Too Coo’ for School: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Pigeon patchwork block colours at Clever Chameleon

School’s out for a fortnight. Time to play!

The Chameleon’s on Term break. The Arkaroola “school house” is closed. The tables have been reclaimed as sewing spaces. It’s time to catch up on some sewing, writing and other activities that have been on the backburner so long that they might just have mutated into new life forms.

To celebrate, I’ve started with sewing the next batch of blocks for my Garden Party quilt. Did you catch last week’s quilt blocks in the “It’s A Garden Party” row along and blog hop? I released my fun pigeon/bird bath block amid another flurry of amazing patterns, this time for cardinals, frogs and turtles, hexie flowers, fall leaves, a cactus garden, inspirational pillows, pinwheel flowers, octopuses and even a floral vine block.

quilt patterns

Since then I’ve been collating printouts like crazy, and making all sorts of impossible decisions. Will this block fit? Does it suit? Can I squeeze it in? How should I balance the colours? You know, world changing stuff.

I’d like this quilt to turn out well, so I have actually spent a fair bit of time deliberating. I’ve got to make my sewing time count at the moment. So far, I’ve managed to incorporate eleven patterns into my small quilt and I think I have space for three or four more. In the end I will have used about one third of the Garden Party block options, although not all in their full form. Not bad going for a small lap quilt, I think. I estimate you’d have to make a queen size to use all the terrific patterns in this year’s row along!

Come on, let’s see what fun designs are on offer this week! I’m sure I can squeeze one or two more in!

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A Little Birdie: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

A little birdie wants to tell you…

… all about the quilt I am making. It’s from the It’s A Garden Party row along. Oh, oh, he is hopping with excitement! Of course, the little birdie must not tell you too much just yet, but he can drop a few morsels of information. He can definitely show you what I’ve sewn from patterns already released in the It’s A Garden Party row along.

It's a garden party row along with Seams to be Sew

He can also tell you who is participating in the hop next. The hop hop of excitement has really only just got into full swing…. there are lots and lots of blocks still yet to come. Lots more blog hop hopping you can do to find patterns and prize draws. Lots and lots of garden secrets and secret gardens to discover. Plenty of fun remaining!

Nearly my turn in the row along!

Not to be outdone by a gossipy little birdie, the attention seeking Chameleon is going to give you a sneak peak today of his my our quilt block for the It’s a Garden Party hop… I’ve called it “Garden Bath Joy”. My free pattern is coming on Thursday, only a couple more days to wait! The Chameleon imagines you’re going mottled with anticipation!

While the Chameleon amuses himself and the rest of us wait patiently for Thursday, we can take the birdie’s tour of the It’s A Garden Party blocks I have sewn so far. And I’ve picked out some garden-themed beauties from the Chameleon’s last Colour & Inspiration Party to keep us on theme to the end. This week it’s all flower power and Spring fever at the Clever Chameleon!

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Hummingbirds and Hot Springs: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Aren’t Hummingbirds the greatest?

Don’t tell the Chameleon, but I think so. One of Nature’s little oddities, and beautiful into the bargain. We don’t have hummingbirds in Australia, and I’ve never seen one, although I’d love to one day. In the meantime I have settled for making an appliqué version…. yup, I started playing around with some of the free patterns being offered in the It’s A Garden Party Row Along that popped up last week. I hope you’ve had a chance to look into that blog hop for both the patterns and the prizes.

Also, I have devised a cunning quilt plan to use some of the Garden Party blocks. I will reveal my progress as the pattern collection grows. If you like it you are welcome to make one too. I can tell you how it goes together, you find all the parts in your collected patterns, and then you beat me at my own game. No waiting for me to get my act together to write you a pattern. Perfect!

Read on to get your head start on me now. 😀

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Take that 2020! Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Take that 2020 colour board at Clever Chameleon

2020: What a Rodent of a Year!

Well, I think it is safe to say 2020, the Year of the Rat, has not gone to plan. I, for one, will be happy to draw a line under this year and recycle all my 2020 New Year’s hopes and plans for 2021. Easiest New Year’s resolutions ever and environmentally friendly too! 😀

But for now I’m hanging in there, and I hope you are too. There’s still some fight left in this Chameleon! And in a defiant act of self-defence I am finally releasing the Lunarcy Quilt pattern. Take that 2020!

Lunarcy BOM

This post includes the first installment of the Lunarcy pattern – a pdf for the Lunarcy Quilt fabric requirements and the basic quilt construction. The appliqué files will follow in fairly rapid succession. The reality is that Lunarcy will not be a block of the month anymore, as I would still like to wrap it up when I originally intended – around the beginning of the Year of the Ox (in mid February 2021). So the patterns will be released far more frequently than monthly to make up for lost time. Of course, they will still be free, and still available on the Clever Chameleon website until it is all over. Just now you don’t have to be quite as patient! How’s that for positive spin? 🙂

So, hold onto your hats, batten down your email hatches, and enjoy the lunatic Lunarcy Lunar Calendar ride. Welcome to the Chameleon’s 2020 BOM, truncated in time but not awesomeness. And here’s to the rest of the year that must surely be more fun than the first part!

Read on to start collecting your Lunarcy patterns

Monkey Business: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Golden Lion Tamarin monkey colours at Clever Chameleon

We’re Baaaaack……!

The Chameleon thought about slacking off and skipping another week…..

monkey

I know, right?!

It was nice having last week off, but the Chameleon is not really one to pass up on a bit of monkey business. So here we are – and monkey business is exactly what we shall have today. It’s time to look at the Year of the Monkey block of the Lunarcy quilt.

Year of the Monkey block from the Lunarcy Quilt at Clever Chameleon Quilting

Also, I thought you might like to see where we travelled last week. We went to Coober Pedy and stayed in an underground dugout apartment. Coober Pedy, is the “opal capital of the world”, and is renowned for its underground accommodation; we had a really lovely time there.

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