Many of you asked last week about using a felt wall-so here's the info
The "felt wall" is really just a huge piece of white cotton flannel fixed to the wall using nails or push-pins. The amazing thing is-fabric will stick to it! This is especially wonderful if you are using a quilt pattern that allows for variations (don't they all?) because you can piece your blocks, or cut your strips, and put them on the wall to see how the whole thing will work. Here's grammie's felt wall with blocks on it for a quilt for baby peanut Delia
so-the beautiful pink and white blocks on the wall are just stickin' there-no pins! Pretty rad, huh? We were able to play around with the block orientation forever, and never had to lay it all on the floor and stand on a chair to get a feel for how this will look. With my abstract modern quilts I throw up pretty big pieces, like sometimes half a quilt top, and it still sticks with some firm hand pressing. One thing: only one layer of fabric sticks-so if you want to add some applique pieces on the top, you have to pin.
I starting serious quilting after taking a break from painting-so this vertical "on the wall" way of looking at a project is the only way to go for me-and the best is that you don't have to put it all away-the wall acts as storage for a work in progress too. You can also use this wall as a place to just let fabrics hang out together-to see what you like and what works as a group-here's some fabrics I just put on there from my stash-
you need:
4 yards 60" wide white cotton flannel (approx-see quilt sizes)
a straight edge or big ruler
tape measure
push pins or small nails
big ol' hunk of empty wall space
To do:
Decide how big your wall should/can be.(see below quilt sizes taken from this book) Get a helper and
stretch the flannel along the wall, trying to keep it level. Nail/tack
the top a bit and then the sides tight and using a tons of
push-pins-stretch tight and tack down all the way around, like you are
stretching a canvas (it doesn't have to be super tight, just no
wrinkles.) Measure and mark the various quilt top sizes with a pencil
and label.
crib 30" x 54"
twin 65" x 95"
double 80" x 95"
queen 86" x 100"
king 106" x 106"
My wall fits up to a double-which is fine by me, although I wish I had room for a queen.
You are done! start a new quilt!
