Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Christmas Bells

Christmas Bells color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Celebrating the Holidays with Inspiration from Real Life

Here in Australia, sometimes it can be hard to reconcile the major seasonal holidays with the weather. Spring is now in full swing and summer is doing its best to come early this year. So here I am, merrily decorating our Christmas tree in ornaments which, on the whole, celebrate winter….. while quietly pondering whether I should just abandon ship and head to the pool instead…..

But, not everyone here is as confused as I am. There is at least one local that does our summer Christmas wholeheartedly, with absolutely no inhibitions. It is not a person though, it is a street tree. For the rest of the year, this tree is actually a bit on the plain side, possibly verging on ugly. A funny, almost stunted looking tree, unassuming, lacking in any apparent vigour and vitality. But come November and December, it does this!

Brachychiton tree in flower

This tree is a hybrid from the Brachychiton family. Two Australian natives – the Kurrajong tree (white bell flowers with pink/red insides) and the Flame Tree (scarlet red bell flowers) – can be crossed to get hybrids like this one that produce masses of pink bells.

To add to the fun, because the tree is so unworthy the rest of the time, I forget how amazing it is for the few weeks that it flowers. So, every year the kids and I get a nice moment of sudden realisation that the “Christmas Bells” are back, heralding the end of school and promising Christmas.

Brachychiton tree in flower

How to respond to such extravagant Christmas Spirit?

Well, the obvious answer is to produce something Christmas flavoured in dusky pinks and green. A “Christmas Bells” quilting motif or quilt design perhaps? Well, these bell flowers actually put me in mind and mood of a small Christmas project I have been musing over for a couple of weeks, ever since the Ornament Exchange Tour. And I would have made it in pink but I couldn’t lay my hands on my pink pearl cotton yesterday. So purple had to do. Since I still have purple and green on the brain from the last few weeks, and our purple Bougainvillea is still out in full flower, I admit that wasn’t a hard compromise to make.

This is what I created in response to my thoughts around Christmas Bells.

Christmas Bells Ornaments

How to make my Christmas Bells Ornament?

Would you be interested in a short tutorial on how to make this ornament? I wanted to do the tutorial for you today, but there are just too many other things that need attention before the end of the week. I am hoping I might be able to write it up for you next week though. How does that sound?

Sorry for the tease (or maybe it is just a sneak preview?), but it seemed silly not to show you what I made in a rare quiet moment in response to my musings around today’s Colour Inspiration Tuesday. November is simply a crazy month for our family! It’s the same every year. Update: the tutorial is done – you can find it here!

So on that note, I must be getting on with those other things, but I wish you a lovely and productive week and hope to catch you back here on Thursday with my One Monthly Goal. Yup, last minute, as usual! Did you really expect anything else? 🙂

P.S. BREAKING NEWS!! Last night Clever Chameleon arrived on Facebook….. I know, not exactly earth shattering, but another step forward for my baby blog. 🙂 If you’d like to follow via Facebook, I’d be very glad of your company! Thanks a million!!

P.P.S Sharing in this weeks linky fun at:
The Quilting Room with Mel
Love Laugh Quilt

November 21, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Aurora Star

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: From colour scheme to quilt block and beyond!

I love green and purple together. Always have, although I have not really given it any particular thought before. They look so strong and comfortable together, complementing and magnifying each other without competing. And it is a generous, welcoming colour scheme…. in that you can add in other colours without making a hideous mess (usually).

But until recently it flummoxed me why this is so. They are not complementary colours. They are two parts of a triadic colour scheme, the third ingredient of which is orange. But quite honestly, purple and green can sing together without orange. Helen Godden, one of my all time favourite Australian quilt artists, shared a comment on facebook recently that helped make sense of the brilliance of purple and green. She says “It’s a well balanced combo. Both green and purple are blue (primary) based, one has yellow (primary) added and the other has red (primary) added so all bases are covered and it looks visually balanced.” I had never looked at it in this light before. Thanks Helen!

