Fussy cutting sewalong June roundup

Hello everyone!

The June theme for this sewalong was travel. I love travelling and exploring new places, even though I don't get to as often as I would like. My enthusiasm for this project returned, and I made 7 blocks.

But before I go into them in detail, I made a bonus block for Animal Month (May).

This one is made entirely of diamonds I had cut out and rejected in previous months. Mainly because I couldn't work out what to pair with them. I realised they paired nicely with each other, and so this block was born! Don't throw away your rejects and scraps! You never know when they will come together and make something that works.

Several people commented it looks like fidget spinners. That wasn't my intention, but I can totally see it.

So, on to June proper. First up we were doing whole motifs in the inner diamonds. I
chose to do this nautical themed one.

I really liked the way the wheels fit into the diamonds. Here's a pic of me and my sister on a boat on Loch Lomond in 2009.

Next up was sections in the inner diamonds. I made two blocks for this prompt. I took inspiration from my own travels, so for the first one I used mountains and a section of a sheep.

In 2003-2004, I spent the academic year teaching English in the valley of Roncal, Navarre, Spain. It is high up in the Pyrenees, and they make a distinctive cheese from sheep's milk. So this block represents that place. Here are some pics I took when I was there.

The next one was inspired by a holiday to Istanbul in 2012.

The sections fabric is one of my favourite fabrics and is a Michael Miller print called Istanbul.

Here are some pics of me in Istanbul. The blue tiles were my inspiration for the Libs Elliot print in the outer diamonds (and are great English paper piecing inspo in and of themselves!)

The third week (whole motifs in the outer diamonds) I felt particularly inspired, and made 3 blocks. First up, flip-flops on the beach.

And here is the inspiration pic.

Apa, Satu Mare, Romania. This is actually an artificial beach by a lake, Northern Romania being nowhere near the coast. I was teaching English near there in the summer of 2002, and the family I was staying with took me here for a weekend day out. It was boiling hot and I got completely sunburnt.

Next up, travels a little closer to home.

This block represents the many times my mother took me and my siblings on the train to London, to visit the Natural History Museum and Science Museum. I loved seeing the dinosaur bones. I don't have any pics of that, but no doubt my Mum does somewhere.

And thirdly, a dream holiday destination - the Galapagos Isles.

I have had this idea for an island image mulling around in my head since the start of the sewalong, and I was glad to think of a way to translate it into reality. These tortoises are very cute, and with my enthusiasm fully returned, I was seeing loads of fabrics that would have worked well in Animals Month, so I decided to use them anyway and give them a travel interpretation.

For the final week of the month - mystery sections in the outer diamonds - I did one block.

This uses this rocket print.

I had seen lots of other people do space travel star flowers and wanted to do one of my own. Especially as I am using a space fabric to frame the blocks. I thought the rocket section might not be 'mysterious' enough, but several people on IG commented that they hadn't guessed rockets, they could only see flowers, so it must be fine. I do like the flower effect it creates.

So that's all the June star flowers! But seeing as I am showing you my travel pics, I thought it would be a good time to show you two of my hexie flowers from last year's sewalong that were also inspired by my travels.

This one featured in my recent mistake post here. This block represents a holiday that my husband and I took to Arran Island (Scotland, not Ireland) in 2009.

It was a last minute bank holiday plan, and we looked at the distances on the island and thought it would be a good idea to take our bikes.

It wasn't. Arran Island looks like this.

Cycling from the ferry to the camp site, I was going downhill and was going too fast. A sharp corner turned up and I couldn't turn quick enough. I crashed into some vegetation. Fortunately, I was largely unharmed with just a twisted ankle, but I got cross and didn't want to cycle any more. We pushed the bikes the last mile or so to the campsite and turned it into a walking holiday, so it was still fun in the end. To get back to the ferry on time when we were leaving, we ended up bribing a bus driver to let us bring the bikes on the bus, which was chock full of school kids. The bus driver was unimpressed with us.

Just for fun, here are some more pics from that trip.

For this next one, the prompt asked us to do something for 4th July. I thought back to the last time I had been in the USA, and it was three days in Los Angeles in 1989. We were stopping over between flights as part of a house move from Australia to England. My Mum decided the best way to keep three young kids entertained in La was to spend 2 days in Disneyland.

Can you see the shape created by the black hexies?

And here is a picture of me on that trip!

Travel is definitely one of my favourite themes to work with and I very much hope to travel more and gain inspiration from lots of new places.

Thanks for reading!