Month: June 2017

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Quilting Tailwind Tribe Launch – Hooray!!

Invitation to the Patchwork and Quilting Tailwind TribeA Tailwind Tribe just for Quilters and Quilt Bloggers.

If you are guilty of being quilty, I hope you are going to love this new quilting Tailwind Tribe!

Today I am embarking on a new side-project – sort of a little brother for the Clever Chameleon blog! I love helping other quilters find resources and inspiration for their quilt story. I have plans to slowly grow Clever Chameleon into a rocking quilting resource that will point you to all sorts of quality quilters and their blogs and knowledge. This will take time. But I have taken one more step in this direction today…..

I have launched a Quilting Tailwind Tribe for Pinterest. If you know all about Tailwind Tribes and want to join one specifically for quilters right now, here’s the invitation link: Patchwork and Quilting Tailwind Tribe.

If you want to find out the what, why and how first, read on!

Clever Chameleon on Pinterest

I love Pinterest….. I can look for, store and easily find again, articles that point me to quilt inspiration, quilt patterns, quilt book recommendations, tutorials, videos….. all sorts of quilting treasures! And I also love browsing the quilts that other people are making and showing. The variety and the talent out there is breathtaking. So a little while ago, I reorganised and rebranded my Pinterest account to match my fledgling blog’s aspirations…. Clever Chameleon on Pinterest is slowly becoming a large resource of links and inspiration for quilts of bold colours, fun designs, fascinating textures and innovative embellishments.Clever Chameleon on Pinterest

Helping get the Quilting word out……

In my recent blogging adventures I have been looking at methods of gaining blog exposure.. There is not much point in making a fantastic resource just for me, is there?….. Anyway, I have come across the concept of Tailwind Tribes. Of all the resources out there, I am liking this one because it is free (currently at least) and it encourages community and participation. It is also completely compatible with my goals of helping you guys discover resources to help you Quilt Your Own Story.

For those of you not in the know, Tailwind is one of several automated pinning services for Pinterest. Tailwind Tribes are collections of like-minded pinners who agree to share each other’s pins in order to get more pin exposure for everyone involved. It is a fairly young service, and seems to be a huge success. (It is currently a little slow to load due to its unforeseen popularity), 

My Experience so far with Tailwind Tribes

heart appliqué motif
Spread the love….

I have so far tried out two Tailwind Tribes. I have already removed myself from one of these because it was too general in topic and I couldn’t find any pins offered that fit my Pinterest boards. The second tribe is generally craft-related and is great. However, it is still very broad in topic and I am finding that I am spending too much time looking for pins to share that relate well enough to my Pinterest board. I can only usefully pin one in every few hundred pins. This means pinning takes longer than I really want to spend. And since I have been unable to find a tribe more specific to my needs, I have decided to create one.

On that note…. Tailwind Tribes are not always easy to discover…. you have to find their invitational gateway link. I can’t find any tribes that are primarily for quilting and patchwork.  If anyone knows differently please let me know!

In the meantime, I have started a quilting Tailwind Tribe. I have called it (most imaginatively(!)) “Patchwork and Quilting”. If you are into quilts or closely related crafts/techniques and would like to join, you are welcome and invited!

A Preview of the Small Print for the Patchwork and Quilting Tailwind Tribe

One thing I have found with Tailwind Tribes is that the rules of each tribe are a mystery until after you sign up. This is not a really big problem, as you can remove yourself from a tribe if you wish. However, it did make me slightly uncomfortable before I made the plunge to join. So, assuming that some of you guys like to know what is going on before you commit to things, I am going to let you know the current tribe rules before you get there.

The Patchwork and Quilting Tailwind Tribe rules are:

1. Quilting, patchwork and closely-related posts ONLY please. All quilts welcome – bed quilts, wall quilts, lap quilts etc. Pieced/quilted/appliquéd pillows/cushions, bags, pincushions, quilted clothing, table runners/mug rugs are also encouraged. Tutorials and quilt theory, patterns, books, embellishment techniques, quilting tips/motifs, fabric dying and painting, fabric manipulation, thread painting and embroidery are welcome if they are quilt related. Quilt eye-candy wanted!!

