Some of you know that I had a blog called “Quilting on the Cheap”. I wrote it as a direct answer to all the quilters, both traditional and art, who said you have to buy your fabric at the local quilt shop [LQS].  They rarely get my money since I can find more than enough fabrics for under $1 a yard and sometimes $0 a yard. 

Because of my passion for saving our earth by keeping as much out of the landfill as possible I repurpose what I can.  I was in need of a portable design wall. I’ve used about everything other’s have suggested as well as a couple of my own inventions. I’ve used a roller shade with thin flannel glued to it and a bamboo shade with flannel on one side. Both of these were OK but still had to have someplace to hang. I wanted something I could fold away and not deal with at all. 

So my mind had been working for possibilities. I had seen one of these projection screens at a thrift shop but felt it was too much money. Or at least more than I wanted to spend until I knew if it would work out the way I envisioned.

Then this week I found the one I wanted to try for $3. We tested it to make sure all the springs and adjustments worked before we bought it. The beauty of this is that it is very compact by itself as you can see in the first photo. The photo on the right shows the screen folded up with the flannel clipped on the top rail. It is still compact but simply unclip it and fold the flannel up if you want. 

 This is the naked screen. It can be adjusted from the the top or the bottom.  I hemmed heavy weight drapery flannel liner on the top and bottom with fusible tape to make this as easy as possible. Then I used large binder clips to attach it to the top rail and small clips to stretch it across and clip on the sides. 

We sometimes go on extended stay vacations in a small 26 ft. long motor home. This will be perfect since it will fold up to be put away in the small closet.

I thought about putting velcro tabs to attach it, or eyelets on the top and screws in the rail to attach it. All those were too labor intensive and I wanted this project to be quick and dirty for all of you.  I submitted this to Fons and Porter magazine as a quilting tip  but I just couldn’t wait to share it with my readers. This has gotten a huge number of hits but just in case anyone missed it I’m linking up http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/