Month: October 2017

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Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Fellow Quilters

gingham and rickrack crazy quilt

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Yesterday I wrote about how I went to the unveiling of an honour roll that included my late Grandpa, and how I found quilt inspiration there. Today I want to tell you about the other half of that trip. Because the town that we visited is also the home of the only relative I have who loves quilting as much as I do. My great aunt Dorothy.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 16

Aunty Dorothy is an inspiring person. She has lived through so much, but has never been anything but kind to me. She was always very good to my mum too. She lives in considerable pain, yet still gardens, quilts, and volunteers in her church and community. Aunty Dorothy is a good deal older than 80, but I don’t think she’d like it if I told you exactly how much older……. when I am elderly, I definitely want to be sparky like her! And still quilting too!

How am I inspired by my Aunty Dorothy?

Aunty Dorothy always has a quilt on the go. She has plenty of quilts lying around her place, but I suspect she has given most of her creations away over the years. Yesterday she showed me the quilt she is working on at the moment.

gingham and rickrack crazy quilt

You’d have to be crazy!

There is a story behind this quilt, just like most quilts. Aunty Dorothy is unashamedly using up her stash before anyone can inherit it. And among her things she recently found a box of gingham that had belonged to her late husband’s grandmother! Inside the box was also a collection of white rickrack and a second box of coloured rickrack. According to my great aunt, her husband’s grandmother had always been one for buying things (including gingham aprons) in multiples, maybe even 6 or more!

gingham and rickrack crazy quilt
Red gingham on the back.

Anyway, Aunty Dorothy decided to cut up the gingham and use it to make crazy patchwork squares. She has then embellished all the seams with the rickrack, and now she is putting it all together, quilt-as-you-go. She just has 3 piano-key borders to go to finish the job. On the back she has used the large number of red gingham aprons from the box. And she has still saved the nicest four or so aprons intact!

This is a lovely girl’s quilt design. Perfect for scraps. The white checks and rickrack keep this quilt feeling light and airy. It’s going to be lovely when it’s done and a very big upgrade on the original aprons and rickrack.

Hand-quilting admiration

After we had admired her quilt in progress and I had showed her one of mine, we had a tour of her other quilts. I had seen them before, but my aunt and cousin had not previously had the detailed commentary. This one is my favourite. Hand-stitched and Hand-quilted bed quilt

It is all hand-stitched and hand-quilted. Aunty Dorothy is super proud that not a single machine stitch went into this quilt. She also says that the colour transitions are a result of the quilt taking so long that she couldn’t buy more of the same fabrics – not once but twice.! I am glad, as the quilt has a lot more character as a result and is a testament to Dorothy’s creativity and colour sense.

Hand-stitched and Hand-quilted bed quilt

Hand-stitched and Hand-quilted bed quilt

Now it’s your turn….. Who has inspired your quilting journey? Do you have relatives or friends who add value and enjoyment to your hobby (addiction?). My Aunty Dorothy isn’t to blame for getting me into quilting, but she is now one of my favourite quilting confidantes.

Or perhaps you have a quilt that is better for having had run out of fabric, forcing some creative re-thinking? Let us know.

I hope you are able to share your stitches with other passionate quilters. If not (or even if you do) you are welcome to share with me.

See you again tomorrow!

P.S. Here’s my week’s pick of the fresh quilting inspiration on the internet: Autumn Lattice Quilt by Laura of Slice of Pi Quilts. It is an amazing creation with an open lattice section between the quilt centre and the border. And Laura  generously shares he process in her blog post as well. Highly recommended!

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Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Poppies

Flanders Poppy colour scheme from Clever Chameleon

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Today I did something a little bit different. I attended the unveiling of a new pair of plaques honouring all the war veterans who came/come from the Karoonda district. Karoonda is a small country town in South Australia where my only surviving great aunt lives. And where my maternal grandfather and grandmother first met and courted many decades ago. 