2. Vertical pins with quality descriptions please.

3. Only pin content you own the rights to share. It should go without saying that if it is not family friendly it doesn’t belong here, but I will say it anyway.

4. For each pin that you add, you MUST schedule someone else’s pin (more if you wish). If you do not play nicely you will be removed.

If this all sounds reasonable to you, use this link to be invited to join the Patchwork and Quilting Tailwind Tribe.

Disclaimer

As things stand at the moment, if you are new to Tailwind and you join the Patchwork and Quilting Tailwind Tribe you and I will both be offered a $15 discount (one free-month) on any commercial Tailwind services you may like to  try. I am not currently a Tailwind customer and my opinions of Tailwind and Tailwind Tribes are purely my own. What I do want though is lots of easy to pin, awesome quilt pins. Sound good?

Update August 2017:

I have written another post on how useful I am finding Tailwind Tribes for my blog, and the progress of the Patchwork and Quilting Tribe. It covers a few questions I know some people have using Tailwind Tribes. Hope it helps!

Clever Chameleon logo greenHoping to meet you inside the Patchwork and Quilting Tailwind Tribe!

Quilt Your Own Story!

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Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Autumn Splendour

Autumn Splendour color scheme from Clever ChameleonColour Inspiration Tuesday: a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts.

Welcome back to Colour Inspiration Tuesday. Here in Adelaide we are now officially into winter. But summer lingered this year and there are still some wonderful displays of autumn leaves to be seen. Autumn (or Fall) is especially beautiful in the hills surrounding our city. So, I thought that before all the autumn leaves disappear altogether, I had better pay tribute to the beauty around me. Therefore, today’s palette is “Autumn Splendour”.

The photo I have chosen this week for inspiration, has of course, autumn leaves. But in truth it is as much the autumn colours of the background that really captured my imagination.

Autumn splendour colour palette from Colour Inspiration Tuesday

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Autumn Splendour

The “Autumn Splendour” colour palette is burnt red, orange, coral, dark olive green, light olive green, saddle brown and olive brown.

I can imagine this colour palette being used in a paper pieced maple leaf quilt or a quilt covered in appliqué leaves. Or in blocks made of 2.5″ strips set on the diagonal. It would make a lovely lap quilt in any number of patterns or a wonderful re-interpretation of harvest colours for an original table runner. I’m sure your imagination could run riot with ideas for this colour scheme!

Not ready for Autumn yet? Thinking about Spring instead?

Lily pad glow colour scheme from clever chameleon

Find a little bit of Spring in the Colour Inspiration Tuesday archives with “Lily Pad Glow“. Softer pinks and greens evoke the feeling of growth and gentle warmth that epitomises the best of Spring.

Credit

Today’s photo of autumn splendour is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. I love to give credit where credit is due, and am always grateful to people who contribute to open source communities. So I would like you to know that this lovely photo was provided by Aaron Burden via Unsplash. Be sure to check out his collection of photos on Unsplash.

Aaron Burden

Olive green Clever Chameleon LogoFor colour inspiration for your quilts in your inbox weekly follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or follow Clever Chameleon Quilt Colour Inspiration on Pinterest and pin your favourite colour palettes to try later. 

P.S. If you would like to use Aaron’s photo or another Colour Inspiration Tuesday photo for your own projects, you can easily find all the Unsplash photos from Colour Inspiration Tuesday in one place for free in my Colour Inspiration Collection.

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From the Sewing Room – The Daisy Motif

Daisy motif for quilting

Learn how to quilt this informal daisy motif onto large, pieced quilt squares.

