Design wall

After about a year of complaining about not having a place for a design wall and really needing one, I finally figured out a way to do it! My studio consists of mainly windows (which I am NOT complaining about) so I had to get creative. I had seen the roll up type design walls but they are terribly expensive. I was trying to figure out how to manage a portable board type wall until I got this book.

 

 

The authors suggest a roll up shade mounted in the window covered with flannel. Genius. I went to Lowe's to get a shade. Turns out they are hard to find than I thought they would be. I wanted a fabric shade but had to settle for a plastic blind type shade. Roll up is key though. I bought a 72" shade and hurried home. Turns out my window is 71". Stupid builders. Standard is 72", could they not make it easy on me??? Luckily my DH said he could cut it to fit. He got it all situated and hung up for me last night and this morning I got to start adding the flannel.

The plastic blinds made things a little harder because I had been planning on just stapling the flannel to a fabric shade. I decided that the best way to attach it would be by sewing it on. So starting at the top I sewed a spot every 24" or so to the cording on the blinds. You have to make sure to put the flannel behind the pull cord on the front or the shade isn't going to roll up properly.

 

 

 

 

 

Voila! I now have a roll up design board that can be out of sight when I'm not working.  Although I'm having a lot of fun just staring at my quilt in progress so I haven't rolled it up yet.  And I didn't get enough flannel so I have to get another 3 yards.

 

This is my first improvisational quilt and it has been fun and stressful at the same time.  I'll be blogging about it at a later date.