Focus cutting sealing 2026 Month 9 roundup

Hello everybody!

Month 9 in the sewalong is already over. It was a deliberately short month, with our host, Naomi, running two short weeks, to make up for the fact that we didn't actually start this on January 1st. So this 'month' was only three weeks long.

The colour theme this time was brown, and I made 5 blocks in total. I struggled with this theme, as I don't love the colour brown and don't have a lot of fabrics to choose from.

Week 33 was identifiable motifs. I made two blocks.

First up, little monster faces!

I haven't cut this out of a larger motif - this really is the full motif on the fabric. They look so happy!

Secondly, acorns.

I picked up this fabric at the Festival of Quilts because I correctly guessed brown was coming up soon as a prompt and I knew I was low on fabrics for it. And these are very brown and autumnal.

Week 34 was obscure sections. I made one block.

Can you tell what it's from? Here's the full fabric.

It's a dinosaur! But which dinosaur? Do you know? Do I know? Does the person who designed the fabric know? Do they in fact know the difference between a lion and a dinosaur? It doesn't matter, it's an obscure section!

Week 35 was pattern matching, but I didn't make any blocks. Instead, I accompanied my husband on a work trip to Berlin. While the trip went well, we got caught up in Air Traffic Control chaos trying to get home. After two cancelled flights and an extra night in a hotel we ended up getting an epic 12-hour train ride home.  I have renewed both my deep appreciation for the Eurostar and my contempt for Ryanair. So instead of a block, you'll have to enjoy this picture of me at the Brandenburg gate, taken by Heather, my husband's boss' wife, when she and I skipped out on some of the official work stuff.

Week 36 was freestyle. I made two blocks.

Photo taken on a train. Unrelated to the epic train journey described above.

First up, squiggly lines.

This is another fabric I bought at the Festival of Quilts ahead of this prompt and working with it, I really liked it. The colour is a rich, red brown - the colour that is the overlap between French marron and English maroon. And the design on it reminded me of Australian aboriginal art, which uses lines and dots in a similar way, as well as rich, earthy colours.

And lastly, robins.

This is a fabric I bought for making Christmas ornaments. I like the effect from the white circle wreaths jutting up against each other.

So that was brown month! Next month is grey. Again, not my favourite colour. However, I have lots of fabric to choose from seeing as I have been acquiring lots of it for my Halloween La Passacaglia Quilt. So expect a distinct spooky theme next month!

Thanks for reading!