Design wall .... redux

The day is finally here, we will begin switching my sewing stuffand the
computer stuff and in the end I will have my very own dedicated sewing
room. Amazing! I have a wall space that measures 5' x 8' and I want to
use it for a design wall. What's cheap, effective, and will look fairly
decent? Right now I've got a piece of cheap craft felt pinned to a
strip of wall about half that size and my quilt blocks are stuck to
that.

Ok, wade in with the standard excellent ideas. BG

Sunny
(Did I say that I'm getting a room of my own??)

I have tried many, many things.....and finally I have something I like. I
had my DH make one of those quilt hangers that is two narrow boards the
width of the wall.....one lays on top of the other and has screws at the top
to tighten. Instead of placing a quilt in it....I bought a good quality
flannel sheet, think it was LL Bean and hung it from the quilt hanger. I put
dowels through the hem in the bottom to make it hang straight and flat.

Betty in WI

"Sunny" wrote in message
oups.com...
The day is finally here, we will begin switching my sewing stuffand the
computer stuff and in the end I will have my very own dedicated sewing
room. Amazing! I have a wall space that measures 5' x 8' and I want to
use it for a design wall. What's cheap, effective, and will look fairly
decent? Right now I've got a piece of cheap craft felt pinned to a
strip of wall about half that size and my quilt blocks are stuck to
that.

Ok, wade in with the standard excellent ideas. BG

Sunny
(Did I say that I'm getting a room of my own??)

I got the foam insulation sheets at the home improvement store. They are 4'
x 8', and come in various thicknesses. Since it was cheap, I got the 2", the
thickest one they had. I spray glued batting to both sides.

Normally, these lean up against the wall, but if I need to, I can swap them
out or take them to other areas of the house. I love, love, love them.


--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
Queen of Fabric Tramps

http://fabrictramp.typepad.com/fabric_tramping/
remove the obvious to reply


"Sunny" wrote in message
oups.com...
The day is finally here, we will begin switching my sewing stuffand the
computer stuff and in the end I will have my very own dedicated sewing
room. Amazing! I have a wall space that measures 5' x 8' and I want to
use it for a design wall. What's cheap, effective, and will look fairly
decent? Right now I've got a piece of cheap craft felt pinned to a
strip of wall about half that size and my quilt blocks are stuck to
that.

Ok, wade in with the standard excellent ideas. BG

Sunny
(Did I say that I'm getting a room of my own??)

I was using felt and it was working just fine, until I saw this stuff that
had markings (1 inch grid) on it and thought that it sounded great! Well, I
bought it and nothing stuck to it very well. Soooooooooooooo my suggestion
is to stick to the felt.

--
Boca Jan
Florida - Land of the Hurricanes
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/poo_de_doo/myphotos


"Sunny" wrote in message
oups.com...
The day is finally here, we will begin switching my sewing stuffand the
computer stuff and in the end I will have my very own dedicated sewing
room. Amazing! I have a wall space that measures 5' x 8' and I want to
use it for a design wall. What's cheap, effective, and will look fairly
decent? Right now I've got a piece of cheap craft felt pinned to a
strip of wall about half that size and my quilt blocks are stuck to
that.

Ok, wade in with the standard excellent ideas. BG

Sunny
(Did I say that I'm getting a room of my own??)

Sunny: Here is what I have ... and like
very much. I bought a 4' x 8' sheet of
that foam insulation board, about 1.5"
thick ... the aqua kind. DH attached to
wall with some bolts and included a thin
washer on the foam board so it won't
slide off. Then I covered it with white
cotton flannel ... maybe it is a poly
blend. I folded top and bottom to size
and tucked over the edges. Long pins,
maybe T-Pins, secure the fabric around 4
edges. If I did this over, I would put a
cheap white or natural muslin on the
board to prevent the aqua from
'shadowing' the flannel. Too long, but I
am too lazy to edit. HTH. Enjoy your new
room!! PAT

This is similar to what I did, but we used two pieces of the styrofoam
(ours were pink, so no show through problem, although I wondered about
that beforehand too) and used wooden pieces to secure them together on
the back. I used Hobbs 80/20 to cover it. After trying at first to
staple the batting to the back (didn't work at all), duck tape on the
back worked the best and has stayed 1 year+ and counting. Because
it's made with the foam, it can be easily carried from room to room.
My husband made a hanging system for it that I can attempt to explain
if you want to know (my fingers are still thawing out from my walk home
from work so I'm going to keep this short), but it's basically a groove
system with a long piece of wood attached to the wall and another piece
of wood on the back of the design wall. If you use the google
archives, you'll find a lot of descriptions of people's design walls -
that's how we decided how to make mine.
here's a photo of my wall - http://www.tiny.cc/VU0E8
congrats on the new space!
-Lynn

On Jan 26, 4:59 pm, Pat in Virginia wrote:
Sunny: Here is what I have ... and like
very much. I bought a 4' x 8' sheet of
that foam insulation board, about 1.5"
thick ..

