My working wall

I like to create my quilts on a wall, so that I can see the whole thing at once when I step back and also, my table is usually too small to spread the whole thing out. So, I use a "working wall".

Mine consists of three layers. The first layer is called Designer Tack. Bulletin boards made out of recycled paper. I bought mine at Menard's, which is a home improvement chain in the Midwest. They used to keep them in the cork bulletin board area, but lately I've found them in the wall panel section. Homosote is essentially the same thing, and comes in boards that are 4x8 feet. However, a full sheet is heavy, and doesn't fit in my Prius. But six of the Designer Tack boards fit in my car easily and individually, they aren't that heavy. I paid about $9 a few years ago, I saw them last week for about $13. They are 32x48 inches.

Here's a link to the website for the manufacturer:
American Pacific Designer Tack

I used white batting on top of the bulletin boards. My last working wall had black felt, but this time around, I wanted white. The batting makes the surface feel softer, and also creates a whiter surface. At the very left of the wall, you can see about five inches that is somewhat grey. This is the bulletin board without the batting on top of it. I need to add the last strip. The batting I used is 45" wide, I had wrapped it around the right edge, so I ran out before I got to the left edge, using two full widths. I used P&B prepared for dyeing fabric, that is 108" wide. I used quilt pins to hold everything onto the sides, but at the top, I used pins. I haven't yet gone back to trim the top edge of the batting.

This photo is of the wall before I pinned the fabric on the left side.

So, here are the layers, going from left to right:
1. Blue wall, newly painted by professional painters. It took me a week to be able to nail anything up on the perfect wall.

2. Grey designer tack bulletin boards. Nailed into wall on corners, and in the center of each edge, using panel nails.

3. White batting.

4. 108" white prepared for dyeing fabric. (The fabric doesn't have to be PFD, I just have it already. Sometimes it's very hard to find wide enough fabric.)

Here is the wall after I finished pinning, with a work in progress pinned up on it.