Making a Quilt Design Wall
Best Way to See Whether Fabrics Work Together Before Quilt Assembly
Here are eight easy and inexpensive ways to create a quilt design wall that lets you view your quilt and make sure it looks good before you assemble the pieces.
Traditional quilters use them. Art quilters use them. Quilt designers use them. Why do all these quilters need a design wall? Because a design wall lets you arrange the fabrics you’ve chosen for your quilt on a neutral background and see how they work together—or don’t work together—before you sew. It’s the best way to really see what your quilt will look like before you make the huge commitment of assembling the pieces. It’s so much better to realize that you chose the wrong yellow before you sew than after!
What’s Important in a Design Wall
- Neutral color that doesn’t distort your impression of fabric colors. Some quilters prefer a white design wall, but others swear by a light grey or raw muslin, which is beige.
- Surface that clings to your fabric pieces and holds them in place until you decide to move them, without the need for pins, tape, or tacks.
- If you’re going to be traveling with your quilt, your design wall should be easy to fold up and carry with you.
- If it’s permanently installed, you'll want to choose a location where you can stand back and look at your blocks and fabrics from a distance of at least a few feet. A sight line of at least six to eight feet is ideal. If you don't have that kind of space, you can create the illusion of looking from a distance by using a reducing lens that makes objects look smaller than they really are.
- A built-in grid to help align your patches and blocks. This is optional, but helpful if you want to align your pieces precisely.
Making Your Own
You can buy a ready-made design wall, but it’s easy to make your own, and much less expensive than buying one. You can make a portable design wall to go with you to classes and retreats, or one to install permanently on the wall of your quilting room.
Portable Design Walls
When you want to travel, these portable design walls just roll up with your blocks in place and go with you.
- Vinyl tablecloth. Get one with the soft cottony backing so your fabric pieces will cling to it.
- Flannel. Find a cheap flannel sheet at a discount or thrift store, or buy some flannel on sale at a fabric store. Remember to get a solid in a neutral grey or white.
- Batting. You’ll want a batting that isn’t too lofty, so your patches will cling more easily.
- Wool or acrylic felt. Either of these will work. Just cut to the size you want.
- Quilted design wall. You make this just like a regular quilt, with a layer of fabric for the front and a layer of batting behind. To form guidelines for block placement, you can mark the fabric every two inches horizontally and vertically, then sew straight lines up and down and across the quilt to form a 2-inch grid on the whole surface.
Permanent Design Walls
If you have a dedicated quilting space, these materials make good permanent design walls to mount on your studio wall. One advantage of these stiffer, thicker materials is that you can pin things to them.
- Stiff foam insulation. Available at any building supply store; these come in 4’ x 8’ sheets and varying thicknesses. You can ask the store to cut them down to smaller sizes if needed. Wrap the insulation in fabric and tape the fabric to the back, then mount on your wall with screws.
- Building board. A fiber board called building board, 4'x 8', 1/2" thick and white on one side, is available at many building supply stores. Treat this the same way as insulation board.
- Foam core presentation board. You can find this at local stationery stores or big box stores like Office Depot or Staples. Wrap the board in flannel or felt and secure the fabric to the back with pins or duct tape. To make a larger wall, glue several pieces together, then wrap with fabric.
Thanks to Lynn Koolish, quilt designer, fabric artist, co-author of Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts, and author of Fast, Fun & Easy Creative Fabric Clocks, for the photo of her design wall. You can tour Lynn's studio and see galleries of her quilts at www.lynnkoolish.com.