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 15

After travelling so much for the last two weeks, I was very grateful to share a ride to Karoonda (about an hour and half away) with my aunt, uncle and a cousin. As well as attending the memorial and unveiling ceremony, I was thrilled to visit my great aunt. Aunty Dorothy is the original rabid quilter in my family. As you can imagine, we always have a lot to talk about. I wish she lived closer! 

When my great aunt is not quilting, she is gardening. And today her garden was a mass of spring flowers. Roses, irises and poppies. Lots and lots of beautiful poppies.

How was I inspired by the poppies?

After being away from home for 2 weeks, I have been a little surprised by Spring. It definitely arrived while we were away! And yesterday, Aunty’s garden was in full-bloom.

Poppies in Aunt Dorothy's garden
Poppies and more poppies!
Spring Poppies color scheme from Clever Chameleon
A colour board from Aunt Dorothy’s garden

So it seemed more than appropriate to do a Spring mood board from Aunty Dorothy’s garden.

But more relevant to the theme of today’s visit to Karoonda, it turns out that Aunty Dorothy also has a patch of Flanders Poppies that she grew from seeds gifted to her. Flanders Poppies are the distinctive red and black flowers from France that are now used widely in Anzac and Remembrance Day ceremonies in Australia. There weren’t many open Flanders Poppies to see in her garden, because she had donated them all to today’s ceremony.

Flanders Poppies
Flanders Poppies at the unveiling ceremony, donated from my Great Aunt’s garden.

Here is part of one of the new plaques. My Grandpa’s name is on there (F.A. Longmire, WWII). As is my Great Uncle Geoff’s (WWII) and a great-great uncle’s (WWI). A fourth very distant relative is also named, but the connection with him is many many generations back. I do know where he fits in the family forest thanks to someone else’s hard work, but I won’t bore you with the details.

Karoonda honour roll
Karoonda honour roll

More than just colour inspiration

Between the two new plaques is the main gate to the town’s oval. I was also quilt-inspired by these gates, with their plastic poppy tributes and rosemary attached.

Poppies on gate
Poppy and Rosemary tributes at the unveiling

This geometric design would make a great quilt border, especially adorned with poppy appliqués. It’s not often that I get inspired to make a quilt border without having a clue what the centre of the quilt should be. But that is the case this time!

What would you place in the middle of a quilt with a really strong, geometric border design like this? Do you have memorial traditions that would translate to a meaningful quilt?

Comments make my day and I and would love to know your ideas. Thanks for dropping by today. Hope to see you again tomorrow!

P.S. If you would like to know more about why Flanders Poppies mean so much to Australian Veterans, you can read a short story here. Rosemary is also a significant symbol for Anzac Day.

P.P.S. If you have not been following along with my 31 Days of Everyday Quilt Inspiration series, and would like to, you should start here.

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Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Book and Movie Characters

children's books31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

There is nowhere like home! It’s nice to be back in Australia with my sewing machines and fast internet. And my furry quilting helper! The second half of my Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday series is likely to be be much more everyday than the first half. And in my house, there is nothing more everyday than a children’s book. I read to both my kids before bed most evenings, and have done since they were babies. Like my mother did for me. That is a lot of bedtime stories!

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 14

A significant proportion of the world’s quilts seem to be made for children. Babies on their way, babies just born, sons, daughters, grandchildren, nieces, nephews….. etc etc. And I find that kids love a good size quilt…. for sleeping, emotional comfort, cuddling on the couch, picnics, making cubby houses… wherever their imagination takes them.

characters from children's stories

So today I want to briefly discuss a common source of inspiration I often see used on kids’ quilts. That is, popular characters from children’s books and movies. There are upsides and downsides to using your child’s favourite story characters as quilt inspiration, as we shall see.

Why do people like characters on quilts?

There are at least three good reasons why people consider kids’ story characters for quilt inspiration:

  • The first is that the illustrations in many children’s stories are relatively simple, so they make great shapes for appliqué and paper-pieced designs.
  • Secondly, if your child loves a particular book character (or TV/movie character), they are going to love the quilt. So you get to simplify your process, and impress the little person in your life in one go!
  • And thirdly, there are often licensed prints or panels that you can pair with your creations to make the quilt bigger or to use as the perfect backing.

