Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Flamingoes in the Pool

Flamingoes in the Pool color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday – Colour Your Mood, Brighten Your World, Design Your Quilt.

Welcome to the third day of our Summer Crush fabric mosaic journey. This week we are looking at matching fabrics to summer-themed photos. The fabrics in question are the current stock of Quilt Sandwich Fabrics on Etsy. The Summer Crush mosaics are inspired by a contest being run by Rachel of the Stitched in Color blog. Genius and fun, all rolled into one idea!

Ice-cream Tomes color scheme by Clever ChameleonOn Tuesday (the real Tuesday) we looked at a colour scheme I called Ice-cream Tones. I ended up with a mosaic of nine fabrics that I think perfectly capture the colours of summer sunshine and berry-flavoured ice-cream. 

Yesterday (I know, it was a Wednesday, notTuesday), we looked at the colours of pineapples on the beach. I chose beautiful fresh colours from among all the fabrics at Quilt Sandwich, and shared why pictures of pineapples and beaches have a special meaning for me.

Today (I know…… still not a Tuesday) we are going to explore fabric colours inspired by the most fun photo of the summer pictures I collected from Unsplash.com. I am calling today’s quilt colour scheme “Flamingoes in the Pool”.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Flamingoes in the Pool

The “Flamingoes in the Pool” colour scheme is hot pink, slightly-less-hot pink, rose, aqua, teal and pale salmon. These are happy, bright colours; begging you not to take them too seriously. A bit like the Digging for Pineapples palette from yesterday, they are fresh and uncomplicated, and will work as a stand alone palette or as bright patches within large neutral or white spaces. 

A detour to “Flamingoes love Ice-cream” colours

To begin with, I struggled to find fabrics in the Quilt Sandwich Fabrics Etsy store to fully express the Flamingoes in the Pool. So, I got distracted with this fabric of bowls of ice-cream sundaes in similar but brighter colours.
Ice-cream sundae bowls fabricThis fabric in from Robert Kaufman.

Anyhow, I decided to use this fabric as my muse and see what happened when I built a mosaic using these colours.

 

Flamingoes love Ice-cream fabric mosaic from Clever Chameleon
I am calling this fun mosaic: Flamingoes love Ice-cream!!

I do love this, but it is not what I set out to do…..

Back to “Flamingoes in the Pool”

With a bit more effort I was back on track. Here is my Quilt Sandwich Fabics version of the Flamingoes in the Pool colour scheme.

Flamingoes in the Pool color scheme from Clever Chameleon

And here is the fabric mosaic I made….

Flamingoes in the Pool fabric mosaic
Flamingoes in the Pool fabric mosaic

Then I decided that while the ice-cream sundae fabric really “isn’t me”….  (I’d totally use them for a child though), I also decided that I really like the lift the yellow fabric gives to the flamingo colour palette. Combining the ideas of Flamingoes like ice-cream and Flamingoes in the Pool, I came up with these two very similar offerings.

These are my new favourites. See how this works? Quilting Your Own Story is a process. Not too many people wake up with a fully formed idea in their head ready to go. Playing with colour and design is a process, an evolution. It happens when you are doing, not when you are waiting for ideas. So you should hop over to Stitched in Color and participate in this contest (or the next contest if you are here reading archived material).

I don’t think I’ll use either of these as my second entry to the Summer Crush mosaic contest though. I have one more idea to pursue tomorrow….

Flamingoes in the Pool colour scheme by Clever Chameleon

Summer Crush Mosaic Colour Inspiration Week

If you want to follow my thoughts around the Summer Crush mosaic contest for the rest of the week, I will be adding the links here. 

On Tuesday we looked at the colours of Ice-cream Tones. Pinks and yellows, with a little brown and blue added for interest.

On Wednesday we looked at the tropical colours of Digging for Pineapples. Orange and yellow and beach colours. Very fresh and refreshing.

Check back tomorrow for my last Summer Crush fabric colour palette ideas. Update:  Friday’s mosaic is called Hazy Days. More beach colours, but more sedate than tropical pineapples and flamingoes.

Credit

Today’s photo of the pineapple on the beach is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. Credit is not required to use the photos, but I love to give credit where credit is due, and am always grateful to people who contribute to open source communities. So I would like you to know that this lovely photo was provided by Vicko Mozara via Unsplash. Be sure to check out his collection of photos on Unsplash.com.
Vicko Mozara

clever chameleon logo in blueFor colour inspiration for your quilts in your inbox weekly follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or follow Clever Chameleon Quilt Colour Inspiration on Pinterest and pin your favourite colour palettes to try later. 

P.S. If you would like to use Vicko’s photo 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.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Digging for Pineapples

Digging for Pineapples color scheme fabric choices

Colour Inspiration Tuesday(ish): It’s all about colouring our quilts, our way!

Welcome back to Colour Inspiration Tuesday! I know…. it’s Wednesday…. but this week we are having a Colour Inspiration “Tuesday” blitz. Because I have had too much fun designing colour schemes and matching them to fabrics, thanks to Stitched in Color and Quilt Sandwich Fabrics.

And besides, it’s still winter here, so a healthy dose of summer colours all week will not be a bad thing. So buckle up and enjoy the colour ride. Next week we will be back to normal. Maybe.

Digging for Pineapples color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Today I have chosen a picture of a pineapple on the beach from Unsplash.com. Why are there so many pictures of pineapples on beaches? I don’t know. It’s quite incongruous if you stop to think about it, yet we still think summer/tropical holidays when we see them. I have a reason for choosing this photo though. I’ll tell you in a moment.

