Focus cutting sewalong 2026 Month 3 roundup
Hello everybody,
Another 4 week block is over in the #focuscuttingsewalong. This month our colour has been orange. I have made 10 blocks in total.
As you can see, the weather has finally cooperated enough for me to take some outside pics. Not every week though, I haven't been quite that lucky. This month I have been trying to experiment with creating different shapes with the patterns within the blocks, to some success.
So here's the weekly breakdown!
Week 9 was Identifiable Motifs. I made three blocks.
As is obvious from this particular selection, my orange stash has quite a high proportion of Halloween fabrics in it. This is because many of them were collected for use in my ongoing Halloween La Passacaglia quilt.
First up, these castles.
This is actually a Harry Potter licensed fabric, and the castle is specifically Hogwarts. I am a fan of all the turrets in this depiction of it.
Next, spiders (you have been warned if you need to scroll past the next pic).
These do look like they are coming together to plan something sinister. Or maybe just have a chat. I like that the web formed a nice square in the centre of the block.
And lastly, mummies.
This is a Spoonflower fabric that I bought specifically for the Halloween La Passacaglia quilt. I love these little guys, they look like they are having so much fun. For this block I was trying to make their bodies form a diamond shape, and the arms and legs form a smaller square, concentric to the main large square. You can kind of see that if you squint.
Week 10 was Obscure Sections. Again, I made three blocks.
I think I am getting the feel of Obscure Sections again. For the last couple of months I haven't quite been in the groove with them - I have been struggling to pick fabrics and then struggling again to select appropriately obscure sections. This month it came to me a lot more easily, and I have been more playful with them, which makes me happy, as this has previously been one of my favourite prompts.
First up, this X shape.
I feel like this is the most 'obscure' one of the three - they are cat's tails. Here's the original material - another one from the Halloween collection.
The cats on this fabric are too big for identifiable motifs, but they are ideal for sections. I used them before for sections in March 2023 when we were doing honeycomb shapes. You can also see a previous use of the mummies at that link.
Next up, this orange-on-orange block.
I was going for a four-pointed star shape here. The dark orange lines aren't quite long enough to make it work, but I thought showing too much more of the motif would make it considerably less obscure. Here's the original fabric:
It's another licensed fabric, this time of Zyclops from the Lightyear movie. I used his legs. For this one, I did lots of experiments for possible arrangements.
The last one of those came a very close second.
And finally for obscure sections, this pinwheel effect:
For this fabric, I didn't do any experimentation, I saw the section I wanted to use and knew exactly how I wanted to use it. I also think it's the least obscure of the three, although my husband couldn't guess what it was. Here's the original fabric and a close-up on the section I used.
It's a butterfly wing. Not my usual style of fabric, but I do try and use as much of what I have in my stash as possible, no sense in having perfectly good fabric sitting there doing nothing.
Week 11 was pattern matching. After the unmitigated disaster that was last month's attempt at pattern matching, I played things very safe and made one block.
Yet more Halloween fabric, in the form of some very cute little ghosts. I have only pattern matched the the column on the left, and I deliberately chose a very easy place to match up. I have reassured myself that I do, in fact, know what I am doing with pattern matching, and I can try and be a bit more ambitious again next month.
And finally, week 12 was freestyle week. I always enjoy freestyle week, it's a good time for just playing without worrying about whether something counts as 'identifiable' or 'obscure'. I made three blocks.
First up, these creepy, starry eyes.
Creepy eyes definitely count as Halloween fabric in my view, they are one of the things that I always find scariest. I really like the way this fabric creates interesting secondary patterns, like the star shape in the centre of this block. I did also consider another arrangement of these pieces, creating more of an X shape with the eyes themselves.
Next up, this foliage block.
When I first cut out this block, the shape I was concentrating on was the curvy lines created by the green stalks. But once the pieces were together, I was much more struck by the circle of red circles that was created. I like it when the shapes in a block surprise me.
And finally, some stingrays.
This is a Tula Pink fabric, from her original Zuma line. When I first cut this out, I thought I would have the rays swimming away from the centre. But then when I arranged them like this, I saw that you got this effect of the animals framed by the foliage - concentric squares. Since looking at the block in photos, I have noticed that the pattern of light and dark on the rays themselves also creates a pinwheel shape.
So that's everything for this month! I am much happier with what I've produced this month compared with last month, and I am starting to get some of my confidence back with focus cutting.
The colour for next month is Pink. My pink stash is not extensive, and I assumed there would be no Halloween fabrics in it, but when I went to pull fabrics in preparation for sewing, I did come across this. The lighting is not great in the picture, but the background colour on it is a dusky pink. It seems I can't fully escape Halloween whatever colour I am working with.
Also, for reasons I don't fully understand, I seem to have quite a few Christmas fabrics in my pink stash.
So that's what we've got to look forward to in April!
Thanks for reading!
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