Why shouldn’t I make character quilts?

Despite these attractions, I recommend caution if you are considering making character-based quilts. There is one massive reason to be very careful. And that is, unlicensed fandom quilts featuring copyrightable characters are a form of copyright infringement. 

That said, fan art is usually tolerated as benign unless you are prolific and/or profiting from your creations. Fan art is even encouraged by some copyright holders to increase the public interest in their original works. But not everyone feels this way. So, if you must make a quilt featuring a character or story, get permission if possible. Only make character quilts as one-off love gifts for children in your immediate circle. Keep the process private….. it is unwise to share your patterns with the intention of strangers making it too, or to sell your adorable creation on Etsy. Please note, none of this constitutes legal advice, just common sense. Any fan art you create is at your own risk. You can also read an interesting article about the tensions between fan art and copyright here.

How can I be inspired then?

A more ethical way to use children’s stories to inspire a quilt is to use general ideas to create your own works. There is no hazard in making a caterpillar quilt with nibbled food-stuffs. As long as it isn’t The Hungry Caterpillar. Likewise, you can safely make a pattern for a quilt with a puppy doing something fun on it – as long as that puppy is not Kipper or Spot… or a myriad of other distinctive fun-loving puppies.

But I acknowledge this isn’t really possible for all characters. My son would love a Pokémon quilt – only actual Pokémon need apply. And I have long thought that the Mr. Men would make great appliqués. “Mr Generic Persons” isn’t really going to cut it. But if I do ever make either of these quilts, you won’t find them here. That’ll be between me and my small friends!

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Blog Hop Day – Fabric Art Galore!!

Remember to thank the Cleaner (Shrimp) by Dione Gardner-StephenFabric Art and the Art of being Grateful

G’day! Today is the last day of the 2017 Fall Art with Fabric blog hop, hosted by Alida at Tweety Loves Quilting. I hope you are here because you have been following along all week. But if not, the good news is that you have a lot of fun art quilt exploring to catch up on. Either way, I am so excited that you are here! 

Art with Fabric blog hop @ tweloquilting.blogspot.com

The parameters for the Art with Fabric blog hop are pretty broad….  posts all feature an original art work done in fabric, inspired by a “more conventional” form of artwork (for example a painting, sculpture, etc). The blog hop also has a secondary theme.  All works are to celebrate Mother Earth in some way. When I heard about this blog hop, I knew immediately which artist I wanted to use as my inspiration. Thanks for including me Alida!

Inspired by the work of Kim Toft

As my muse, I chose an Australian artist whom I have long admired. Her name is Kim Michelle Toft, and she is a silk painter who illustrates books. She resides in Brisbane and is an active advocate for environmental protection, especially of the Great Barrier Reef and the world’s oceans. 

I first discovered Kim’s work when I rescued one of her books from a local library’s excess book disposal sale. I bought it “for my children” but it was the bright flowing pictures that attracted me, and the book has spent most of its time since on my resource/inspiration shelf in my sewing room. 🙂 Her art appeals to me in a similar way to my love for batik fabrics.

Kim Toft Reff Superstar book
My slightly worn copy of Reef Superstar by Lesley Killingbeck and Kim Toft.

The book is called “Reef Superstar” and is about a talent show amongst the creatures found on a coral reef. It is written by Lesley Killingbeck, illustrated by Kim Toft and published by Brolly Books (2005). The text is cute (even though a few rhymes are slightly forced), but the illustrations are superb. It is out of print.

Kim Toft illustrations
A fraction of one double page of Reef Superstar. Every single page is a riot of colour and activity like this one. 

You can find Kim Toft’s website here. She has published lots of books since this story, all with excellent illustrations. Please note, several attempts to get into contact with Kim about this blog hop have been unsuccessful, so this post in no way represents her opinions or endorsement. But I hope this will not stop you popping over to her website to have a look. She is very talented.

