moveable design wall

I've been working in the studio building a design wall, as well as making a few decorative items.

I have less space in this house than in MD but am trying to decide how to set up work areas around the house to free up sewing space. For instance I plan to bead, paint and draw downstairs in the LR/DR area. It takes time to re-organize a working space.
And I'm tired to the bone.

Other people go to Home Depot and purchase homosote or foam insulation in 4' X 8' sheets and cover them, attaching them to a wall. I didn't want to attach anything at the moment as I quite like the color and texture of these walls. Plus wrangling two enormous sheets of insulation and storing them in the garage to out-gas wasn't appealing at this time.

I went to Joann Fabric and found foam core boards 20" X 30" on clearance and bought 12 of them to make a 60" x 60" wall. So my base isn't as expensive as the foam and not quite as large but might suit my purposes right now.

two 6 board units on top of each other

I used painters tape to put the boards together into two of these units. Two for stability and depth. Don't want a pin to scratch the wall. You can find larger foam core pieces but I got these on clearance for a fraction of the price, and the size is manageable for me.
I taped the two big units together turning the second one the other way, so that the joined units were opposite to each other for more stability, and then moved on to a cover.

I found light gray felt on the bolt half price, plus an extra 20% off. Perfect at 72" wide. That is til I miss-cut and had less to pull to the back than I wanted.

I washed the felt and dried it. There are chemicals used in processing fabric one doesn't want to breathe in every day. It didn't shrink at all. Laid it out on the floor, placed the two taped sections on top, and treated it like an upholstery project using this

perfect for the job. I'd pull the felt to the back and staple, go to the other side and repeat. Just to keep it all even. The felt had pulled in just a bit with some wrinkles so I was actually able to pull it to the back all the way around, which smoothed out the wrinkles and left me with a wonderful looking wall.

My snooper-visor helped the whole way along. 

I could put it on the wall with command tapes now, but I want the flexibility to move it if I like. The felt grabs little pieces of fabric without pinning and I think the gray will be good for photos for competition entries too. I may want to take it outside for that. I have some foam core boards left, and some felt left to cover them with, and think I'll do a two board unit, 20" X 60" that can be put above or on the side for larger projects, or used alone.

To put it a bit higher I placed the wall on fabric bins for now, leaning it against the wall

I could throw fabric in them as I work, as we all know not all fabrics make the final cut!

I can easily cover this with the piece of fleece I used at the rental  if I want white for design-work

So I solved the problem for my particular space and needs. This is solid, very lightweight, useful in several ways. It's not large enough to design a king sized bed quilt but I'm working on wall quilts these days anyway. I can easily move it if I wanted to put up a larger design space.

I'll show you my system for organizing books and supplies next time. And see that top shelf next to the machine table? It holds some boxes I decorated for storage, which I'll show you later. Lots to do to make this a working studio.

The second room next door that will hold fabrics and supplies

After working at my dining room table in my little Tampa house, working in a tiny cell of a room at our first MD rental, then working in a larger first floor studio in our MD home, next up a great loft space in the first CO rental, now these two little rooms,
I think I know how I work, and what I want from a space.

Originally I thought I'd have the cutting table in the middle of the room

Originally I wanted the layout like this, but realized I like to have my rulers sitting up in the holder, within reach,  on the edge of the cutting table. They might have fallen this way. Plus it wouldn't look nice to see it all cluttered the way it gets in the middle of a project.

As it is now I'll see the design wall from entering the room, photo at top shows that.

  I'd love more space, and higher ceilings (our downstairs has high ceilings but the upstairs not) and a large walk in closet but I'm lucky to have a home and will make this work. Luckily my husband has his own office downstairs, and doesn't mind if I spread out upstairs a bit.

The actual stairs are steep and should keep me fit going up and down. Or if I'm up they should be a deterrent from going back to the kitchen to snack.

Linking to
Esther's blog Wednesdays 
Let's be social Wednesdays 
Midweek makers wednesdays
 Free motion by the River Tuesdays    
design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
lovelaughquilt.mondays
oh Scrap Sundays 
sewcanshe Saturdays
can I get a whoop whoop Fridays 

inventions/solutions... or creativity in everyday life

You know my blog is all about living the creative life.
If this post seems like something about nothing, well, Seinfeld made a career of that and who am I to discount that??
So I have come up with solutions to a few annoying every day problems...

#1. Cole no longer enjoys just eating when you feed him. In fact he often asks, begs, demands to be fed --until you actually feed him.
Then he saunters over sniffs the bowl decides it's not worth his time to chew and walks away. Or he begs from my plate, I finally give in and hand him a bite of whatever I have, he sniffs it, looks at me like he's lost all respect for me and walks away. (Cole: "I cannot believe she has thumbs, can open the fridge and still eats that stuff")

Anyway...
He has a food stand so his highness-with-long-legs can dine in relative comfort. He hates the non allergy kibble, the one that does not make him sick, and that costs a good portion of Daddy's available salary.
In an effort to make it more palatable, we heat water, add canned food (same allergy food) mush it around and make sure it's warm. If he eats, he likes to lick the "gravy" first. Which means he splatters it across the wall behind the dish.
Once that stuff dries, it's like plaster and harder to get off than tomato stains off a tshirt.

As an aside, Cole wants to eat a bit, wait til that settles, then eat an hour later but he wants it to always be warm. Mommy dearest here, just heats water and adds that each time.

 He doesn't need a food stand, he needs a buffet with a chafing dish. 

The other day, after we both went at it hammer and tongs to clean the wall, I pulled out my creative thinking cap, and  Eureka! I cobbled together a barrier made of a piece of foam core board (sacrificed from the studio) a white plastic garbage bag, and propped it up behind the dish. Now all we have to do is turn it around to the clean side at some point, then toss it when icky and replace. Ah HA!
Wasteful but a lazy solution and we are both pleased.

(Note, we seldom have company, and don't really care how it looks, so avoid us  if you care)

#2. The sliding door to the porch is nearly impossible to open. In fact, it's likely the same age of the house built in the '80's. Whatever.   It sticks.
Because the power goes out so often, we have candles laying around. One day, I said, Eureka! I will drag this candle over the track! And I did

And still do about every six months. Then the door nearly kills itself sliding open so fast it hits the wall! I wonder why I don't do it more often!

For the quilters out there, this is a bit like finally giving in and changing the rotary cutter's blade. We will saw away at fabric hoping to get one more cut out of it, I mean it's sharp enough to remove a limb, but not to cut fabric. Or it cuts fabric all but two threads every three inches so that you have to go back and recut them.

So of course the ugly service candle lives near the slider. Where else would it live? Again, don't come over expecting a show house! Come over for a poodle kiss!

#3. The lantern that lives on the coffee table. It ain't pretty but it's functional. As mentioned in #2 our power goes out way too often. Now, we live in a metropolitan area, it's non stop traffic, people, and wires around here. But the power goes out just the same. We do not like being in the dark, so we stopped storing the lantern in the basement, and just gave up the concept of decorating a house, and leave it on the coffee table.

Oh, and the tree like sculpture was a gift one year, it's a jewelry holder but I liked the concept of  "tree" and just decided to leave it here as if it was a sculpture. Shrug. 

People, I have lots of these creative solutions to the annoyances of life! I bet you do too.
I think just for fun I will start a new series on them. After all, if you can't use your creativity to make life easier, then why not?
I'd love to hear one of your creative solutions, leave a link to your blogpost on it if you like in the comments section. Linking to rascalandrocco
Creatively yours, LeeAnna