My Design Wall (for Quilters)

I wrote about getting some Maxine fabric here.

Once I received the Maxine fabric, I did some research online for ideas on how to make my own design wall. In my old house, I had used a king-sized flannel sheet. I hung it up on a wall with lots of thumbtacks. Hey! Don't make fun of what I did - it worked. Ha!

However, I cannot do the same thing here because

1. I don’t have a wall to freely use (my current sewing/guest room is TINY),
2. I don’t really want to put holes in this house as we do not own it and
3. I was never happy with the old method. I’ve been dreaming of creating a decent design wall for quite some time anyway.
   

When I gained enough information and ideas from my research, I went shopping. I didn’t have any concrete plans on how I was going to create it. I wanted to explore my options first and the costs involved. I wanted to keep it cheap.

I went to Hancock Fabrics. I looked at their flannels and checked out sizes. The widest was 54 inches. I also checked out the “tablecloths”. Most of them didn’t even have a backing. What is up with that? Anyway, I then explored the rest of the store.

I came across a section that was selling vinyl with a decent amount of flannel on the back. It is very sturdy, 54 inches wide and the flannel part is 100% cotton. A light bulb came on. I knew what I could do if I got some material. The stuff was on sale for $6.00 a yard. Not bad.


We dragged it all the way home from Mother’s (4 hour drive) with hardly a fold in it. I was pleased.

I had hoped that Dan had a long enough closet rod that I could use. Nope. The one he had was a tad too short. Darn it.

So, we went to a nearby Home Depot to pick up a section of closet rod. We had to cut one down to the length we wanted right there in the store. Once we got it home, I couldn’t wait to get started on making the design wall. I already had my own hand stapler from a previous project. That (the hand stapler) is turning out to be a good investment.


Dan practically took over because I was doing a lousy job. But, I didn’t mind as it freed me up to take pictures. It was during this time that I captured the picture of Gracie doing the “freaky exorcist” thing.


Anyway, as you can see, we stapled the vinyl to the curtain rod. We then rolled it up and… hit a roadblock…


I thought we could use these cheap ol’ over-the-door hooks I already had. Nope. The hook part wasn't wide enough to hold the rod! Darn it.

So, we had to do some yet more shopping. We ended up going to the The Container Store because Target and Walmart didn’t have what we were looking for.


We found these.


And Finally! we were able to hang it up. It is now ready to use.


Perfect. It goes all the way down to the floor and more. I purchased enough material so that I could one day hang it near the top of the wall in my own home. And, the most important thing is that it is portable for that time when we move yet again.


So, if you want to make something similar to what I made, All you will need is the vinyl with flannel backing, a curtain rod that is wide enough to hold the material plus extra to hang it up with, a stapler, a hammer and a couple of hooks (not shown). By the way, the hammer is used to tap in the staples that didn't quite make it all the way into the wood.

The total cost of this project was around $30. It would have been cheaper if I hadn't needed a curtain rod... or those hooks... :-)

Next Up: WIP: Maxine Quilt