The background to my Fabric Art piece

In 2015, our family did a 3-month road trip around Eastern Australia. Thousands and thousands of km in the car with two small children and a camper caravan. It could have been awful. But we loved it. One of the many highlights was the ReefHQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium in Townsville. Here I fell in love with the Pacific Cleaner Shrimp. Amazing, shy little guys that help keep reefs healthy.

Cleaner Shrimp
Pacific Cleaner Shrimp in a tank at the ReefHQ in Townsville 2015

Ever since then, I have wanted to have a go at depicting these creatures on a piece of fabric art. They are bright red on top, with white “speed stripes” and are just fascinating. Pacific Cleaner Shrimp eat refuse and clean up the reef, keeping it clean. They also remove parasites from client reef fish, such as parrotfish. 

Parrotfish meets Pacific Cleaner Shrimp

So without further ado, I give you my fabric art piece. It is called “Remember to thank the Cleaner (Shrimp)”.

Remember to thank the cleaner (shrimp) fabric art by Dione Gardner-Stephen

On one level my art piece is a celebration of the colours and life on a coral reef…. and hence the link to the Mother Earth theme and Kim Toft. But it is also a statement piece about being grateful for the people in your life who do the less glamorous jobs that you couldn’t live without. The hospital orderlies, the garbage collectors, street sweepers, office cleaners and other “sanitation engineers”. The reality is that these people are indispensable to healthy communities, but are too often taken for granted.

The Details

The Pacific Cleaner Shrimp is thread painted over appliqué and has a little black bead to give him a goggly eye. He is oversized, because for today at least he is being recognised for his importance.

Pacific Cleaner Shrimp, thread painted by Dione Gardner-Stephen
Pacific Cleaner Shrimp, thread painted, detail

The background is improvised patchwork  and appliqué using batik and solid snippets from my scrap bins and is lightly quilted.

Remember to thank the cleaner (shrimp), detail. By Dione Gardner-Stephen
Remember to thank the Cleaner (Shrimp), background.

Over the background I have appliquéd coral and anemones inspired in the style of Kim Toft. The reef creatures are more sparse than in the illustrations of “Reef Superstar”, because the reef we snorkelled at the Great Barrier Reef was disjointed, with large stretches of sand and rock between coral growths. So this reflects more my personal experience.

Remember to thank the cleaner (shrimp), detail. By Dione Gardner-Stephen
Kin Toft-inspired reef creatures.

I drew the reef creatures onto batik fabrics with black permanent fabric pen and added extra colour with wax crayons. The glitter on the pink coral was already embedded in the wax of the crayon, and on ironing, became very firmly stuck to the fabric. This was more a lucky discovery than a ensured outcome. Sometimes it pays to experiment! I then cut the shapes out and attached them to the collage with quilting.

The parrotfish  is purposely partly obscured because he is not the star of this piece. The parrotfish is derived from Kim Toft’s book illustrations, although we did see (and hear) parrotfish while we were snorkelling. (Parrotfish scrape the reef with their beaks for food, and it’s quite audible!) To create this fish I combined wax crayon colouring with dense thread painting.

Remember to thank the cleaner (shrimp), detail. By Dione Gardner-Stephen
Parrotfish detail

Fabric art, not a quilt

To finish the piece I stretched it over a painting canvas. I display in my dining room it on this art stand.

Remember to thank the Cleaner (Shrimp), detail. By Dione Gardner-Stephen
Remember to thank the Cleaner (Shrimp) on display in my home.

red clever chameleon logoI hope you have enjoyed my fabric art, and will visit the other contributors to this blog hop.  You can find the schedule and direct links for all the blog posts at the bottom of this post. 

I like using wax crayons on fabric. They are so vivid and easy to use. Have you used them to decorate a piece of fabric art? If so, what did you make? – I’d love to know. Or would you like a tutorial on how I get this result from wax crayons on fabric? Happy to schedule one if people are interested. 

