Joan in AK

I was checking my post again and saw some new replies.
Dunster do you use craft felt from Joann’s? If not what kind of felt? I never thought of using felt.

Snooze2978

My present design wall is just extra batting pieces and I added trim around it to spiff it up a bit. Problem is when you need to pin something to the batting there's nothing behind it to stick the pin into. Picked up some foam board and had them cut to size as it will take 2 pcs 48 x 70 to fill my wall so that makes it 96w x 70h. Then online I found a large enough flannel that will cover it in one piece from EverythingQuilts.com. Will need to cut it height and a little bit width as its 3yds x 3 yds. Now to find the time to pull the old design wall down and put up the new one. Think I'll need to get my sister's help on this. I'll also add trim around it again to spiff it up. I think the foam board I picked up is just 1.5" thick, enough to stick a pin into for sure.

dunster

I did get the felt from JoAnn's when it was on sale. I think it was 60 inches wide, plenty wide enough for my 4x8 insulation boards. The felt is also great for practicing quilting on the longarm. (I got that tip when taking a class from Margaret Solomon Gunn.) It's much cheaper and easier to load the single piece of thick felt than to make and load a practice quilt sandwich.

leighway

I've used flannel for years...it's wonderful and inexpensive.

wildyard

I am also a flannel backed vinyl tablecloth person. They are very cheap at the thrift store and often brand new, or nearly so. I had the last one for 5 years before I replaced it due to so many strings all over it. I could have cleaned it off, but it's so cheap to replace, I went that route.
While I simply hang mine from skirt hangers, with the clips, it is easy to pin to it rather than sticking a pin thru it into a backing board.

tuckyquilter

I use cheap flannel backed plastic tablecloths, taped to the wall. You could attach one to your foam board.

Irishrose2

Mine is fleece - 60" wide and goes from floor to ceiling. The last tablecloth I tried was a good one but nothing would stick. The fleece will hold almost anything as long as a Border Collie tail doesn't brush the blocks off though it doesn't happen as much with only one dog.

Aurora

I bought a large Artist portable drawing board at WalMart and covered it with folded flannel using binder clips. I can remove the clips to straighten/restretch the flannel. Actually, I have two of these that I can take to UFO's/sew days. The largest one came from WalMart ($13.97) and the smaller one came from Hobby Lobby using a 40 percent coupon. My sewing space is very small so I make these work for me.

patricej

i don't have a wall in any practical spot to put a design wall for anything bigger than a baby quilt.
instead, i suspended an 8-foot metal closet pole from the ceiling in my sewing space.
-two decorative hooks with dry-wall wings, then hung pose using dirt-cheap shower curtain rings.
bought a queen-size sheet, which hangs from the pole using more dirt-cheap shower curtain rings.
i also hung a strong binder clip from each of the "sheet rings", which will hold a finished quilt.

the whole thing hangs just in front of my stacks of fabric/notion storage drawers.

i pin my blocks to the sheet as the design grows.

when i want it out of the way so i can fish around in the drawers, i just push it all to the side.
if i ever need it completely out of the way i can take the whole thing off the pole and fold it up.

csharp

Me too...works great.