Focus cutting sewalong 2026 roundup month 8

Hello everybody!

With the excitement of the Festival of Quilts over, I have been back to my regularly scheduled focus cutting. This past month, the colour has been green, which has been a pretty easy one for me. I made nine blocks in total.

I took this on a patch of grass in my garden that is almost always shaded and has therefore managed to just about stay green over the summer.

Week 29 was identifiable motifs. I made 3 blocks.

First up, house plants.

What could be more emblematic of green, than a leafy plant? I like it when I can create a bit of a shape with the identifiable motifs, I like the fanned X-shape created by the leaves here.

Second, she sells sea shells on the sea shore.

This is an old Tula Pink fabric. The colour is well on the way to being almost more teal/blue than green but the rules here just aren't that precise. And it wouldn't fit on my overflowing blue shelf anyway.

And finally, some frolicking horses.

On closer inspection, these might possibly be unicorns? I did try to find four different ones for each of the squares, but the fabric didn't have that.

Week 30 was obscure sections. I made 2 blocks. And decided to go taking pictures on one of the other few leaves in my garden that is actually still green and not yellow in this drought.

First up, this probably not very obscure shape.

I think the fact the these are little sea turtles is pretty obvious. I do like the windmill effect I've created with their shells though, and this is one of my favourite fabrics anyway.

And secondly, some definite Christmassy vibes here.

I think I did better on the obscurity front here. This is actually the legs of a stag. Here's what the fabric looked like before I cut into it, with the section indicated.

Scottish deer are, of course, naturally tartan-coloured. That's how they make kilts. Ask me more about the definitely true facts I learned selling tartan to tourists in St Andrews as a student.

Week 31 was pattern matching. Just the one block, because pattern matching is hard.

I was initially trying for a 3-piece L-shaped pattern match here with a different piece in the bottom left, but I couldn't quite get that to work out, so it ended up as a full 4-piece pattern match. I love these little green Toy Story aliens, and the fact that their unswerving faith in The Claw is finally vindicated in Toy Story 3. 

Week 32 was freestyle. I made 3 blocks.

Lots of playing with lines this week! First up, these Christmas stripes.

Christmas fabrics are pretty much unavoidable when playing with red or green fabrics. But I felt like doing an X shape with some stripes and this is the fabric that called to me for that.

Next up, some neon green curves.

This is a Tula Pink fabric from here original Zuma line. It's the same line as the shells from the identifiable motifs week. She envisaged the curves as looking like waves in the sea. I think arranging them like this looks more like a flower, or a leaf.

And finally, squares in squares.

I like the design I've created with this. It works like an optical illusion - you can force your brain to see a few different things. See if you can flip between a flat-topped pyramid and a picture of little squares in a deep-set frame, The original fabric for this one looks like this - it's an art deco style design.

So that's the green blocks so far! I've started putting these square blocks for the colours I've already done together into larger rectangular blocks. I've made four so far.

Next month, our colour is brown. I did, in fact correctly anticipate this - after all there are only so many colours out there and we have now finished the rainbow ones. As my brown stash is distinctly lacking, with this being one of my least favourite colours, I picked up a couple of likely looking fabrics at the Festival of Quilts, so hopefully I'll be able to put something together for all of the prompts.

Thanks for reading!