September 2017 Roundup

September 2017 Roundup at Clever Chameleon

How did September go for you? I hope you had a good month and managed to fit in some quilting, sewing or other favourite creative pursuit.

At the beginning of this month I signed up for the first time to Elm Street Quilters One Monthly Goal. The idea is that if I have a deadline, things happen. And this month, having a deadline has definitely helped. Because with everything else that has been going on there is no way I would have otherwise touched my nominated UFO this month.

So, for my September 2017 OMG, I set myself the tasks of finishing this patchwork quilt top for my daughter, then getting it basted and stabilised.

Jewel Tone Diamonds quilt in progress — Jewel Tone Diamonds quilt at the beginning of September. Follow the link for a tutorial on sewing the Y-seams on this quilt.

I did mention that I would like to get it quilted, but thankfully I didn’t set that as a goal, because it would have had to be chalked up as a miss. I am not rushing this one. And I definitely ran out of time!

Jewel Tone Diamonds finished quilt top — Jewel Tone Diamonds flimsy before layering, basting and quilting

Even with all those bias edges and Y-seams, the quilt top is pretty square! It will block up nicely. I am very pleased. It must be all the starch I used.

Jewel Tone Diamonds, basted

elephant batik

And here is a small portion of the back after I basted and stabilised with stitch in the ditch quilting along the zigzag rows. How adorable is the fabric my daughter chose for the backing? Elephant batik! Cute!

Jewel Tone Diamonds is a large single (twin) bed size quilt. Hopefully it will last my dear daughter well into her teens once the detailed quilting and the binding are done.

I am linking this post up with the OMG September Finish Link-up. This coming month is going to be too insane to add extra unnecessary deadlines, so sadly I will be sitting out the October One Monthly Goal.

What else has happened at Clever Chameleon in September?

We had 3 new Colour Inspiration Tuesdays. On Hoppy Tuesday, we had three colour boards and chatted about frog appliqué quilts. For Strawberry Vines we delved into some free-motion quilting inspiration, and for Hot Chocolate we geared up to join a black, white and colour quilt along (that you also still have time to join – don’t forget to check it out)

Hoppy Tuesday color scheme from Clever Chameleon — Hoppy Tuesday

Strawberry Vines colour scheme from Clever Chameleon — Strawberry Vines

Hot Chocolate colour scheme from Clever Chameleon — Hot Chocolate

We also had a look back at the next set of 12 mood boards from Colour Inspiration Tuesday, so that we can find them easily anytime. The Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collections are now also available directly from the main website menu. 🙂

Color Inspiration Tuesday collection 2 — Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection 2

My daughter and I each had some excitement taking home a ribbon each from the Royal Adelaide Show. Mine for my pirate owl free-motion machine appliqué and my daughter for crochet.

Jaffas and Cream quilt

I also did a lot of quilting (by my standards) this month……. I did two charity quilts. Jaffas and Cream and also Bugs in my Garden. I also had a go at a trapunto design from Geta’s Quilting Studio and made it into a mini quilt.

And finally, I wrote up three posts with instructions on how to quilt some of my favourite free-motion motifs:

There was a discussion (with diagrams) about how to free-motion quilt strawberry leaves, strawberry flowers and strawberry berries on a continuous line of loop-de-loops.

There was a tutorial on how to use baking paper to quilt designs without marking them, with a downloadable flower template to try.

And I also provided a downloadable template on how to quilt all the critters and garden motifs that featured in my post about Bugs in my Garden free-motion quilting.

Bugs in my Garden quilting — flowers and suns

All of these tutorials were a lot of fun. If you missed any posts, be sure to check them out!

See you in October!

September was a very busy month at Clever Chameleon for sure. Especially when you add in the things I have also finished in advance so I can still play in blog land with you while we are working away from home.

I hope you found something of worth at Clever Chameleon in September. If you had a favourite post, I’d love to know.

Wishing you a wonderful October!