Remember how I said I was going to start doing some charity quilting to increase my quilting practice without using up my entire quilting budget? Today I plucked up the courage to start on my first charity quilt. There is a part of me that was a bit concerned that the owners of the quilt top may not be enthralled by whatever I did. I am not a professional quilter, after all. They have already invested their time and money into this quilt – what if I did bad things to it?! But that attitude will not get quilts into the hand of recipients or practice into my quilting muscles, so I took a few deep breaths and this is what happened….

Choosing a quilting motif

I quickly discovered one interesting thing. Apparently I think a lot about quilting a quilt while I am piecing it. It was quite a new experience to decide how to quilt a piece without weeks of prior musing. I can’t say I was prepared for how different it felt to be handling a quilt I was not intimately familiar with. Has anyone else experienced this?! 

Coffee and TimTams charity quiit all pinned
The beautiful quilt I received to quilt. It arrived thoroughly pin basted and ready to go.

The quilt I have been entrusted with has chocolate brown pieced squares with cream coloured sashing. I like to think of it as Coffee and TimTams (an Australian chocolate biscuit). My daughter argues that it is actually Maltesers and Milo (more Australiana). But anyway, at first glance I assumed it was a man’s quilt and instantly thought to quilt a strong geometric design on it. But on closer inspection I discovered that the fabric prints were predominately floral. So I decided that this little beauty needed something feminine in  the way of quilting to bring out it’s gentle side.

While I got my head around this thought, I stabilised the quilt by stitching in the ditch in every sashing seam (ie every seam except those inside the brown boxes).

Stabilised quilt
Coffee and TimTams is a 5×5 grid of squares measuring around 6″. The quilt is 47″ square

Working up the Daisy Motif

The process of stabilising the quilt thankfully helped me feel more connected to the quit and able to decide how to proceed. One of my priorities was to leave the quilt feeling soft and comforting. Eventually I decided that I wanted to fill the the boxes with a simple flower motif. Before I attempted this though, I did two things. Firstly, I mocked up a digital example on Inkscape software to see what it might look like.

Digital trial of daisy motif
I started with photos of two representative blocks. Then I drew a basic circle and petal design. Finally I decided to fill in the centre spiral and place a line in the centre of each petal.

Secondly, once I was happy with this design, I got out a good old fashioned pen and paper to see how I could quilt the daisy motif as a continuous design.

First attempts at daisy motif
First: I tried drawing the petals and then filling in the centre in one pass. As you can see, it wasn’t a huge success. The petals aren’t nicely formed and the centres are jagged.
Second attempt at daisy motif
Next: I tried drawing the spiral centres first, then the petal outlines and then going back to fill in the petal centre lines. This is better, but the double outline is busy, and escaping the block looks messy.
Third attempt at daisy motif
This time I did the same as my second attempt, but just traced the original centre circle when I returned to add lines to the petals. Much simpler and tidier.

If you would like to learn this design by first tracing it, you can download a free pdf of the daisy motif here: Daisy motif free printable.

Quilting the Daisy Motif

To get the daisy motif to show up better against the mildly busy fabrics of this quilt I opted for a rayon (40wt) thread in antique white for the top thread. In the bobbin I had 80wt cotton/poly thread.

Step One: use chalk to mark thirds on the centre fabric of the block. Quilt the stem of the daisy and the centre circle. Fill in the spiral now, if you want one.
Step Two: Quilt the petals clockwise out to the edge of the block. Stop each petal just short of block edges and the centre circle – this looks neater than accidentally crossing the lines.
Step Three: Once all the petals are outlined, fill in the centre line of each petal by travelling anti-clockwise around the centre circle.
Step Four: If you have forgotten to do the spiral, you have another opportunity to fill it in now. Otherwise, exit the block by completing the other side of the stem.
Finished daisy motif
The finished daisy quilting motif

A Bonus Variation of the Daisy Motif

In every second block, I didn’t add the centre spiral – so I have some open and some filled flowers. Truth be told, this is largely because I forgot to quilt the spiral into one of the flowers early on. Then I decided I liked the variation…. so now it’s a feature! Hahahahaha!

quilting spiral quilting In the sashing I did a simple leaf vine with the same thread combo. It is very nearly invisible but it gives a good overall texture. I left the star fabric squares un-quilted and filled the outer border with quick perpendicular lines. And finally, I put spirals in the four corners to echo the flower centres.

