Design Walls

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that one of the most important, if not the most important feature in my sewing studio is the design wall! I know!!!!  I used to have two full walls of design boards but one of them got replaced with bookshelves. I'm OK with that. Too much design wall can be a bad thing because you leave stuff up.

I only have one project on the design wall at this moment which I forgot to take a picture of. But I will.

I also wanted to have a portable design wall. Now I know you can buy kits that make a design wall, but I do love my insulation boards. They are lightweight and relatively cheap to make. You can poke pins into the boards and require no setup. I have a class tonight where the portable boards will be quite handy and I only had one, but enough insulation boards to make two more.

Last night I got myself busy and made the other two boards.

Three portable design boards

They are made from the BLUE insulation (1" thick) that you buy at the hardware store. They are two feet wide and come in eight-foot lengths. I cut them down to 76". Technically they fit in my car, but could be a wee bit shorter for a better fit. Nope - I left them at 76". It was easy to lay them out on the worktables in Studio B. I already had lengths of flannel cut and I found some tape.

They are super easy to make. I simply "upholster" the white flannel to the back of the board. I use masking tape which is how I've made all my boards over the years and it works like a charm.

This is the original one that had been made for a while. That masking tape isn't budging.

The back of the design board

Remember that you want to have the side with the black writing on the BACK!!!

I went to the drawer that contains the tape (yep - the tape is ALL in one spot). Hmm - no more wide masking tape, but there is something else that will work just as well. You can see a sneak peek in the photo below.

Orange tape?

Yep - I happened to have a spool of Ducktape in orange. That's brilliant neon orange.

Orange Duck tape works very well

I ran out of the bright stuff but found another roll of orange Duck Tape - a bit more subdued.

The back of the third panel

That leaves one last panel to upholster. It fits right at the end of the design wall right beside the bookcase. Everything is laid out but I was tired after doing the other two and I wanted some downtime with my manuals. Nerd!!!!!! Geek!!!!!

One last panel to upholster

That will be exciting to get all of those panels done. Some of them had been sitting in the office and now they are gone! The portable design walls will reside in one of the storage rooms downstairs after they serve their purpose for tonight's class.

I'm almost finished with the book about the Samsung Galaxy s10 phone. I know - taking me a bit longer than originally planned, but that's OK. I'm trying to absorb the information as I read it. Some of the features, I'll never use, but for those that I will use, I'm trying them before I move on. I've learned so much that I feel I'm finally in control of my smartphone. I don't have a ton of apps on it and only one game. That works for me. I don't need or want time wasters. I can "waste" enough time reading a book and that works for me. I finished another novel last night.

I multitasked yesterday at our meeting. I had a couple of quilts that needed to be designed and those got done while I was listening to the meeting. Today, I'll be hands-on with the new serger! It's always exciting to attend these meetings and see and touch all the new stuff. I did see a lot of it and touched a lot while we at our convention, but you learn more the second time around. And trust me - with all the new sergers and sewing machines and software and products and techniques? Well - my head is just spinning.

The meeting was great as well because I got to see some of the dealers (and friends) that I don't see that often. I've got today and tomorrow filled with more new stuff to process.

I downloaded one more manual this morning for my computerized longarm. Yikes - my iPad is filled with manuals and instructions. It's a great way to use an iPad. That way, I have all those manuals with me and I don't have to find them, lose them and carry them. I love technology. I just wish I knew how to organize that silly iBooks category. I know there has to be a way to make that happen. Something else to learn.

Speaking of learning, here's a really good article with some food for thought. It's all about doing something different. I'm for that.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!