One fantastic tool of the trade is a flannel design wall.  Your fabric clings to flannel so you can arrange quilt blocks or other projects to determine optimal fabric arrangements.  Most quilt shops will have at least one in their classroom, but isn’t it nice to have one at home?  Or in your studio space?  If you’re thinking about installing a design wall, here are a few of our favorite types:

1. The DIY Design Wall

Wrap this with cotton flannel and nail or drill it to your wall space.

The DIY wall consists of cotton flannel purchased from your favorite fabric store, plus an insulation panel or two (depending on the size of your wall) from your local Home Depot and voila!  Here’s a handy link to a few of the most frequently asked questions about building a design wall.

2. Purchase a Design Wall

Cheryl Ann's Design Wall

Skip the DIY and purchase a portable design wall. A few different options exist, but we like the old fashioned flannel wall. Portability is handy and you can take this to guild meetings and classes. And, if you need your studio wall space for shelving, a portable design wall is probably perfect for you.

3. Create a Virtual Design Wall

Place fabric side by side in an MS Word document.

Try out this virtual design wall from Delta Patchwork at www.deltapatchwork.com. We found this tool to be very helpful in choosing coordinating fabrics and made this online store stand out from the crowd. You can replicate this tool in Microsoft Word, as well. Just right click on store fabric pics, save the pic, then Insert the photos into a Word document. This is handy when shopping among various online retailers.