Fabric with Art Blog Hop – say hello to the other fabric art bloggers on the hop list:

Monday, October 9th, 2017
Tuesday, October 10th, 2017 
Wednesday, October 11th, 2017 
Thursday, October 12th, 2017 
Friday, October 13th, 2017 
 
P.S. Today’s post also doubles as part of my 31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday series. Day 13 to be precise. By the time this publishes, I will be on the first of several airplanes home, so I hope you will agree that is fair!
Anyway, two good sources of inspiration you can use for your own quilt designs are represented here: picture books and animals in your local aquarium/zoo/wildlife park. You can certainly learn a lot about capturing the essence of your quilt subject by studying illustrations in picture books. 
 
I hope you enjoy(ed) the Art with Fabric Blog hop!
 
Linking up with Free Motion Mavericks
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Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Pineapples and Other Art

Pineapple Farm color scheme by Clever Chameleon31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

It doesn’t matter where I go, or how far from my sewing machine I am, there always seems to be a little voice that follows me around saying “Look at that…. you could put that on a quilt……” Of course, that little voice is actually startlingly loud at the moment. Since I am documenting one such instance everyday for this series, I have entered a kind-of hyper-vigilant quilt-inspiration-observation state! But, while noticing quilt patterns in the everyday is not unusual for me, recording them is. Usually the ideas come and then they depart, with no real effort to record them for when I might want them later.

pineapple stencils on wall
Pineapples stencilled on the kitchen wall in our Vanuatu accommodation

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 12

One good thing about travelling is that you get exposed to a lot of new art. Even if you don’t visit art galleries and museums. There are new sculptures in public spaces to notice. There are artworks on the walls of cafés. Murals on buildings. Tiles in the public restrooms…. oh yes, I spend much more time than I would care to admit contemplating the merit of floor tile designs while I am attending to business. 

green floor tiles
Floor tiles in a local  Indian restaurant

So for my last ad lib post from Vanuatu, I am going to tackle the idea of finding inspiration in the artworks displayed around me. I have chosen three ideas from my recent unintentional brushes with art.

How am I inspired by the art around me?

Firstly, the pineapples…..

stencilled pineapples

I have a thing about pineapples. I am certain that there is a pineapple-inspired quilt in my future. This is mostly because there is a story from my family history that revolves around pineapples – not because I have some sort of bizarre fetish for pineapples. (You can read about the pineapple story here.)  Actually, I don’t even particularly like pineapple, except on pizza.

I think my pineapple quilt will be an abstract representation related to my family’s pineapple story. But the pineapple art stencilled on my kitchen wall is reminding me that it also wouldn’t be that difficult to appliqué a pineapple on a quilt. 🙂 And it just so happens that the village we worked in today has a large pineapple patch in their garden…..hence the pineapple colour board. It is actually possible the pineapples are stalking me….

Secondly, the floor tiles…..

green floor tiles

I spotted these tiles at an Indian restaurant here in Port Vila the other evening. I was very taken by the continuous design evident on these tiles when they are laid edge-to-edge. Wouldn’t it be fun to do something like this with a repeated quilt block? For no real reason except that we can?

Carved tree fern sculptureAnd thirdly, a carved sculpture…… 

I haven’t ever considered incorporating ideas from sculptures into a quilt before. There have been some lovely wood carvings here in Vanuatu, as well as carved tree fern trunks. I could definitely free-motion quilt a representation of this guy. Maybe this would be a good idea for quilting my black, white and red Vanuatu quilt.

It suddenly occurred to me to look for quilt designs in sculptures thanks to Yanicka and her contribution to the current Art with Fabric blog hop. I love all the entries in the blog hop so far, but Yanicka got me thinking with a quilt called “Our Fragile Vessel” which was inspired by a spherical sculpture by Donna Marcus. 

green clever chameleon logo

Speaking of the Art with Fabric blog hop…. tomorrow is finally my turn to show you my art-inspired quilted contribution! I have been waiting to publish this post for ages! It is doubling as my Everyday Quilt Inspiration series slot for tomorrow, so I hope you will come back to find out what I did. And I hope you will visit the blog hop and enjoy all the other art-inspired quilts as well.

See you tomorrow!

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