So, that’s it. Quilting completed, and quilt ready to hand to the next volunteer willing to do the binding!

Here is the finished product!

Finished daisy motif quilt

Further Reading

If you want to further explore the topic of how to choose a free-motion motif for your quilt, you can read a very thorough discussion on this at Amy’s Free-Motion Quilting Adventures.

If you want to know why I think you should consider quilting for charity, you can find out in my previous discussion here.

Perhaps you like the colours in this quilt and want to make something with the same colour palette? Here is a colour inspiration bonus for you, even though it is not Tuesday.

Cookies and Cream color scheme from Clever Chameleon
Let’s call this colour palette Cookies and Cream.

Clever Chameleon logo brownI hope you enjoy quilting this daisy motif. Until next time – keep Quilting Your Own Story!

 

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Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Knot Dramatic

Knot Dramatic color scheme by Clever ChameleonColour Inspiration Tuesday: a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts.

Another Tuesday, another healthy dose of colour inspiration for your quilts! Today we have a really strong colour palette, called “Knot Dramatic”. Inspired by a crisp photo of a coiled rope with beautiful lighting and textures. It is another blue and brown colour scheme, but in cool rather than warm tones like the lovely “Blue Fox” scheme we had a few weeks ago.

Knot Dramatic colour scheme

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Knot Dramatic

The “Knot Dramatic” colour palette is dark slate grey, gingerbread, coffee, light powder blue, stone blue and aegean blue. It is quite masculine, but would also look wonderful against neutral decor in a living area, or as a throw rug on my dark blue couch.

I think this combination would work best by concentrating on the mid and light tones, using the dark colours more sparingly. There is definitely a risk that too much of the slate grey could dampen the mood of a quilt in the Knot Dramatic colour scheme, but a little would really lift the vibrancy of the rest of the collection. Play with it until you find Your perfect combination!

Purple tulip colour schemeDon’t need a masculine/neutral colour palette today?

There are much softer, warmer palettes to chose from in the Colour Inspiration Tuesday archives. Perhaps you’d prefer “Purple Tulip” in pinks, purples and greens or the gentle pastel confectionery colours of “Lily Pad Glow“.Lily pad glow colour scheme from clever chameleon

Today’s Photo Credit

Today’s stock photo is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. While there is no obligation for me to tell you where I got this photo, I love to give credit where credit is due. So; this lovely photo was provided by Robert Zunikoff via Unsplash. Robert Zunikoff

Clever Chameleon Logo blue

For colour inspiration in your inbox weekly follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or follow Clever Chameleon Quilt Colour Inspiration on Pinterest and pin your favourite colour palettes to try later. 

P.S. If you would like to use Robert’s photo for your own projects, you can find all the Unsplash photos from Colour Inspiration Tuesday in one place for free in my Colour Inspiration Collection.

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Do more quilting practice; without going crazy (or broke)!

Do more quilting practice cover image

There are three strategies I use to “trick” myself into getting more quilting practice.

I have recently bought myself a new machine, and I really need to become friends with it fairly rapidly. But, as I mentioned in my last post about quilting, I am hopeless at practising my quilting, especially when that quilting practice is purely for the sake of practice. Don’t get me wrong, I think quilting practice is a brilliant idea, and I highly recommend it. It is just that I never actually get around to doing it.

So, I pondered recently: “Why this is?” And I have decided:

  1. unfinished quilts abound
    Unfinished quilts abound at my place. I love all of these projects, but they remain unfinished for various reasons.

    Like most of you, I am busy. Non-urgent, non-critical activities tend to fall by the wayside. including in the sewing room. My quilts are quilted to deadlines, such as birthdays. Quilts without deadlines often end up as UFOs. Pure practice falls into an even lower priority category than UFOs! Deadlines are key!

