Patches of Destruxion

 Hello everybody! Another month is over in the sewalong. Our theme for July was Water, and I really liked this theme. I could easily have made more blocks if I had the time. Here are this month's blocks. We started the month with a completely freestyle week to celebrate being halfway through the year. I made 3 blocks for this prompt. I used the total freedom as a chance to play with patterns. First up, this green block  The original fabric has zigzag lines. I like that by arranging them like this it creates a snowflake/star effect. This is a different colour way of a fabric I used for a block in January . The fabrics are from Aldi. Next up, these blue stripes. Stripy fabrics are great for focus cutting, bit I do find it hard to fit them into the themes, so freestyle is a great chance to play with these. And finally, this black and white block. I am really happy with this one, it creates such a great design, and I think I did a really neat job with the sewing. I am particularly...

Hello everybody! At the end of term, the lovely Reception class teacher at my kids' school left to go to a different school. She has been amazing with my kids, so I decided at the last minute she needed a handmade leaving gift. So here is the cushion I made her. I had a clear idea of the design from the beginning. I have seen several patterns with pencils on Pinterest and similar, but for this I decided to design my own, so it would work with my stash. It turned out when I pulled fabrics that I had a lot fewer solids left than I thought I did. And only one low volume fabric for the backing that I had a suitable quantity of. Here's my sketch. I pieced the main panel together by hand. I then got my kids to write their names on it and embroidered over their writing. I decided to add embroidery to the couple of false start pencil scribbles the kids did, because I thought it added to the effect. When it was finished, it was clear it was too small for the cushion inserts I had, so I ...

Hello everybody! This month in the #focuscuttingsewalong out theme has been Sound. This is a good theme, and while I have had lots of ideas in my head, I don't seem to have got many of them out into fabric form, and the ones I have done aren't particularly colourful, particularly after the bright oranges, reds and purples I worked with last month. I managed 6 blocks in total across the 4 weeks, and overall, I am feeling pretty flat about them as a set, even though I don't actively dislike any individual block.  But as this is Sounds month, you also get a sound to listen to with each block! Do you agree with my choice of sounds? Do you think of any different sounds when you see the blocks? Let me know! Week 22 was identifiable motifs. I went very literal on the theme here! I made two blocks. The first block features these animal sounds: I'm glad I didn't use this fabric last month for the animal theme , because it's a better fit here. And for your sound, enjoy th...