P.S. Linky parties I had a blast at this week:
Quilting Room with Mel, Sew Can Do, Quilt Fabrication, Sew Fresh Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Busy Hands Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt.
Click on the links to find lots and lots of quilt and craft projects from the last week or so.

September 26, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Hot Chocolate

Hot Chocolate color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: delicious colour combinations to try on your quilts.

Hello! Happy Colour Inspiration Tuesday! Did you have a chance to try out the Strawberry Vines quilting motifs inspired by last week’s colour board? I haven’t found anymore time to play further with Strawberry Vines as yet. But do you know what goes well with strawberries? Chocolate. Hot Chocolate to be precise. Mmmmm.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Hot Chocolate

The “Hot Chocolate” colour palette is dark red, red-orange, greyed-teal, off white, and warm shades of grey through to almost black. These colours are a really close match for the Jaffas and Cream charity quilt I blogged recently. You can find out a lot more about that quilt here.

Quilt with Hot Chocolate color scheme — The dark brown, red, red-orange, off white, and greyed teal can all be found in the fabric choices of Jaffas and Cream.

What will I do with this colour scheme? You know there is likely something, right? Well, to tell you that story, first I need to tell you this story …..

The colour scheme that nearly never was

Frosty Berries color scheme from Clever Chameleon — Frosty Berries colour palette

I started the Hot Chocolate colour scheme for last week’s colour inspiration slot. But then I realised that it wasn’t very different from the Frosty Berries colour scheme we had two months ago. And that it also bore a fair resemblance to the warmer colour scheme Red-Eye Flight that we explored three months ago.

Red-Eye Flight color scheme from Clever Chameleon — Red-Eye Flight colour scheme

So, I set Hot Chocolate aside and started over with the Strawberries Vines post instead. I had no intention of resurrecting Hot Chocolate this week either, but then something happened. A good something.

I was drifting around the quilting part of the internet, as I do (a lot). And I discovered that Myra at Busy Hands Quilting is starting a fresh quilt along called Splash of Color. And I have taken the bait. Possibly the line and sinker too. The aim of the quilt along in question is to produce a black and white quilt with colour highlights.

Splash of Color Quilt Along

Now, I have to confess, I don’t do quilt alongs. I don’t do crowds. I don’t do other people’s patterns without a really, really good reason. Let’s be real here – I don’t even do my Handi Quilter homework til the due date! I get distracted. I end up with UFOs and inferiority complexes and all the other baggage that social media can trap you with. But I think this quilt along will suit me, and I’m actually pretty excited.

Why? Because:
– it covers a quilt theme that I have wanted to try ever since I borrowed a certain book several years ago from my local library. That book was “Quilting in Black and White” by House of White Birches. (I have actually borrowed it several times). Many of the quilts in this book are black and white with colour highlights, and the effect continues to appeal to me.
– I have a Pinterest board dedicated to black and white quilts (with or without colour highlights) because I have always believed that some day I will get around to making such a quilt. It has over 300 pins on it. That is not a casual relationship!
– I have two black and white fabrics I specifically want to use. My husband bought them for me as a gift from one of his work trips. They are probably not what I would have chosen. But one should never discourage gifts of fabric! 🙂 And now they are exactly what I need. Yeah!

Black and white fabrics from Vanuatu — Black and white/grey scale fabrics from Vanuatu

– And, probably the clincher…. there is no pattern for this quilt along, the only boundaries are the colours and the timing. So I can create, and emotionally invest, and wander around this quilt theme all I like. Awesome!

So, back to my Colour Inspiration Tuesday/quilt along idea…..

I always thought my future one-day black and white with a splash of colour quilt would be black, white and brilliant blue. Or black, white and rainbow. But it is going to be black, white and red.

Because I realise that I must really like this combo. “Hot Chocolate” is the third colour scheme in this general genera, out of less than 30 colour palettes. And I had another photo lined up in my ideas folder that would have resulted in a fourth (don’t worry, I am NOT doing a fourth). So clearly I am attracted to this graphic colour combination.

black, red and white photo of a puffin — This ultra cute puffin was also begging to be a colour board!

