A stack o’ Christmas Ideas: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Merry Christmas colour board at Clever Chameleon

Done, done and done! Lots of small finishes in this Round-Up of a Tuesday

I have been knocking off lots of little half-done sewing projects lately. A clearing of the queue, both physically and mentally.

Most of these finishes haven’t made it to the blog, although if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen some flash past you in your feed. So now it’s time to clear the decks. I get a stack of things of my chest, outta my head and into my journal-blog record. You get a post full of small projects that you can use as quick Christmas makes and gift ideas. Months before the situation becomes critical! Merry Christmas, you’re welcome. 😀

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Graphic Gems: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Graphic Gems color scheme at Clever Chameleon

I’ve got a new box full of gems! Bright fabric graphic gems!

Do you like these colours? I hope you like these colours, because I love these colours. These are the colours of one of Island Batik’s freshest fabric lines, Graphic Gems – a collection I will happily be working with in the coming months. What’s more, it’s just a taste of what I found in my most recent Island Batik Ambassador delivery.

Island Batik Ambassador shipment

All the Island Batik Ambassadors have been in a frenzy the last week or so, as new supplies have travelled the globe and landed on doorsteps. Even though I am in Australia, somehow I was one of the first to receive my box this time (!!). Which is awesome because it means the contents were still a surprise when I opened them. That’s a first, out of four Ambassador boxes. 😀 I love, love happy surprises.

What was in my second Ambassador box for the year? Let’s have a look! Pssst…. I made a video…. my first “talkie” ever. I was terrified, but in the end it was actually quite a bit of fun. Come see.

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Always Choose Tropical: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Always Choose Tropical colour scheme by Clever Chameleon

Always Choose Tropical

I am slowly working through a huge backlog of blog-relevant news and quilty happenings! I can’t believe July has been such a huge month, it certainly wasn’t forecast that way. Or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention! Anyway, we’re halfway in, and I still need to post two Love with a Twist patterns (aiming for one on Friday), an unboxing post for Island Batik (next week), and a number of other smaller things I’m messing around with.

But before all that, I really want to give you the lowdown on the Chameleon challenge quilt that I made for our recent Festival of Quilts, “Always Choose Tropical”. It was so much fun to make and show, so let’s do that now.

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Artsy Fartsy Self-Portrait: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Clever Chameleon Threads color board at Clever Chameleon

Another 15 seconds of Fame for the Chameleon

Last Tuesday I was battling to find Artsy Fartsy inspiration for July. I was tired from neighbourly construction noise, end of term-itis, and from madly preparing quilts for showing. Tiredness is definitely not good for creativity. Thank you to all the lovely people who reached out with sentiments of empathy.

The good news is that the kids are now on hols, the quilt show was a resounding success and the demolishing is finished. I can cope with construction noise on just one side of our house! But before any of these resolutions occurred, on Wednesday last I went back to bed after I sent the kids to school for some catch-up sleep. I even snoozed though trucks being dump loaded with bricks! And of course, when I awoke, my head was full of new ideas. Bing!

Something I wrote last Tuesday stuck in my head and specifically resurfaced after sleep…. “the Chameleon is off colour”….. Oh! We should fix that. Game On!!!

So, what happened next was that my Artsy Fartsy Christmas wreath took a dive in the priority queue. Specifically yielding to some new threads for the Chameleon. And more specifically, Aurifil threads, in partnership with Island Batik. Read on to see my new Artsy Fartsy project; it’s finished and not changing again, I promise. Although, with a challenge name like Artsy Fartsy, I hope Aurifil aren’t hoping for output that is too highbrow. ‘Cause the Chameleon is in a silly mooooood……

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Artsy Fartsy: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Artsy Fartsy Christmas color scheme at Clever Chameleon

Making a Start on my July project for Island Batik

Artsy Fartsy Challenge

This one’s a tough one. We’ve been asked to “use any fabric art/non-traditional quilting/sewing/thread painting technique using 3 Aurifil thread weights” for our July Island Batik Ambassador project. Any size, any technique, as long as the result is Artsy Fartsy. And I am just not feeling it like I usually do. Which is odd, because I have created plenty of non-traditional artsy fartsy quilt pieces in the past. And I am a big, big, big thread connoisseur. I love them all – rayons and metallics and 12wt Lana, and even bobbin work with embroidery floss. And I get the same thrill from a rack of thread colours as I do from a new box of paints or crayons….

But not today.
demolished house
Goodbye neighbour’s house. The view this evening from my sewing room. I truly hope they finish tomorrow.

Maybe it is because my collection of Aurifil is a bit limited in colour and thread variety. Maybe it’s because it’s cold and grey outside and I have endured days of incessant noise in stereo from 8am every day because one neighbour is remodelling the back half of their house and the other is completely demolishing. Gack! Or it could simply be that I have just finished preparing four quilts for our annual State Guild show and now have a big dose of anticlimax after dropping them off this morning. Whatever the reason, the Chameleon is off colour and I feel like a Grinch at Christmas because the whole Island Batik Ambassador family is doing this thing and insisting it is going to be fun and I can’t get enthused….

Hmmmm….. Christmas. In July. Now, there’s a thought.

By the way, have you ever tried to fussy cut a batik?

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