April 2022 #focuscuttingsewalong

 Hello everyone!

Another month gone in this sewalong. Our theme was Botanicals. My husband doesn't think this is a real noun and thinks it should have just been called Plants, but I think it's a prettier word. I much prefer this as a theme to our previous more abstract ones of Happiness and Love, and I have no shortage of suitable fabrics in my stash. Given time, I could have made truck loads of blocks for this month. As it was, I made 10.

Week 13's prompt was identifiable motifs. I made 2 bright and cheerful blocks for this prompt.

First up, this pink block.

This fabric is actually from a bundle of Christmas fabrics. I think the flower depicted is intended to be a poinsettia. I like the circle effect this creates from the two different sizes of flowers.

And secondly, this blue block.

Just a simple block of daisies on a blue background.

For Week 14, the prompt was sections. We weren't required to make them 'obscure' because most sections of a flower still look like a flower when you put them back together even if they look different to the original design. So we were asked to make sure our sections used half or less of the original motif. Again, I made two blocks. I think these two are my most creative blocks for this month.

Firstly, this one.

For this one, I think I did manage to make it obscure, I think it looks like a spider's web, but the original fabric is this fern print from an Aldi bundle:

And secondly, this somewhat psychedelic block.

This block uses a fabric from a set of Kaffe Fasset 10 inch squares I won in a giveaway a few years ago.

I always pull it out when I get these sorts of floral/garden/botanical prompts. Due to the limited number of repeats I have in 10 inch squares, I typically have to mix colour ways, as with this block.

Week 15 was pattern matching. I only made one block.

I was quite enthusiastic about pattern matching in January, and I thought I would enjoy it more this year, but I haven't and there's a major reason. The nature of this shape is that to do pattern matching in all 6 pieces, whether that's an all-over match, 2 different halves or 3 pairs, you need 6 repeats of the motif in your fabric. This is because the way the shapes all join at a point in the centre, the seam allowance for any one piece will always impact on any other potential piece, meaning you can only cut one piece from any given motif. This was not the case with last year's half hexies. It was possible to do an all-over pattern match with 3 repeats.  My fabric stash has a lot of fat quarters, and many of those already have diamond and half-hexie shaped holes in them. Six repeats of a large enough motif is a big ask from my fabric stash. It worked in January, because I was using my Halloween purples which I have larger amounts of. But it doesn't work for almost any other theme.

And finally, Week 16 was freestyle. I made 5 blocks, most of which would probably have counted as identifiable motifs.

First up, this windmill of trees.

I got the fabric for this in a lucky dip at the Festival of Quilts a few years ago and hadn't found a good use for it yet. But it's the perfect size for these kite shapes.

Next up, strawberries.

This pink fabric comes from an Aldi fat quarter pack.

Third, Halloween pumpkins.

I haven't actually been doing that much on my Halloween La Passacaglia this past month, but seeing as I have so many great fabrics for it, I am going to use them for other things. And pumpkins are definitely plants.

The last two blocks use fabrics from the same Aldi Lion King bundle.

I like the effect created by the palm trees better, but I like the bright colours in the leaf block better.

And that's a wrap for April! May's theme is Animals, which is easily my favourite recurring theme of this sewalong. Not least for the fun that is Butt Week. Which is not a phrase I recommend Googling.

Thanks for reading!