There is also a measure of expediency in my choice. I have a great big piece of red fabric, also purchased by my husband, that is the same print as one of the aforementioned black fabrics. It will be perfect for the backing. Easy.

Here are my fabrics. I will probably have to add to them. (Oh, that’s so unfortunate…. hahahaha). My rainbow batik stash is sooooo wrong for this.

Fabrics from Vanuatu — My three fabrics to work with

I am hoping I will be able to find some other fabrics to match when we go to Vanuatu soon, which is where these first three came from. I also am hoping that the finished product will be a lovely souvenir of our family trip. And an encouragement to hubby to keep bringing that fabric home. (Hello dearest – just checking whether you actually read this.) And a couch protector… my black and white quilting friend with a red collar is playing havoc with the furniture :(.

Cat on Bugs in my Garden Quilt — Who me? Guilty as charged, Mr.

I am going to do a black and white background, and for my splash of colour, I am going to appliqué a red turtle on top. There might also be a hint of teal. The turtle will be inspired by the turtles on the fabric. I hope it will be eye-catching, just like the photos for my mood boards.

Turtle fabric from Vanuatu — I intend to design a turtle appliqué in this genera

Want to join the Splash of Color quilt along but terrified by the open-ended nature of the requirements?

Try my Pinterest Board above for over 300 ideas of black and white quilts with colour, or B&W quilts that could easily have colour added to them. Or get your hands on a copy of either Quilting in Black and White by House of White Birches or the quilt along’s theme book: Splash of Color: A Rainbow of Brilliant Black-and-White Quilts by Jackie Kunkel.

Today’s Photo Credit

Finishing up with the formalities….. Today’s stock photos are from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. These photos are gifted freely and without demand for recognition, but I like to thank people who live so generously. So, if you would like to also use the hot chocolate photo, it is provided by Jennifer Pallian via Unsplash. The puffin photo is by Ray Hennessy. Click on the badges below to explore Jennifer’s or Ray’s other photos.
Jennifer Pallian
Ray Hennessy

Red Clever Chameleon logo I hope you will join in the quilt along. And keep an eye on this blog to keep me accountable….. even leave an encouraging message or two. Comments make my day and I do try to respond asap. If you are joining in the quilt along, let me know and I’ll visit your creations too.

Happy Quilting!

P.S. Don’t forget about the Fabric with Art blog hop. It is coming up really soon!

Art with Fabric blog hop @ tweloquilting.blogspot.com

P.P.S. Linking up with Love Laugh Quilt, Freemotion by the River, Crazy Mom Quilts.

September 22, 2017January 19, 2024

Quilting Bugs and Gardens

From the Sewing Room: free-motion Bugs in my Garden quilting motif

Welcome back! Today we are looking at bug and garden free-motion quilt motifs you can use to quilt a relaxed and friendly child’s quilt. You can use these motifs in almost endless combinations to personalise all sorts of projects. It will be fun! 🙂

At our house, we like bugs and slugs, and most things creepy crawly. Not actually in our house…. outside, thanks! However, we do have half a dozen buggy residents who are welcome in our house. (If you hate insects, look away now!! Please don’t unfollow…. I’m not likely to post them again!) Otherwise, if you’re game, meet “the girls”…..

This is one of our Spiny Leaf Insects. They are Australian natives and very low care pets. This old girl is well past her expected life span and is mum or aunty to all our other girls. She is about 15 cm long, stretched out.

Insects and other garden dwellers are a regular feature in family discussions around here. Accordingly, I have quilted bugs on quite a few projects in the last few years. So when I received a colourful bug and flower-themed quilt sandwich to quilt for a charity group, for once I knew exactly what to do with it!