I have done it wrong twice. My first was a sheet of leftover paneling
covered with awfully cheap poly terry cloth. It held blocks very, very well
but I really need a grid.
The 2nd trip through this adventure, I tried the stuff made for a design
wall. It costs me more than $ 40 to cover the 4 x 8 panel. The grid is
sort of 2 1/8" squares. Who the heck decided on that? And it does Not hold
anything without pins or paste made of leftover spaghetti sauce. I think
maybe a spray of that quilt basting stuff might help but it would be a royal
pain to carry it outside to spray it.
(Through whining now.) I love having a design wall. It helps me create
and sometimes I just put something I love looking at on it. Eager to see
the rest of the solutions. Did you say you're going to have a sewing room
of your own? Polly

I am so glad you posted this question! I am getting some great ideas for my
new room!!! I just have to figure out how to get a wall space to put it on.
My room is 9.5 x 9, not a lot of space but its MINE giggles.

~KK in BC~


"Sunny" wrote in message
oups.com...
: The day is finally here, we will begin switching my sewing stuffand the
: computer stuff and in the end I will have my very own dedicated sewing
: room. Amazing! I have a wall space that measures 5' x 8' and I want to
: use it for a design wall. What's cheap, effective, and will look fairly
: decent? Right now I've got a piece of cheap craft felt pinned to a
: strip of wall about half that size and my quilt blocks are stuck to
: that.
:
: Ok, wade in with the standard excellent ideas. BG
:
: Sunny
: (Did I say that I'm getting a room of my own??)
:

Here's another idea for you to ponder. You know those kinda cheap roll-up
bamboo matchstick shades - think Pier One or Cost Plus if there is one near
you. Anyway, wait for a sale or use a coupon to get the best price. What you
are really after is those tough, strong, lightweight top & bottom bamboo
poles (pre-drilled mind you) and all the pulley hardware!! If you carefully
unscrew and remove the pulley hardware & pulley string, you can then cut the
upper & lower threads to get rid of the interior "matchstick" material.
(It's kinda heavy also.) Save it for another project if you'd like, maybe a
floor covering. Once the inner shade is removed, you can replace it with a
nice quality flannel sheet. Simply thread the poles through the top and
bottom hems of the sheet, poke the little holes in the top area for the
hardware to re-attach at the top pole, rethread the pulley string and
waa-laa, you have a flannel roll-up shade!!! It's extremely portable and
lightweight. I take mine to retreats with WIP's still attached, simply hang,
unroll and go. BTW - buy the shade the correct width for the size of sheet
you are using, ignore the length because it will end up being the length of
your flannel. Sounds like a "duh", but it almost tripped me up once in
making one.

Lorraine in La Center

Thank you all, you have given me many excellent ideas to chew on. My DH
has suggested putting cork on the wall.... what do any of you think of
this? (Obviously, I wouldn't be taking it anywhere, LOL). Anyways, I'm
gonna sit back and read all these ideas carefully, ask DH to take a
look, and make my list. It may be a few weeks before I get my room all
squared away, but it will be grand and I will have a design wall. BG
BTW, did I tell you I'm getting my own room???
Sunny

On Jan 26, 11:04 pm, "TwinMom" wrote:
Here's another idea for you to ponder. You know those kinda cheap roll-up
bamboo matchstick shades - think Pier One or Cost Plus if there is one near
you. Anyway, wait for a sale or use a coupon to get the best price. What you
are really after is those tough, strong, lightweight top & bottom bamboo
poles (pre-drilled mind you) and all the pulley hardware!! If you carefully
unscrew and remove the pulley hardware & pulley string, you can then cut the
upper & lower threads to get rid of the interior "matchstick" material.
(It's kinda heavy also.) Save it for another project if you'd like, maybe a
floor covering. Once the inner shade is removed, you can replace it with a
nice quality flannel sheet. Simply thread the poles through the top and
bottom hems of the sheet, poke the little holes in the top area for the
hardware to re-attach at the top pole, rethread the pulley string and
waa-laa, you have a flannel roll-up shade!!! It's extremely portable and
lightweight. I take mine to retreats with WIP's still attached, simply hang,
unroll and go. BTW - buy the shade the correct width for the size of sheet
you are using, ignore the length because it will end up being the length of
your flannel. Sounds like a "duh", but it almost tripped me up once in
making one.

Lorraine in La Center