:: bpfc ::

it's here!!

the Blueberry Park Fabric Club!!

choose the size of your bundle from charm pieces up to full panels...

you can become a yearly member and receive additional discounts or spread the cost and pay month on month, either way you will receive significant discounts on regular panel prices.

go here for more details and to sign up. 

and tell all your friends about it...although not too many as i am keeping it small, exclusive and limited. after all if everyone has them, it won't be special any more will it?

i hope you will be as excited about it as i am and enjoy all the benefits of being a member of my club (i have a club!...i've always wanted to have my own club!)

introducing...

 the blueberry park fabric club!

i am very excited to tell you that my new fabric club will go live and ready to join later this week.

it is a club like no other...

:: choose your size ::

...from charm pack up to a full panel size.

:: choose how often ::

...join for a full year or month by month

:: unique hand printed unavailable-anywhere-else fabrics ::

i have taken all your comments on board and hopefully providing what you have asked for.

so what do you get for your money?

:: 2 designs a month :: 

...printed onto a carefully selected group of fabrics printed onto kona cottons

:: ideas sheet ::

...suggestions of what you can do with your special pieces of hand printed fabrics

:: mini project ::

...every issue comes with a mini project

all you need to do is purchase before the 10th of the month of that issue (blueberry park fabric club will be every 2 months, starting in january). there will be limited availability so do book early! if you want a special heads up email on release date to ensure you don't miss out, please leave your details here.

i hope you will be as excited as i am and look forward to telling you in full later in the week.

{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/

:: number 2 ::

i got a little feeling of what it must be like to win an oscar or the like yesterday when i discovered that my advent calendar kit was voted as number 2 in BT lifestyle's best advent calendars. 

we will just sidle past the question of who actually goes on the BT lifestyle website to see it shall we?

actually i think plenty of people surprisingly have as i have been printing these kits ad infinitum as alice of backstitch will testify.

with regular weekly emails of "help, need more red Klona!"

what makes me particularly excited more than anything is the thought of so many people a week on Sunday hanging their advent calendars, filling with them with their choice of treats until xmas eve.

i thought i had printed my last panels last week. i even told alice so. but no, with just 8 days to go until the start of advent orders are still coming in fast and furious.

and panic upon panic...alice has run out of klona crimson! i've run her dry!

thankfully i have managed to secure another source who have guaranteed me delivery tomorrow...printing on sunday...mailing on monday...happy people making kits on tuesday.

i may have ordered just enough if anyone else still want one...shout now because this really is the final order.

and if you don't fancy making one up i do have one available to buy ready made. i guess i felt i was missing out on the sewing up fun and wanted to join in. anyway it's available here and the kits are available here.

:: barn quilts ::

 my life has been opened up to the wonderful world of barn quilts.

i had never heard of barn quilts until i read about them here today.

i know...where have i been?

i have always had a thing for american barns, ever since i was old enough to hop across the ocean to visit my family in connecticut but i have never come across barn quilts there.

having flicked over to the barn quilt trail website (yes there is such a thing) i did in fact see that nowhere in CT was registered on the barn quilt trail.

this made me relieved that i hadn't been going around there with my eyes shut but saddened that i will have to go further afield to find some.

i will however be rectifying the lack of barn quilts in CT by painting one on my aunt's barn next time i am there...

american barns are so evocative and full of life and by painting a quilt on one of the walls just adds to this.

i've posted a few of my favourite barn quilt photos here and have started a new pinterest board where there are more. i know...obsessed.

there is even a book on barn quilts...that's obviously now on my wishlist.

the question is was i on my own here with my ignorance of barn quilts or have i enlightened a few more of you too?

do share you favourite barn quilt photo if you have one.

lucky number...

thank you all for your feedback on hoop-la and glad you like it. it really is a gem of a book so if you do get it i am sure you won't be disappointed.

and with no further ado the winner of the mix tape screen printed hoop is...

jenny!

I love the great ideas!! It would be so great to win!! Thanks for the giveaway! 

well done jenny and thank you all for entering.

:: annali ::

tuesday afternoon the doorbell rang...

it was this...

by last night it was this...

this is the latest collection for dashwood studios, the new uk based textile design company and this collection, called annali is by the talented stephanie thannhauser.

i was lucky enough to be sent some from the collection to make a quilt for them. i'd like to use the excuse that there was a short deadline on dashwood needing the quilt, for marketing purposes for the reason for the rapido making, but really it was down to it's irresistibility.

not only is the collection right up my alley, designs, colours, but the fabric itself is beautiful - really soft and light and i just couldn't wait to get sewing.

so sewing i did...until midnight last night.

as you can see from the top photograph, all the designs are really lovely but it is possibly the prints in the one colour designs that are most striking - perfect blenders for any project and would make wonderful dress-making fabrics too.

if you haven't come across dashwood before do check out their collections (this one is in store end of november). at the moment they are available here (see stockists bottom right) but i am sure it won't be long before they are more widespread.

in the meantime i am off to make a replica quilt as this one is on its way back to dashwood headquarters...sniff...