August #focuscuttingsewalong roundup

Hello everybody!

As I mentioned in my March post last week, I have finally finished all my blocks for August in this sewalong. The theme was Animals. Here they all are together. I made 8 blocks in total.

Some of the blocks have been sewn into their colour rows, which made them a little tricky to photograph.

Week 30 was identifiable motifs. I made 3 blocks.

First up, these toucans.

I love this fabric, and have used it in previous years here and here. Unfortunately for this block, the pattern created by the cutting didn't come through as strongly as I was hoping. the fabric is just a bit too busy for the size of the shape.

Secondly, whatever animals these are.

I am pushing the definition of 'identifiable' with these motifs. This is from an Aldi pack of licensed Encanto fabrics. It was clearly rushed out really quickly to take as advantage of the hype and this print in particular is just... terrible quality art. I am guessing these are meant to be animals to represent Antonio, but having watched the film a lot of times I definitely do not remember seeing these. So enjoy this pattern of eagles/vultures with cats/jaguars as those are my best guesses. 

And finally, these elephants.

This one, I am happy with both the quality of the artwork and the nice strong cross-shaped pattern I have created on the block. The only thing I am undecided about is whether to class it as yellow or orange when piecing it into the final quilt. I had considered it yellow, and that's where it is sitting in the photo in my previous blog, but I am now second guessing myself. Thoughts? I know it can be hard to judge colour from a photo, but this one was taken in outdoor natural light. You can also see the contrast between it and the much yellower block above it in the photo at the top of this blog, although the lighting in that photo is pretty rubbish.

Week 31 was sections from the top half of an animal. I made 1 block.

I love the bright colours in this fabric. Here's what the original fabric looks like.

The sections are from cat faces. It's from Tula Pink's Curiouser and Curiouser collection. You can also see it in my Halloween La Halloween La Passacaglia and a block from last year's sewalong.

Week 32 was sections from the lower half of an animal, also known as 'Butt Week'. Again I made 1 block.

I think I did quite well on the 'obscurity' of these sections! Can you tell what animal I have used? Here's the original fabric.

It's the long tail of a blue bird. This is actually a fabric from a pack of licensed Lion King fat quarters. I hadn't noticed until I was pulling fabrics for this block that it actually had birds at all, I had thought it just had swirly leaf patterns.

Week 33 was animal pattern matching. I made 1 block.

A pair of Christmassy deer. I am quite pleased with the matching job I did on this one.

Week 34 was the one I for some reason hadn't done until very recently. Freestyle animals. I made 2 blocks.

I needed to up my yellow blocks, so I dipped into my licensed fabrics and went with fictional animals for these ones.

First up, Peppa Pig.

I got this Aldi fabric to make scrunchies for my daughter. Peppa does make a good line-based pattern. Even if she is excessively annoying.

And next up, Simba.

This is another licensed Aldi fabric. This is actually Simba's second appearance in the sewalong this year as he turned up in Yellow month (July) as well. But as I still have an outstanding block for that month, so you haven't seen it on the blog yet, here is another sneak preview of the past.

And I now have 'I Just Can't Wait To be King' stuck in my head, so you should, too. I've even provided the sing-along version in case you've forgotten the words.

So that was August! Most those blocks were actually made in and around August, although the weeks were definitely out of order.

I am definitely getting somewhere in catching up the missing weeks, I only have February, July and November to finish off now (in addition to December, which isn't over yet) so I have a tentative aim of having all the blocks for this done by the end of January 2024. Given I have made a start at sewing the top together, this is actually going quite quickly for me.

Thanks for reading!