As I was posting my blog post for August 10/2025-Scrappy strings chevron quilt, I realized that I never did post anything about finishing my design wall/boards. Way back on October 14/2023, I posted about changing the location of my quilting space from a small back room, to a larger more open centre space. At that time, I just hung a sheet up over the closet doors as my design wall. It served the purpose, until I was able to do something about it. During my Christmas break of 2023, my mom came and helped me finish my design boards.
These are my completed design boards. I installed two separate tracks with two separate boards, to give me more design space, using the least amount of "wall" space. Each board is 5' wide and 8' tall, for a total of 10' wide space if I need it. They move independently and can both move out of the way for access to the closet behind them.
These tracks are not your usual box store tracks. They are industrial tracks and can support as much as 500 lbs. each. Not that I will need quite that much, but with the weight of the frame, plus blocks and pushing and pulling them as needed, I wanted something very sturdy. Sometimes I feel I have monkeys that come to visit, who like to climb and hang on things.......lol......(ie child proof too!).
The tracks are spaced far enough apart that anything (including pins) on the design board in the back, don't get disturbed. Each track is 10' wide to allow me to move the boards all the way to the left, to get access to the closet that is behind the design boards. Or I can move either one to the side so that I can view both boards at the same time.
This picture below was taken back in Dec/2023, prior to covering the panel with batting, flannel and the black fabric trim. I thought this would help with understanding the construction of the panels, in case anyone is interested in making a design board like this.
The framing is made with 2" x 2" spruce wood/studs, screwed to each other on the ends. Then there is a thin wood, 3/8" underlayment, which is screwed to this frame to provide more support and sturdiness, without it making the whole panel too heavy. Once the wood frame was complete, I then inserted the insulation and secured them to the back of the underlayment with large washers and screws (initial glue/adhesive was not working).
Lastly I installed the coverings. I lay the batting down first to cover the insulation, gluing the batting to the insulation with spray adhesive and stapled the edges to the front side of the perimeter wood, to lessen the bulk. Then this was followed by the flannel, pulled taught, which was also stapled to the front side. The black trim came next. That was installed upholstery style on the front, to the edge of the wood, and then pulled to the back of the frame and stapled there. Hope that helps!
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