Cheap and Easy Design Wall...It Actually Worked!

So a few months ago I was watching Cindy Needham's Craftsy class, "Design It, Quilt It", and it included an awesome tutorial on how to baste a quilt on a table, without spending hours on the floor basting on your knees (which has always been my least favorite part of the entire quilting process).  She  recommends several ways of clamping your quilt to the table, including picnic tablecloth holders like the ones below. 

Of course, with my luck, the table I was using was thicker than the clamps so they didn't work.  (side note: I wound up getting the largest size binder clips from Office Max and they did the trick, they worked great!)  

Long story short... I had two packs of picnic table clamps and tablecloths that I never got around to returning.  Then, last week, I saw this video clip on QNNTV.com with Marianne Fons explaining how to make a design wall out of a picnic table table cloth.  I had the thought, "I should run get one of those" a couple of times before it dawned on me that I already had two tablecloths sitting about 2 feet from me!  And, it actually worked!  Within several minutes I had a design wall and was able to work on arranging fabric for the quilt I'm working on.  (which is a gift and still in progress so I can't show the whole thing!)

I was so excited when it actually WORKED!  Holla!  The only thing I had to pin that didn't really "stick" were the Printed Treasures pieces (i.e., the pictures)... all of the other fabric stayed on!  I love it when things work out :)

Click here for the QNN video showing how the fabric sticks to the picnic tablecloth if you're curious... it's a nice, short video!

Also, my long-arm machine is HERE and put together!  The only frustrating thing is that they sent the wrong handlebars (they're for an HQ Sixteen, not the Avanté), so even while it's sitting right here I can't use it.  Le Sigh.  Hopefully the right handlebars will be here in a couple days though, and then I can quilt my heart out and let the long-arm adventure begin!  In the meantime, here's the machine all set up waiting to get going, and also waiting for a name...

Quilt soon!

-- Kathryn