years ago, but found this on line:

http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=FD230B88-C457-455F-A40A-88DF5D2C4137&cm_mmc=Google-_-Prodcuts-_-Products+Listings-_-Ads&gclid=CN28wrOfxbQCFRQcnAoddjAApA

I'm using a scrap of white fleece on my small design wall. I've not actually compared the prices
of fleece, batting, and flannel; but with the sales JoAnn's frequently has on fleece, the price
should be comparable. The fleece is heavy enough to not have show-through and comes in
wider widths than much of the flannel.

heartnsoulquilts wrote:
Michelle, I used white flannel to cover my insulation board the last time and the pink and blue color that shadowed through always bothered me.
I think I will try batting this time. I really like the way these were done: http://www.thequiltingedge.com/2012/08/duct-tapewho-knewdesign-wall-tutorial.html

anne1 wrote:

Brilliant!! I'm off to the hardware store!!

Anne, thank you so much for that link! I really like how she shows using the Command Strips to hang the boards. I think that is the way I will do my new wall.

Now, here's another question/poll for the gang:

Do you prefer Batting or Flannel as the outer surface of your design wall?