Focus cutting sewalong 2026 month 4 roundup

Hello everybody!

Another 4 weeks have gone by in the #focuscuttingsewalong, so it is roundup time again. This month our theme was the colour pink. Despite not having that much pink in my stash compared to other colours, I made 10 blocks in total.

So here are this month's blocks in detail!

Week 13 was identifiable motifs. I made three blocks. I very much have a childhood theme going on here!

For the individual pics of these, I decided to take them next to some pink fruit blossom that is coming through in my garden. I am not 100% sure what type of fruit it is, and won't be until I actually see the fruit, but my current best guess for this tree is plum.

First up these bears:

This fabric is one from my own childhood that my mum gave to me at one point a few years ago. I also have it in blue. I particularly like the bear with the balloons.

Next up, Alice in Wonderland.

I am a big fan of the Lewis Carroll Alice stories - they will feature again in the blocks this week. For this block, I am happy with the X shape created by placing Alice on the diagonal.

And finally, Peppa Pig.

A character I am much less of a fan of, but this one was the only one to get some love on Instagram, so maybe it's just me who is driven crazy by her. But I can only work with the fabrics I have, and pigs are definitely emblematic of the colour pink. It's an Aldi fabric that I bought with the intention of making things for my children.

And just for fun, here are the three identifiable motif blocks in the probably plum tree.

On to week 14, and obscure sections. I made two blocks for this prompt.

Firstly, this minimalist windmill

I think I have done very well on the obscurity factor for this block. Here's the original fabric and the section I used.

It's Tinkerbell's wing! Which for some reason is on a pink fabric even though Tink wears green. Incidentally, I thought this block looked quite good before I basted the paper pieces into it.

And secondly, this wreathed spiky blob.

I think I did less well on the obscurity front here. Here's the original uncut fabric for this one.

It's Christmas unicorn heads. I haven't worked out exactly what the connection is between Christmas and unicorns. I don't remember why I bought this fabric. What I was going for in the block was a different shape to the usual options of X, windmill and quatrefoil and I think I succeeded there.

Week 15 was pattern matching. I am still not feeling very confident about this technique. I made two blocks for it.

First up, peek-a-boo!

Peter Rabbit is not the most obvious choice for pink month, but I do think the pink comes through with the way I've cut this. Only the top two pieces on this are fully pattern-matched, although I also matched the pink stripes in the bottom row. I very much enjoyed playing with the triangle shapes in this block.

And secondly, Christmas in April.

Two pairs of pattern matched pieces here. By putting them together like this, I think it makes them look like they are on the same road, travelling in opposite directions.

And finally, week 16 was Freestyle. I made three blocks.

Firstly, more Alice in Wonderland.

'...when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it...'

I did consider another arrangement of the pieces before deciding on that one.

Next up, pink Christmas flowers.

I quite like how this one forms a couple of concentric squares at an angle to the main square shape of the block. I did a couple of experiments with other arrangements of these pieces as well.

And in the final block for this month, a pinwheel of ovals.

I like playing with more abstract patterned fabrics like this in freestyle week, it's a good time for focus cutting with things that don't nicely fit the definition of 'motif'. Again, this was a good one for playing with options before sewing it together.

The top one of these was a very close second.

Because I have such a limited supply of pinks, you can see versions of several of these blocks using the honeycomb template in my quilt Focussed Rainbow from the 2023 #focuscuttingsewalong. In the pink row you can see Tinkerbell's legs, the Christmas flowers, the cute bears, Alice in Wonderland and the cars with Christmas trees.

I'm starting to have a clearer idea of how I am going to turn this year's blocks into a quilt, and I am going to need exactly 10 blocks for each of the 13 months to make the design work. This means I can start sewing some of them together and freeing up some of the paper pieces if I start to run low, which is good. It does also mean I will need to restrain myself when I get onto the colours I am more enthusiastic about - like blue - or I will have to make extra blocks of all the other colours.

Next month is going to be red - Naomi is clearly doing all the warm, fiery colours first. I have a pretty decent selection of reds so that should be a fun month.

Thanks for reading!