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Aurora Star

This week I needed to make a once-off 12.5″ pieced quilt block. No further guidelines were given. Which is a much harder task than “make this block”, don’t you think? Anyway, I had no initial ideas beyond wanting to make a scrappy batik block in greens and purples. Thankfully, this past weekend we decorated our Christmas tree (earlier than normal), and that sparked of a whole raft of ideas. And like many of my ideas, the one I settled on came to me via a rather circuitous route.

green star atop Christmas Tree — My daughter’s green star atop our tree. .You can also find a tutorial on how to make your own drum ornament like this one here.

On top of our tree this year is the paper star that my daughter made in Germany last Christmas. It is green. And her green star somehow reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of the Northern Lights, which are predominately green with purple. There are some amazing pictures of the Aurora Borealis on Unsplash.

While I am not a bucket-list kind of person, the northern aurora is one thing I do want to see one day. I was fortunate enough to see small southern auroras from my home twice when I was a teen and I will never forget them.

Anyway, getting back to the point, I started wondering whether people take pictures of Venus (the Morning Star/Evening Star) with the auroras. And of course they do. One of the photographers I have featured before has even shared one on UnSplash. The amazing Jonatan Pie.

Aurora and Venus

But in the end it was his photo of the aurora at sunset that captured my colour imagination.

Aurora at sunset

So I put all these ideas together and decided to make a simple aurora star block in green and purple with splashes of sunset colours. Here is what I made.

It turns out that I didn’t have as many green batik scraps at hand as I thought. But I am still happy with my pretty little block. Of course now I want to make a whole quilt! hahahaha! But that Vanuatu Turtle quilt is the next thing in line for attention, so I shan’t.

Want to make your own Aurora Star?

Now it turns out that there is truly very little new under the sun. A little digging revealed that Em of Sewing by Moonlight has already shared a very good tutorial on how to construct the block I wanted to make. So I decided not to re-invent the wheel. I can tell you that the template she provides works very well, so if you would like to make this block, I wholeheartedly refer you to her post. About the only change I made was that I did not trim the outside edges of the block until I had it all constructed and blocked it square.

Of course, Em’s reasons for making this block were completely different to mine…. if you place multiples of this block together side by side you get octagons (spider webs) with stars in between. But if I were to make a quilt from today’s aurora star idea I would actually use offset blocks to break up the octagons. Because I would want to emphasise the stars in a sea of aurora colours and swirls. Something like this…..

Aurora Star Quilt 1

Or this….

Aurora Star Quilt 2

Or maybe with most of the stars darkened out for the sky…… I think this is my favourite so far.

Credit

Today’s photos are 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, the aurora photos that inspired me to make the aurora star block were provided by Jonatan Pie. Be sure to check out his collection of photos on Unsplash.

Jonatan Pie

You can also see Vincent Guth’s photos here.
Vincent Guth

I hope you enjoyed today’s Colour Inspiration Tuesday! Let me know if you’ve been lucky enough to see Aurora Borealis! Or share your favourite aurora quilt with me – I know there are quite a few bargello versions out there. You can send pictures via the blue, round email icon at the very very bottom of this page. I always love to hear from my readers!

P.S. If you like vivid colours and free-motion quilting, you are sure to like Helen Godden’s work. If you are not already familiar with this amazing quilt artist, then go check her out. She is my recommendation for the week.

P.P.S. If you would like to use Jonatan’s photos 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.

P.PP.S. Check out the other hubs of creative activity I am linking up with this week:
Main Crush Monday
Love Laugh Quilt
Quilt Fabrication
Sew Fresh Quilts
Freemotion by the River
Busy Hands Quilts
Crazy Mom Quilts
And a new party for me this week: Moving It Forward at Em’s Scrapbag

November 14, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: English Broom

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Real life inspiration for quilts and crafts

This week has been a little hectic here, so there’s been very little sewing time for me. There was a fair bit of secret Christmas crafting, which I am excited to be able to share with you on Thursday, but no quilting. I’ve been creating for the Christmas Ornament Exchange and tutorial blog hop coming up this week…. Stay tuned, it’s going to be huge!

