DIY Quilt Design Wall // Try it Tuesday

How To Make A Design Wall 2013

How To Make A Design Wall 2013

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How To Make A Quilt Design Wall by Katie Blakesley swimbikequilt.com

How To Make A Quilt Design Wall by Katie Blakesley swimbikequilt.com

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I am more than a little excited to share my DIY Quilt Design Wall today. I feel like a "real" quilter now!

In the past, whenever I am working on a quilt, I lay my blocks out on the floor and awkwardly crawl around as I change their order. Usually it is at night, dark, and bits of my blue rug peek through the blocks. Totally workable, but not ideal.

In the big room rearrangement of 2013, I got not only a dedicated sewing space in the living room/only room, but also a custom table for my machine, new sewing/book/project storage, a pressing station (more on that next week), AND a quilting design wall.

Design Wall Detail

Design Wall Detail

I feel incredibly lucky, and  I guess my secret will be out--anyone who comes over will *know* that I'm a quilter. There are a lot of tutorials out there (I included a partial list below); most people use insulation board for their design walls. However,  we drive a Prius, and a 4'' x 8'' foot piece of insulation board just wasn't going to work. Also, Jayme was concerned that the flannel on that big of a board would stretch out over time and not look as nice.

Instead, he went to Home Depot and bought four 2'' x 4'' pieces of MDF. He drilled a hole in each corner, and we wrapped the boards in gray flannel.  I bought flannel sheets at Bed Bath and Beyond instead of flannel on the bolt--the quality seemed nicer.

We stretched the flannel very tightly across the front of the board and used a staple gun to attach the flannel to the back. We bought wide and shallow staples, and stapled the flannel to the MDF every inch or so. It might have been overkill, but we didn't want a sagging design wall. Jayme used a tack hammer to pound the staples flat, and we covered the staples with duct tape. Easy, peasy. We made a small hole in the flannel with scissors and used these screws to attach it to the wall. The good thing is, it isn't coming down any time soon!

Let me just say, a design wall is life changing. No more crawling on the floor, of course, but it makes me WANT to work on my works in progress, if only to change the decor of the room. Some people cover their design walls in batting; I prefer flannel. I think it looks more finished (at least for my living room).  I used gray flannel because Kaffe Fassett, guru of color, uses gray on his design walls--something about white/cream distorting color, I believe.  I went with it. Kaffe has new design wall specific flannel (gray and gridded)--a quick google search showed that a number of stores have it in stock. Kind of cool! Happy Sewing!


DIY Design Wall Tutorials

There are a number of tutorials out there for DIY Design walls, both permanent and portable ones, including these:

Sew Katie Did -- I especially like the way Katie hung her boards--the screws look very professional.  

Jacquie and Katie also talk about design walls in their great book, Quilting Modern

Ellison Lane

Craft Buds

Oh Frannson!

Kaffe Fassett Design Wall Tutorial