  2. Fabric is expensive in Australia, even the rubbish quality stuff. Occasionally I actually do go into my sewing room with the intention of practising. But then I balk at making a AU$10+ (US$7) fat-quarter practice quilt sandwich from my pretties. (This is a cheap estimate of the value of a fat quarter-sized quilt sandwich at retail prices here). And as often as not, I just walk out again. Essentially, I resent the monetary cost of practice.
  3. I am a goal and progress-driven person, and I am not actually very good with exercises that don’t have a concrete end point. I get “quilter’s block” when faced with a blank quilt sandwich. And I have very little patience for tasks that have no greater purpose than practice. I hope some of you can identify with this! I suspect I am not alone, and I think this reason is really the main reason why I do not practise quilting very often.

So then I wondered: “What can I do to fix this? How can I get more quilting practice without the mental torture and budget blowout?”

Well, I have decided that to cause more quilting practice to happen, I have to play to my personality strengths and my situation. And these are: I thrive on goals. I love to help other people out. I have little desire to keep the crafted objects I make, as the creative journey and the gifting have always been my strongest motivators. And finally, I have to keep costs down (don’t we all?!). So there are three things I am now deliberately doing to incorporate more quilting practice into my life.

The solutions

To get more quilting practice into my life without causing a blowout in available time and harming my quilting budget I have:

  1. Found a quilting group to be accountable to.
  2. Combined my quilting budget with my gifting budget when this makes sense.
  3. Signed up to help a local charity quilting group.

    Finding a quilting group to be accountable to

    I have started meeting regularly with other quilters who have a formal show-and-tell regime, and an optional homework schedule. This gives me both the deadlines I need and a broad goal. My need for a purpose is satisfied without adding too much stress, because I can choose not to participate in any particular exercise. Here’s one small project already completed from this new motivation: the Dandelion Wishes appliqué.

If you can’t access a similar local quilting group, you can get the same outcome by committing to a quilt-along online and staying on schedule. Here’s a free project by Lori Kennedy, where you are encouraged to practice multiple quilting motifs.

Leah Day also has quilt-alongs that cover lots of quilting skills, although hers will cost you monthly for the pattern. I am sure you can find a quilt-along to suit your needs with a fairly simple internet search. 

Combining my gift and quilting budgets for more spending power

I have started thinking more strategically about combining my quilting practice with gifting. Some people like to turn their practice sandwiches into gifts.…. such as quilt-as-you-go lap quilts, small bags, purses, placemats, heat pads etc. Well, instead, I am now turning my gifts into practice sandwiches. This means that I start with the person and the gift in mind. Then I work out how to incorporate the quilting practice I want/need to do into the construction of that gift.

Project for a friend designed in part for feather quilting practiceFor instance, this last month when I needed to practice my feathers, I sat down and designed a cushion (throw pillow) that my friend with an imminent birthday would really love. Then I worked out how to quilt it with feathers. The feathers happened because her birthday was the deadline. There was no blank quilt sandwich to spook me, there was a very good purpose for the exercise, and no “wasted” fabric. Perfect!

Charity quilting benefits you and others

Pin-basted quilt ready for stabilisationI have just signed up to help a local quilt charity quilt their quilts. This means that someone else makes a quilt top and pays for the fabric and batting to make the quilt. When I receive it, it is already basted and my job is to quilt it. So I will hopefully get a great deal of quilting experience for the price of the thread and my time. There is a loose deadline, and a very good purpose. And as an extra bonus I get experience trying to decide on quilting patterns for quilts that are outside my usual style. If you are looking to strengthen your quilting skills I strongly recommend finding a quilting charity group to donate some time to. You,  the charity group and the quilt recipients will all win!

I have just received my first basted charity quilts, and I will keep you posted on that quilting journey – update: read about the start of that journey here.

I hope you have found more motivation to practice your quilting. You at least have three less excuses for not practising your quilting now!

So – go quilt something!….. after you have shared with us what keeps You motivated to practice your quilting and adding to your quilt story. 

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