Bugs in my Garden FMQ

I only quilt friendly bugs. Nothing that bites, and no spiders to date. And I always quilt the bugs a place to live. So my go-to “Bugs in my Garden” free-motion set consists of caterpillars, snails, dragonflies, butterflies, leaves, flowers and suns. I have also added hearts to this particular quilt. All the motifs are linked with a simple loop-de-loop. This collection is fast to quilt, and results in a nice amount of quilting that leaves the quilt snuggly soft. It is also fun for children to hunt the motifs on their quilts. After the formal trapunto project with feathers and micro stippling last week, quilting Bugs in my Garden felt like dancing!

Here is the finished quilt. Now it goes off to another charity quilter to be bound.

Bugs in my Garden quit — Simple and cheerful. I wanted it to stay that way after quilting.

More about the Bugs in my Garden FMQ motifs

Here are some close-ups of the quilting:

Here are some even closer views of the critters in my garden:

Bugs in the Garden: Caterpillar — Caterpillar

Bugs in the Garden: dragonfly — Dragonfly

Bugs in my Garden: Butterfly — Butterfly

And some of the garden motifs too:

Bugs in the Garden: Daisy flower — Daisy Flower

Want to try “Bugs in the Garden”?

I’m hoping you like Bugs in my Garden and can think of someone who would like to explore a quilt covered in these fun motifs. If you would like to try them yourself, I have put them all the motifs together in a 4-page pdf you can download for free. You don’t have to follow my blog or sell me your soul. Just promise me you’ll pay it forward a little. 🙂
Download here: Bugs in my Garden motifs

This pdf contains line drawings of the motifs with travelling directions marked so you can see how each motif is constructed.

green clever chameleon logo I hope you have caught the quilting bug!

Sorry! My daughter has been learning about puns at school this week 🙂

P.S. This is my second link up with the Quilt Bloggers Festival at Amy’s Creative Side. Come on over to see a huge number of quilt bloggers in one place!

P.P.S. Also linking up with my favourite linky parties as they open:
Free Motion Mavericks
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Busy Hands Quilts

P.P.P.S. I always always have other stuff I am busting to tell you….. for instance, yesterday I was looking through my Pinterest feed and I found a very cool hexagon ladybird quilt. And, then when I visited the source page, it turns out the post was written for one of Amy’s early Quilt Blogger Festivals in 2010! If you want to see the quilt I stumbled on, visit this archive of Personalized Sketches and Sentiments. I have to say I was a little amazed at the coincidence, being in the process of writing a buggy post for Amy’s festival in 2017 and all! For more amazing and weirdly relevant quilt finds on the internet be sure to follow the clever chameleon where ever she goes…… soon I’ll be posting from Vanuatu!

September 20, 2017January 19, 2024

Dream Big Trapunto Mini Quilt Finished

How do you Hang your Mini Quilts?

Howdy……. Normally I do not post on a Wednesday. But today, I want to show off my finish from last week (I was going to show you in my usual end of week post, but that draft is getting too long already). So I have split my ravings into two doses this week. I hope you don’t mind…..

Anyway, do you remember last week I was madly trying out some trapunto as homework for my local Handi Quilter club? Well, I was. I chose to play with a free design from Geta’s Quilting Studio, that you can access too if you wish. Then I added a heap of FMQ as decoration and practice. And then I ran out of time. But it is now trimmed and bound and hung. Voila!

Dream Big mini quilt stuck directly on the wall

I bound it by machine and it was a bit of a rush job. I probably will refrain from doing that again. But I have just found out we need to head overseas for work for a couple of weeks and I have committed to a fair few too many things between now and then. So, in the belief that finished is better than perfect, it is done. Apart from NOT needing any more UFOs, there are two other reasons why I wanted this finished. The first is, that I wanted to try hanging a quilt with these:

Command hooks — Just so you know, I have no relationship with 3M/Command. I’m just exploring my world and sharing with you as I see fit.

These are adhesive velcro-like strips that clip together and stick to your wall and your picture. I have used 3M brand hooks for a long time, and always have found them to perform very well, so when someone mentioned to me that they use them to hang quilts, I was intrigued. To be honest, also a little bit skeptical. I was not sure that the adhesive strips would hold that well to fabric…. and what of the long term consequences to the quilt? Best to test it out on something not too precious.

