February 2022 #focuscuttingsewalong roundup

Hello everybody!

This month in the sewalong the theme has been Getting to Know You. I must admit I dislike the more abstract themes and I struggle to think of ideas for them. This month has also been pretty busy as my two older children both had their birthdays. So I didn't go  as crazy as I did last month. I did, however, make 9 blocks on this theme, which is more than double what was asked for so maybe I am just on a productive streak at the moment. These blocks really do sew together much faster than the previous years ones.

For Week 5, the prompt was Where I Live. I made two blocks for this prompt.

For the first block, I was too tired to think of anything particularly creative, so I simply went with a house fabric, because I live in a house.

It's not a very well put together block, and I may well remove and re-baste a couple of the kites at one point. But I do like the overall effect it creates, with the hexagon shape in the middle.

The second block I am more pleased with. The city of Coventry in England has been my home for nearly 4 years now. This is Coventry's official flag.

I made a fabric interpretation of it.

The woman on horseback is Lady Godiva, one of the co-founders of the city, who famously rode naked through the streets in protest at the taxes her husband, Leofric, levied against his tenants. The blue and white stripes represent Coventry City Football Club, who wear those colours as their strip, and are known as the 'Sky Blues'.

For Week 6, in honour of Valentine's Day, the prompt was What I Love. I just made one block, a tribute to my 3 children.

The three characters represent the things that they currently love. My eldest, who just turned 8, loves Harry Potter and has just started reading The Goblet of Fire. My middle child, who just turned 6, practically worships Batman and can turn any Lego vehicle into a rocket-powered Batmobile. And my youngest, who is 4, is a fan of Minnie Mouse.

The prompt for Week 7 was The Colour You Love. This was an easy one for me, as my favourite colour is, was and has since early childhood been blue.  And blue is definitely the biggest section of my stash, not least because I gravitate towards blue for impulse purchases. I made three blocks for this prompt.

First up this block. 

This is made from one of my favourite fabrics that I have had hanging around in my stash for ages - the little bit of selvage I have says 2004. It's such a busy pattern and I don't have much of it, so I rarely think up a way to use it. I'm glad I did here.

Next up, a geeky one.

Seeing as this is Getting to Know You Month, I figured I needed at least one geeky block in there. So this is some classic Marvel comic book characters on a blue background.

And lastly, another pretty pattern.

This is made from an Aldi fabric with diamonds.

I actually really liked the way this one looked before I basted the shapes, the slightly larger version made me think of a snowflake.

And finally the prompt for week 8 was One More Thing. This was basically a freestyle week to tell people something more about ourselves. I made 3 blocks for this prompt.

Here is the first block.

The French text mostly says 'Monsieur le Maire de la ville, Amiens'. It's part of an address, clearly chosen by the fabric designer for aesthetics rather than meaning. One of the suggestions from the sewalong host. Naomi, was that we made a block representing our job, so this is a block representing me as a linguist and bilingual dictionary editor.  Here's a couple of pics of the block on dictionaries I have edited.

I worked in-house at Collins Dictionaries for 3 years, before moving on to work on Modern Foreign Language teaching resources at Pearson for a further 8 years, stopping after I had my third child. I am now a freelance proofreader/editor, working on a variety of educational materials, but I still do bilingual dictionary work as part of that. I have also been to France many times (although, incidentally, I have never been to Amiens).

Next up, a violin block.

Not that I get much of a chance these days, but I play violin, piano, church organ and I sing. I spent a lot of time in choirs and orchestras growing up, and this block represents that.

And a final, one more One More Thing:

This is upcycling. Upcycling and using up scraps is, in my opinion, a big part of the essence of patchwork. The whole craft was developed to use up little scraps of materials. One of the effects of social media, particularly Instagram, is that our feeds can get filled with people who are paid to promote the latest fabrics and tools. And while it is absolutely valid for them to do that, it can lead the rest of us to feel like we are not good enough if we are not constantly buying the latest thing. But to me, that's not what patchwork is. Yes, new designer fabrics are beautiful. But patchwork made from scraps and bits of old clothes are also beautiful and just as worthwhile. And I find using old fabrics, scraps and reusing fabrics from clothes and other textiles makes me feel more connected to the history of the craft and the sewists who came before me.

So that's it for February! Surprisingly, I'm actually on time posting this, so the March theme hasn't been announced yet. I am hoping for a more concrete theme, like Animals or Travel/Transport.

Thanks for reading!