#focuscuttingsewalong June round-up

Hello everybody!

This past month has been pretty busy for me on the sewing front, not least because I have been working on making myself a bridesmaid's dress for my sister's wedding (more to follow soon!). So this sewalong has been on the back burner, and I have only made 1 block per week - so just the 4 blocks this month.


The theme this month has been Travel. I have been quite frustrated at my inability to travel internationally over the last few years - I haven't been abroad at all since 2014, and I haven't had a proper holiday abroad since 2012. That also makes a focus on the topic quite difficult for me, perhaps another reason why I didn't make so many blocks this month.

The first prompt was identifiable motifs. 


This block is an ode to my last proper holiday - a trip to Istanbul in 20012. The boats represent cruising down the Bosphorus, and the central hexie is one of my favourite fabrics, and is actually called Istanbul. The colours very much made me think of the lovely tiling patterns we saw there.

Here are some pics of me in Istanbul (photo credit for these to my husband). I think the inspiration for the block is pretty clear from these pics.






This last picture is the only pic of me to be taken in Asia, ever - technically I am on the Asian side of Istanbul here.

The second week's prompts was obscure sections - where we try to create a pattern out of a section of fabric where it's not clear what the original motif or pattern was.


I find obscure motifs quite difficult with the size of half-hexies I am doing (1.5 inches). So while I like the windmill effect I got here, I am not sure how obscure the motif really is. I think it's pretty obvious that I used the back end of a bus (camper van). The inspiration for this one was much closer to home.  My mum had a VW camper van as the family car when I was growing up, we had a white one, followed by a bright red one. They were great for our camping trips to Brittany in Northern France.

The third week was pattern matching. For this one I stopped trying to get inspo from my own travel, and went out of this world.


I am really pleased with this one, I really think I have done the pattern matching very neatly. When I pulled the fabric on this, I thought the rockets would fit into the half hexies and I would have the space fabric in the centre. But when I went to cut, it quickly became clear that wouldn't work. So to make the pattern match work, I have actually used two pieces to make the central hexie - you can see the join in the centre. It is halved in a different way to the outer pieces - cut along the middle of a side rather than along the diagonal. Here's the paper I cut in half to make it.


And the final week was freestyle. Because I wasn't impressed with the obscurity of my obscure sections two weeks previously, I decided to have another go at that prompt.


I am much happier with this effort, I have actually used a section that is the top of some little beach huts.


I particularly like the little seagulls on top of the rooves. I am back to my own travels as the inspiration for this block - it's is a nod to the British seaside. Which, seeing as I live about as far from the coast as it is possible to in the UK, is a destination that necessarily involves travel for me, and which I haven't been to in over two years (thanks, pandemic). But here are some cute pics of my kids on British beaches in the before times (yes, wearing thick coats makes sense at the British seaside in February).



So that's June! July's theme is animals, which is a great theme that I have lots of fun fabrics and good ideas for. However, I am not confident that I will be able to keep up with this, due to having the much more important event of my sister's wedding happening. And school holidays are not conducive to calm sewing time in my house. Hopefully I'll get caught up as we move into autumn. 

Thanks for reading! 


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