It’s Black and White: no-Colour Inspiration Tuesday and Link Party

black and white parrot color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Have you noticed how an absence of colour can bring out the drama and depth in a picture or design?

And emphasise all the details? I am one of the biggest colour lovers out there, but I also recognise that colour can sometimes be a distraction from the other features of a fantastic design.

Seeing something in black and white really helps to distil the important elements out of a picture, don’t you think? What is it about the subject that makes its form distinctive and recognisable? Where are the contrasts and shadows that give the subject that “wow factor”? How can I use those features in my next quilt design?

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Tired Teddy Quilt Top: Colour Inspiration Tuesday and Link Party

Tired Teddy colour scheme by Clever Chameleon

This Kwiltin’ Koala had a big week and an even bigger weekend!

I know just how she feels! Last week I had the excitement and privilege of submitting my first finished magazine quilt pattern. I can’t wait til it gets to press and I can tell you more. Woo hoo! And then I had a weekend of two Scouting activities with the kids and my brother’s 40th birthday party! So this fuzzy cutey is not the only Australian on the hunt for a comfy place to nap today.

Having said that….. I still managed to finish my log cabin-inspired Tired Teddy Labyrinth quilt top for my Island Batik November Ambassador challenge today. Everytime I spread it out, this flimsy makes me smile. It has been so much fun to put together so far!

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Lily Pad Leap: Colour Inspiration Tuesday and Linky Party

Lilypad leap

I have a pesky quilt squirrel idea stuck in my head!

That’s probably not a big surprise to you, I know. But it is a persistent little vermin of an idea that keeps reoccurring like heartburn and I don’t have time right now to explore it. Instead, I keep allocating it a dodgy neuron in a bad neighbourhood of my brain in the hope that it will get forgotten.  But to no avail.

Do you ever get creative ideas that just won’t go away?

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Cosy Cabins Quilt Design in Progress

November Log Cabin Quilt Challenge

Cosy Cabins. Or should that be Crazy Cabins? There’s Cabin Fever at Clever Chameleon this week and the cat is off his nut.

The monthly exercise for the Island Batik Ambassadors this November is “Cosy Cabins – Log Cabin Challenge. Incorporate a log cabin block or log cabin variations into your project“. I was so, so pleased to see this challenge on the list. The log cabin block and its almost endless variations are right on top of my favourites list. And among the fabrics given to me to work with as an Island Batik Ambassador were these. 

Island Batik London Fog fabric

Beautiful, beautiful blue fabrics, including pre-cut strips, from a recent Island Batik line called “London Fog”. And I thought…. “Finally, I will make a quilt for me! My colours, my favourite block. All mine!”

hahahahahaha. I am a maestra of changing my mind. A symphony of ideas without a conductor. The only way this would have played out that way was if it had been my last idea, not the first……

So. I am not using these fabrics. And I am not making a quilt for me. Not. even. close.

Instead, I am using Paisley Dots 10″ square precuts, also given to me for use as an Island Batik Ambassador. 

Paisley Dots 10" squares from Island Batik

And I am working on a brand new design for a kids’ quilt. At least I would be, if it wasn’t for all the help I’ve been getting…….

Cozy cabins cat and quilt top

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Pick a Pumpkin: Colour Inspiration Tuesday and Link Party

Pumpkin colour scheme by Clever Chameleon

The Pick A Pumpkin blog hop is here!

Carla from Creatin’ in the Sticks has organised you yet another fantastic blog hop. This time around the theme is pumpkins…. big pumpkins, small pumpkins, friendly pumpkins, mean ones….. Ok, so she didn’t really give explicit permission to quilt nasty pumpkins, but she did say any quilt, any size – so long as it has a pumpkin on it somewhere. 

 

Pumpkin Stack color scheme from Clever Chameleon

I really like pumpkins for decorative purposes – so many colours, shapes and textures! Like many Northern Hemisphere seasonal traditions, this is not really a thing we do well in Australia. But I  did develop a greater appreciation of the scope of pumpkins available when we lived in Europe a few autumns past. How to bring some of that art home without breaking any quarantine laws? Quilts, of course!

pumpkin tractor sculpture

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