One of the main reasons why it’s been a slow week here is that I went on a two-day camp in the local hills with my young son. This past weekend was the South Australian Hoporee camp at Woodhouse. This camp is the state level Joey Scout adventure that happens only once every two years. A very action-packed weekend for nearly 1,000 people (children, parents and leaders), and one of the highlights of the Joey Scout calendar.

Here’s just a very small taste of what the Joeys (6&7 year olds) got up to with the support of their parents and Scout Leaders……

Rock climbing — A bit of rock climbing…..

Remembrance Day banner — Each Joey made paper poppies to add to this banner to commemorate Remembrance Day on Nov 11.

feet in slime — Treasure hunting in a pool of slime….

Kids in a paper wheel — Reinventing the wheel….

decorating a rock — Recording the things that matter.

All in the midst of the beautiful Adelaide Hills, in amongst the koalas, pobblebonk frogs and kookaburras.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: English Broom

As well as the ample wildlife (that seemed surprising unperturbed by the sudden influx of 1,000 people), there were also some notable spring flowers about. While we were on a rest break I spotted a medium-sized bush with stunning yellow and red pea flowers…… So I took pictures of that too, thinking it would make an fabulous colour board for Tuesday. Which I hope you will agree, it most certainly does.

But I have to admit that I was also highly disappointed when I did some research yesterday and found out that this plant is an invasive noxious weed in Australia (and according to Wikipedia, also parts of the US, and New Zealand, and India).

English Broom color scheme from Clever Chameleon

This naughty but beautiful plant is commonly known as English Broom, Scotch Broom or Common Broom. The scientific name is Cytisus scoparius. Most often the flowers are plain yellow…. which well describes the other bushes I saw at the campsite. But there are also several multi-coloured hybrids that have naturalised, and this particular bush was showing off big-time!

I am not sure what I will do with this vivid red, green and yellow colour scheme. I had thought a true-to-life pea flower appliqué would be nice, but the noxious invasive weed thing has taken the shine off that idea. At least for now. In reality, English Broom is not a bad plant – just not welcome here. Perhaps the best place for it is on a quilt or cushion after all! I’ll have to muse over this one for a while.

In the meantime…

Wishing you all a lovely week, and hope to see you back here on Thursday. I will have for you a tutorial on how to make the Christmas tree ornament I dreamed up for my 2017 Ornament Exchange partner. I am paired up with the very talented Evija of the award winning From Evija with Love blog. How lucky am I? Anyway, there will be links to 46 other ornament tutorials from around the world on this hop. All on Thursday! You’ll be sure to find something you will want to make!

P.S. Linking up with Cooking up Quilts, Fiber Tuesday, Freemotion by the River, The Inquiring Quilter, Midweek Makers.

November 7, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Poolside Fun

Poolside Fun color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Colour Spring-Boards for your Quilt, Craft and Decor Ideas

Over the closed winter period, our local outdoor public pool has redecorated. Just a paint job mostly, but I like it. The colours chosen are fresh, fun and summery – like an outdoor pool should be. There are also a few extra shade sails and some new furniture. Not extravagant, but useful and happy. 🙂

I like the new colours. Specifically, I like them in this space. They work very well here and add nicely to the atmosphere. I wouldn’t like them in my home, with the possible exception of a child’s bedroom. I probably wouldn’t like them in a work office either. But they are appropriate for a recreational space like the pool.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Poolside Fun colour scheme

Wouldn’t these colours make a great picnic quilt? Something that makes you want to take it to the beach or the park or the pool. A quilt that reminds you that outings are fun (once you get there!! 🙂 ) and says “Let’s go!!”.

Here’s my quick diagram of an idea that came to mind:

This wouldn’t be difficult to make. Just a bit time consuming on the icy-poles.