Hanging the “Dream Big” mini

So “Dream Big” was always going to be my test piece for this experiment. I added one strip to each corner. In theory, the weight of this quilt probably only needs 1 or 2 strips, but one in each corner will keep it flush to the wall. And I want to pin my show ribbons to it as a display. So over time it should increase in weight! How’s that for optimism!! hahahaha. Please don’t think I am being conceited…… I am currently laughing quite hard….. 🙂 Accumulation of dust is likely the bigger hazard! “Dream Big” is a reminder to myself about sticking with this blog, and believing in my husband’s humanitarian goals, not show quilting.

Anyway, to begin with, the adhesive didn’t seem to bond very well with the Dream Big quilt. But the strips have been on there for four days now, and I have to admit, they are feeling pretty firmly stuck now. I have even become game enough to add two ribbons… the one I got from the local show this year and a second place I won in 2014.

Dream Big with ribbons — Dream Big is now my ribbon display quilt.

Dream big sitting flush — No hanging gap.

I’ll let you know if it comes crashing down. In which case, I will be opting to use hanging corner pockets on my mini quilts instead. But I do like how this hanging method leaves the quilt completely flush against the wall. And the instant gratification of quilt onto wall works for me as well!

Have you ever tried these hooks, or a similar product on a quilt? How do they perform over time?

I am linking this post up with Amy’s Creative Side for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. It’s the first time I have participated in this and I’m quite excited….. this is the upside of being a brand new blogger (and easily amused…)! There are a lot of prizes up for grabs for just participating, so if you blog about your quilts, head on over and join us. Link ups finish the end of this week. Good luck!

If you are a blogger having arrived here from Amy’s quilt festival, welcome and please leave a comment – it would be a pleasure to “meet” you.

purple Clever Chameleon logo How do you hang your mini quilts? I’d love to hear from you. Comments make my day, and I’m always amazed at the plethora of ideas out there when quilters start sharing tips!!

I hope I will catch you again in a day or two with my main post. We are going to be quilting garden motifs. Until then, Happy Quilting!!

P.S I have also shared this post on Finish it Up Friday. Boy, the quilters are out in force this week – lots of great ideas here!

September 19, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Strawberry Vines

Strawberry Vines color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday – Weekly Inspiration and Colour Happiness for your Quilting Mental Fitness!

Hi! Welcome back to Tuesday! Doesn’t it roll around quickly!? Today we are going to exercise the little grey cells and treat them to some beautiful colours along the way.

Mental exercise is good for your mind. Luckily for us, mental exercise can be waaaaay more fun than the physical sort! Keeping your mind active can be as fun as learning a new sewing technique. Resizing a quilt pattern. Or exploring new colour combinations. Anything that takes you out of your mental comfort zone and requires you to do some actual thinking rather than just consuming information or watching TV.

This week I have been stretching my mind by learning new techniques (playing with trapunto), and thinking about what to explore next for Colour Inspiration Tuesday. I finally settled on some strawberry flowers. These flowers remind me of the time when I was a country teen and had a huge patch of strawberry plants that I grew from a few runners my maternal grandmother gave me. I used to water them, mulch them and even feed them with cow dung that I collected and pre-soaked in buckets of water! And the little fruits were ohhhhh soooo sweet. Accessing happy memories is good for your mental health too!

Strawberry Vines colour scheme from Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday – Strawberry Vines

In honour of happy memories and mental exercise, today we have the “Strawberry Vines” colour scheme and an accompanying free-motion quilting motif to try. “Strawberry Vines” is a green, yellow and pale grey-blue colour palette. The blue is so subtle it looks white unless there is real white up against it. Go on, have another look at the photo. The main colour captured on the strawberry flower is not really pure white is it?

