Quilt machine in what was once a living room
Like most houses, our Olalla house was not designed with quilting in mind.
Among other things, it is a small house. The 12' quilting machine takes up most of the living room, and the space that Irene uses as a design studio is in fact shared space. I use one side of it for various computer functions, our grandchildren occasionally sleep in it, and we use it as a TV room.
Until recently, Irene's stash of material was largely unavailable when her semi fixed design wall was in place. This created major problems when she inevitably discovered she needed a piece of material from her stash while her design was in progress. Inspired by information gleaned from http://www.vanishingdesignwall.com, we solved the problem by creating our own retractable design wall.
The commercially available Vanishing Design Wall resembles a large roll up window shade. Ours is a bit larger, the roller being a length of thick walled 3” sewer pipe. Also, we use a rope pulley arrangement to retract and extend our wall, rather than a spring arrangement. Several pictures are attached. One shows our design wall in the extended position; another with the wall retracted and her stash exposed. The wall itself is composed of a flannel backed plastic table cloth. Quilting fabric sticks to the flannel side, but not to the plastic side. The table cloth is taped to the roller with the flannel side forward. Please note that the wall extends from the back of the roller, and that the quilting fabric is firmly held within the roll before it is carried over the top. This is necessary to prevent the quilting fabric from separating from the flannel as it bends over the top. Now, when Irene needs that forgotten special piece of fabric from her stash as she is doing her design, she rolls up the wall, retrieves the fabric, rolls down the wall and continues her design. ~ Jim Hudspeth
Among other things, it is a small house. The 12' quilting machine takes up most of the living room, and the space that Irene uses as a design studio is in fact shared space. I use one side of it for various computer functions, our grandchildren occasionally sleep in it, and we use it as a TV room.
Until recently, Irene's stash of material was largely unavailable when her semi fixed design wall was in place. This created major problems when she inevitably discovered she needed a piece of material from her stash while her design was in progress. Inspired by information gleaned from http://www.vanishingdesignwall.com, we solved the problem by creating our own retractable design wall.
The commercially available Vanishing Design Wall resembles a large roll up window shade. Ours is a bit larger, the roller being a length of thick walled 3” sewer pipe. Also, we use a rope pulley arrangement to retract and extend our wall, rather than a spring arrangement. Several pictures are attached. One shows our design wall in the extended position; another with the wall retracted and her stash exposed. The wall itself is composed of a flannel backed plastic table cloth. Quilting fabric sticks to the flannel side, but not to the plastic side. The table cloth is taped to the roller with the flannel side forward. Please note that the wall extends from the back of the roller, and that the quilting fabric is firmly held within the roll before it is carried over the top. This is necessary to prevent the quilting fabric from separating from the flannel as it bends over the top. Now, when Irene needs that forgotten special piece of fabric from her stash as she is doing her design, she rolls up the wall, retrieves the fabric, rolls down the wall and continues her design. ~ Jim Hudspeth
