{big} city girl QAL - London

 way back in the summer aylin and amy asked me to be part of their new QAL - {big} city girl QAL and i jumped at the chance.

so here i am, the final leg of the QAL with my home capital city London.

whilst i am from leeds in the north of england i lived in london for 16 years and it will always in some ways be home.

i really couldn't decide which landmark to use in my block. there are so many to choose from - tower bridge, big ben, houses of parliament, st paul's cathedral, buskingham palace, the gherkin and even the meandering river thames.

but there was one that stood out for me...one that is a modern renowned landmark, the london eye. i used to travel up to the centre of london by train regularly and my heart always skipped a beat when the big wheel came into view. 

so here is my interpretation of one of my favourite london landmarks, the drunkard path way.

you will need:

for each circle: 4 dark circle quarters, radius 2"

4 low volume outers with a 1.5" radius cut out.

Using a 2” inner circle and a 1.5” concave outer piece make each quarter piece. Check out this great tutorial if you are struggling with making your drunkards patch pieces. Sew together each quarter and trim the combined square to 4”.

Repeat to make 6 drunkard path circles.

In addition you will need a 4x4” square for the centre and 4 2x4”corner pieces. Sew the 3 rows together as illustrated below and then sew each row together. Finally cut and sew a 3x11” border along the bottom.

Now for a little hand embroidery detail to sew the frame of your London Eye. Sew with a running stitch from capsule to capsule and across to opposite capsules. Use chain stitch to sew the support posts.

And there you are done! 

please do add any make to the {big} girl city QAL flickr group and do catch up on all the other wonderful city blocks from around the world if you missed out on visiting them.

01.09. Aylin - Nilya2011 from Germany with Berlin and Istanbul http://aylin-nilya.blogspot.de/
08.09. Alyce - SewBlossomHeart from Japan with Tokyo http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/
15.09. Julianna - Sewing under Rainbow from Poland with Warsaw http://jednoiglec.blogspot.co.uk/
22.09. Sil - silort from Brazil with Brasilia http://www.flickr.com/people/silort/
29.09. Sylvie - -Vivie- from France with Paris http://lafamillecreative.blogspot.co.uk/
06.10. Marit - Sy-elsk-lev from Norway with Aalesund http://www.sy-elsk-lev.blogspot.co.uk/
13.10. Amy- During Quiet Time from USA with Boston http://www.amyduringquiettime.com/
20.10. Jane - Quiltjane from Australia with Sydney http://quiltjane.blogspot.de/
27.10. Lotje - Lotje M from The Netherlands with Delft http://slootjesschilder.blogspot.co.uk/
03.11. Rachel - wooden spoon from New Zealand with Wellington http://www.flickr.com/photos/wooden_spoon/
10.11. Annabella - liferichpattern from Morocco with Marrakech http://kechquilts.blogspot.co.uk/
17.11. Felicity - felicity.quilts from Canada with Vancouver http://www.felicityquilts.com/ (you are here)
24.11. Karen - blueberry4park from UK with London http://blueberry-park.blogspot.com/

wind down?

There has definitely been no wind down this week following the completion of Country Living but it has somehow been very relaxing in the process.

What there has been is that much needed time for attention on other things like commissioned orders, FLickr group swap makes, not to mention Chanukah and Christmas present makes.

Here is a look at just some of the things I have managed to tick off this week, clockwise from left to right:

1. Lavender bag sets for a shop order;

2. An Ayumi basket for my niece...to be filled with lots of sewing necessities;

3. a special zipper pouch for a special friend in need;

4. a commissioned wool and screen printed bag and

5. more commissioned work...soon to be pouches

It feel good, really good to get on top of things and have time for more than just CL makes.

Next week will be even better.

Hello and a Happy Monday to you!

It's my favourite kind of winter weather at the moment. If you have to have winter, you may as well have it like this...crisp snow, blue skies...just perfect.

2 bits of news this week are...

1. A new Etsy shop!

2. A new product!

First up, my new shop...Blueberry Park Sample Shop...is something I've been meaning to do for ages. I gather a lot of samples from one thing and another. Whether it's from trying out a new design or making up things that don't go with "a range", I have a lot of pieces that don't fit.

In an attempt to keep my original Etsy shop more cohesive I needed another place to sell all these one offs.

The good news is these will all be at a great discount! I've started to load up some pieces (well, two) but watch out over the next few days (I hope) for lots of one offs at brilliant prices!

As for number 2 and a new product...

Whilst screen printing today I thought perhaps peeps might like my Euro design as a fabric patch to use in whatever project you like...add to a tote, a quilt, cushion...I don't need to tell you what you can use a patch for, but I thought they were a cute little purchase for adding a little something. Anyway they are right here, in green cross hatch and navy/grey squares.

Whilst printing up these patches a happy accident occurred...

I was using an old piece of newsprint to test the Euro screen and I don't know about you but I am pretty excited by the result!

These aren't great pics because, as I say, this was just testing the screen, but I like the effect.

Do you?

Now at some point I will be trying out a 2 colour screen and I think this will be high up in the queue. What do you reckon? What colours would you like to see together?

A good start to the week for me...weather...pro-activeness and general happiness...here's to it continuing for a whole week long ;-)

Giveaway time!!...

...in exchange for a little advice please.

I've been working on a new design today at the screen printing workshop.

I have had a request from one of my stockists for some more male oriented pouches and hopefully this design fits the bill.

However I got a little print happy on a variety of fabrics and now I'm at a loss as to which work best...

...and that my lovely readers is where you come in.

In exchange for a spot of advice as to which fabric you think works best, your comment will be entered into a draw to win a pouch made up in that fabric.

Do you like the striped or checked shirting?

Do you like the Klona plains in red, blue or grey?

Or is your favourite my signature linen?

I really would value your opinion on this, so just leave a comment and I'll enter you in the draw, which will take place at the end of the week. Please make sure you leave a contact email so I can let you know if you have won.

Thanks and good luck ;-)