If this means anything to anyone, I’d be surprised. It actually is my design wall (one of two) in my present home. It shows the first step (actually the second step) in my present project, which has taken up about a month of my time. I’m looking forward to showing the progress of this project on my blog up to and including the finished project – but I want to show it to the client first.  So therefore – just exhibiting the design wall – a must for quilters who design anything but the basic of patterns, in my opinion.

Perhaps it is obvious, but design walls provide a preview of what you are about to construct. Many times I’ve saved myself a lot of trouble and expense by putting my ideas up on the design wall and seeing that they don’t work or that they need to be improved. If possible, a design wall should be in a location that can be viewed from a distance, as often a problem up close is corrected if looked at it from a distance. And vice versa.

Above is the same design wall with a quilt that I made from nine shirts belonging to the brother of my client. This quilt is still in the design phase and eventually was cut into four banners, which I’ll display in a future blog. The purpose of this picture is to show the design wall in another use. I have yet to have a design wall that is high enough, wide enough and indestructible enough (meaning I can assault it with impunity), but that said, I fully depend upon my wall. As you can see this one isn’t quite wide enough.

For a time, I once had a design wall that was almost high enough (see picture above). Eventually I moved the piano, but while it was there it provided a very nice step stool to reach the wall. Plus this wall was covered with a burlap type of wall covering that made it perfect for sticking pins in. The quilt above is described further in the Category “Paper-Pieced Quilts”. There you can see the finished quilt (not the spider web one shown above before it was quilted.)

Much can be said about design walls. I’ve simply displayed a few I’ve been privileged to have. Now, when I look at a possible studio/home, I first look for a room big enough for my long-arm and next for walls large enough and free of furniture to be a design wall.