Anyway, I decided against designing us another quilt idea this week. The truth is that there are many good ideas floating around in Colour Inspiration Tuesday already. And I would like to have an honest go at some of them. Without the weight of new ideas to cause drag or distraction. But I did want to still give you something…… I am ever so grateful to you my readers and especially to my growing list of regular followers for coming by.

So, this week’s idea for personalising your quilts is….

How to Quilt the strawberry vines motif from Clever Chameleon blog

Looking at the strawberry flower picture and remembering my garden with the hundreds of plants and gently tending the runners until the new plants had roots and planting them too, made me think of quilting strawberries, strawberry leaves and flowers on a continuous line. Strawberry Vines. Wouldn’t this be a lovely finishing touch for a quilt in summer colours or pastel tones? Or on reds, pinks and greens on a girl’s quilt? Do you remember the Strawberry Shortcake character from the 1980’s? A quilt in her colours!

Strawberry Shortcake figurine — Strawberry Shortcake…. 35 years old(ish) and still scented! This little darling now belongs to my daughter.

Strawberry Vines Quilting Motif

So I started doodling on paper and came up with my first go at such a design. Followed by a quick experiment on a fat quarter left over from Jewel Tone Diamonds and some waste cotton batting.

Strawberry Vines quilting motif

The three elements I used were leaf triplet, a small flower with the characteristic star in the centre between the petals, and of course, strawberries. As you can see, I tried the strawberries with and without seeds.

One of the things I like about my new impromptu design is that any gaps that get missed or are too hard to fill in with continuous quilting can be filled in with a curly “strawberry runner”. How good is that?!?

On my next try, I think I will round out the leaves a bit more. I know that strawberry leaves also have zigzagged edges, but that level of detail doesn’t interest me for quilting. The flowers were a bit tricky, I went through several methods to try to quilt them neatly. Here is the path that worked best for me. Start by travelling into the flower centre, and add the petals second:

strawberry flower quilting design — A strawberry flower quilting path. Note, I have added gaps where lines would normally touch or overlay each other, so that you can easily see the pathway.

Don’t worry if you need to place more than 5 petals around the centre to finish the flower. Strawberry flowers can have 5, 6 or 7 petals. It’s the flat shape of the petals with the triangle gaps between them that make them so distinctive.

How to shape strawberries

The other important thing to remember is to round off the tops of your strawberries where they meet the leaves. And don’t make the berries too symmetrical…. otherwise they look like acorns with the wrong caps instead. Or maybe persimmons. At least to me.

Next time I play with this motif I want to add flower buds as well. I have a UFO in colours not unlike “Lily Pad Glow” that might look nice quilted with this motif. What would you use it on?

Don’t need strawberry vines quilting motifs this week?

Bored sleeping cat — “Strawberries! How dull. Wake me up when you are quilting something interesting… like flies! Flies are cool!”

Don’t worry kitty! We are looking at quilting bugs later on this week. Remember the child’s charity quilt with the cute bug fabrics that I stabilised a while back? I have just about finished quilting it now, and I’ll show you how to quilt the various bug motifs I used (no flies though). Stay tuned via email or Bloglovin’ so you don’t forget to come back!

Credits

Today’s photo of strawberry flowers is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. Credit is not required, but I’m sure you’d love to know who is being so generous with their talent. Accordingly, this photo was provided by John-Mark Kuznietsov. Be sure to check out his collection of photos on Unsplash.
John-Mark Kuznietsov

green clever chameleon logo

I hope you have fun trying out this strawberry vines quilting motif. See you next time for more quilting fun!

P.S. If you would like to use John-Mark’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.

The Linky parties I have invited myself to this week:
Monday: Cooking up Quilts,, Love, Laugh, Quilt, Sew Can Do
Tuesday: Quilting Room with Mel, Free Motion by the River
Wednesday: Quilt Fabrication, Sew Fresh Quilts

You are invited too. Come and see what lots of craft-loving people are sharing on the net this week!! Here’s one of my favourites from the parties so far:
Project Sew a Jellyroll by Patchwork Sampler

Month: September 2017