Design wall expansion

A week ago I felt indomitable, in the pink, ready to take on the world (or at least a new project). Today I'm in day 2 of a cold, with itchy eyes, sore glands, and a non-stop faucet where my nose used to be.

But anyway, last Wednesday I tackled a new project: expanding my design wall. I've been reading the quilting twins' blogs (keryn and mereth) from the very beginning (I'm a complete-ist), and one of them has a design wall that is half light, half dark. That makes so much sense! With a simple change of location of the wall lamp (no rewiring required) I could add another 40" to my existing wall.

After browsing at JoAnn Fabrics I found I just couldn't commit myself to any of the cheap plain flannels. Also, the dark printed flannels were really quite light on the wrong side, the side I assumed I'd be using. It was my thought that eventually when the flannel was covered with threads, I'd remove it and use it as a backing for a quilt.

Reality finally sunk in--a quick wash and dry would probably remove loose threads from the surface of a flannel; therefore, I could use the right side with impunity as a design wall, then as a quilt backing when it got too "thready". With that, I set about looking for a dark flannel with lots of colors that was non-gender-specific.

Add one cheap roller shade of the 37" variety (plus the stabilizing plastic "bar" of the original design wall shade cut down to 42"), and thus is my design space nearly doubled.

Still need to adjust the new shade to roll all the way up

At the moment it's tucked behind an odd piece of thin styrofoam--I've no idea why I felt it so important to save. I haven't found a use for that foam in years, so I think it's a good candidate for the bin this week. If I don't start feeling better soon, I may throw myself in after it.