Do you have a picnic quilt? Did you make it yourself? Tell me, have you water-proofed it in anyway? I am wondering if there is something better for the underside of picnic quilts than quilting weight cotton? Or an internal layer that will make it more serviceable and less prone to collecting prickles and transferring dampness from the ground? Recycled denim perhaps? Or recycled rubber-backed curtains? If you have relevant experience to share, I’d love to know. 🙂

P.S. Warning: The pineapples are still out there, stalking quilters. They’ve now got into Anita’s blog at Domestic Felicity. She is making a lovely pineapple quilt for her November One Monthly Goal. Go on, go have a look.

P.P.S. Linking up to some fun linky parties: Love Laugh Quilt, Cooking Up Quilts, Fiber Tuesday, Sew Fresh Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts., Busy Hands Quilts

October 30, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Magnification

White Cedar color scheme from Clever Chameleon

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

There are so many things that we fail to see in life. And sometimes it’s not even our fault. Some things are just too small to appreciate fully without special effort. There is a world of inspiration in the tiny, the minuscule and the molecular. All you need is a means of magnification.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 30

My train of though started today with the flowers on a tree growing on our council strip. This tree was tiny when we moved here, but was growing well until it was attacked by a vandal. Pretty much ever since, my young daughter has been cheering this tree on. This year it matured and flowered for the first time, so I am finally able to easily identify it. It is a White Cedar (Melia azedarach, also known as China Berry), one of the very few deciduous Australian natives. The berries are toxic (good to know) to humans and most animals but not birds. Apparently cockatoos like them, so I hope the cockatoos in our area find it. Otherwise the berries are going to make an almighty mess on the pavement and hubby is not too pleased about the prospect of that.

White Cedar flower, many times magnification

The flowers of this tree are insignificant on their own but they bloom in impressive bunches. However, if you magnify the flowers, you can see that they are really quite pretty and almost orchid like. It is the purple stamen tube with the yellow stamens sticking out that has the most visual impact, but without magnification you are unlikely to notice this….. each tube is only 1/4″ long.

And this got me thinking back to my days as a molecular biologist and geneticist. In that life, looking down a microscope was an everyday experience for me. And I often marvelled at the hidden structure of things.

Contemplating Magnification as Quilt Inspiration

These days I am reliant on a magnifying glass I stole from one of my kids and my camera for looking more closely at things. These are tools you can probably access too. Magnifying glasses are available pretty widely, and a basic one is just a few dollars. So the real question is: where to look?

butterfly wing under magnification — A butterfly wing in detail from a photo I took in Singapore airport

Biology is an amazing place to start for pleasing designs. Flowers obviously. But there are so many other things that also become even more interesting with magnification. Feathers. Bugs (have you ever considered the beauty of the compound eye?). Shells. Leaves. Ferns. Skin. Fossils. Microscopic creatures. Cells. I could keep listing here for hours, but I won’t. Grab a magnifying glass or a camera with a zoom function and just start looking around you.

Try taking photos, magnifying and then cropping them. Sometimes destroying the context of an object or only showing a portion of it adds enormously to its artistic appeal. That’s the brilliant thing about digital cameras. No limits to the number of photos you can take, and no limits to the alterations you can make to them.

Butterfly under magnification — Another cropped butterfly photo from Singapore airport

Many, many amazing abstract art pieces have had their start in magnified nature. This is certainly not a new idea for art or quilt inspiration. But it is an idea that will probably never be exhausted. There is no copyright on the feather you found at the park. And no limit to the ways you can interpret it either. That is between you, your imagination and your sewing machine.

If you’ve done something like this and you’d like to share your quilts and/or ideas here, I’d love to hear about them. Don’t forget to comment below. 🙂

And if you’ve enjoyed this, don’t forget to check out previous posts in my 31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday series. Tomorrow is the last day!

P.S.

Just before I leave you today, I want to share an interesting example of taking this concept to the extreme. Beverly St Clair likes to quilt representations of DNA. She has done a few helix quilts. But the ones that caught my fancy a few years back are those where she has assigned each of the four main chemical components of DNA an orientation of the half square triangle. She has then turned various DNA sequences into quilts by piecing half square triangles to match the code. Go take a look, it’s a fascinating idea!