Today’s colour palette is called “Digging for Pineapples”.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Digging for Pineapples

The “Digging for Pineapples” colour scheme is yellow, orange, blue, green, aqua, teal and tan. These are fresh tropical summery colours, with a lighter feel than yesterday’s calorie laden colour palette, Ice-cream Tones. You can use lots of white with these colours to preserve the summer freshness. But they work equally well as a solid block of saturated colour for feasting your eyes on.

For example, here is the back of a quilt I made for my nephew a while back. I made it from a layer cake of 10″ squares of batik fabrics from Timeless Treasures Tonga Treats. The colours are just wonderful.

Quilt back in Digging for Pineapples colors
The back of my nephew’s quilt in “Digging for Pineapples” colours.
Child's quilt backing made from 10" squares
Child’s quilt backing made from 10″ squares
Mew and quilt
Of course. I am never allowed to photograph a quilt without my quilting helper

One of the prints in this series even looks a bit like pieces of pineapple!

But I digress a little. This week we are looking at fabrics that are available now from Quilt Sandwich Fabrics’ Etsy store. 

I made several mosaics from fabrics that I think capture the mood and colours of Digging for Pineapples. I won’t be adding any to the mosaic contest because there are already several mosaics that are similar to these up there and I have more ideas to try out yet…… but these combinations are lovely, and there is nothing stopping you popping over to Quilt Sandwich Fabrics and grabbing yourself pieces from these curated collections.

fabrics for Digging for Pineapples color scheme
Digging for Pineapples mosaic 1
Digging for Pineapples mosaic 2

Why I would love to make a Digging for Pineapples Quilt one day….

I told you there was a reason for choosing the pineapple on the beach photo. So here it is. It is a sentimental story from my family history, and has likely become better over the years with telling. I know it to go something like this.

Many years ago, when my dad was young, his family went to the beach for the day. His mother took with them a tin of pineapple for the family to share for dessert.  Thinking it would be nicer cold, she buried it in the wet sand to cool down. She marked the burial site with a stick and went back to enjoying the outing with her family.

However, when it came time to eat, of course the tide had come in and washed the stick away. Unperturbed, my grandmother thought she knew where the tin was buried , so she grabbed a spade and started enthusiastically digging in the sand. But to no avail. After a while, a gentleman who had been watching her, approached my grandmother and politely inquired why she was digging. She simply replied “I am digging for pineapple”. Apparently the gentlemen just gave her a look that he probably hoped was understanding and politely went on his way. Well, what could he say?!!

Of course, the pineapple was never found, at least not by my family. But the hilarity of the moment has lasted decades, and it was a story my grandmother told me several times. She has since passed away at the ripe old age of 99, and one day I would love to make a memory quilt of “Digging for Pineapples”.

What my Digging for Pineapples Quilt would be like

A Digging for Pineapples quilt would be a precious addition to my quilting story. I am thinking scrappy flying geese on white. The triangles can represent the spikes on pineapples and the act of digging. Of course, there would be 99 triangles. I think my grandmother would have liked the idea.

Digging for Pineapples color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Summer Crush Mosaic Colour Inspiration Week

If you want to follow my thoughts around the Summer Crush mosaic contest for the rest of the week, I will be adding the links here. 

On Tuesday we looked at the colours of Ice-cream Tones. Pinks and yellows, with a little brown and blue added for interest.

Flamingoes in the Pool colour scheme by Clever ChameleonOn Thursday we explored the light happiness of hot pinks and aqua in a colour scheme called Flamingoes in the Pool.

And on Friday, we got more grown up again with two colour boards – Hazy Days and Blood Oranges & Mint.

Hazy Days colour scheme by Clever Chameleon Blood Orange and Mint Colour scheme by Clever Chameleon

Credit

Today’s photo of the pineapple on the beach is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. Credit is not required to use the photos, but I love to give credit where credit is due, and am always grateful to people who contribute to open source communities. So I would like you to know that this lovely photo was provided by Evi Radauscher via Unsplash. Be sure to check out her collection of photos on Unsplash.com.
Evi Radauscher

clever chameleon logo in blueFor colour inspiration for your quilts in your inbox weekly follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or follow Clever Chameleon Quilt Colour Inspiration on Pinterest and pin your favourite colour palettes to try later. 

P.S. If you would like to use Evi’s photo 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.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Ice-cream Tones

Ice-cream Tones color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Helping you find amazing colours for your next quilt. 

Welcome back to Colour Inspiration Tuesday! And an extra warm welcome to you if you have arrived here via the Stitched in Color blog and have joined us at Clever Chameleon for the first time. Here we explore colours with patchwork and quilting specifically in mind, although the colours also work for any other creative project you might be planning of course. This week we are going to have a bumper week. Today we will explore ice-cream tones, later in the week I am planning to investigate the colours of buried pineapples, cocktails at dusk and flamingoes in the swimming pool! Intrigued? I hope so!

This week we are approaching the exploration of our quilt colours just a little bit differently to usual. Because we are joining in the Stitched in Color’s Summer Crush mosaic contest! Yay!!

Not too long ago I discovered the absolutely beautiful Stitched in Color blog. It resonated with me immediately, especially the colour mosaics you can find here. Rachel writes: “Slow down a minute, my friend, and ponder with me in color.” What a wonderful sentiment. Ever since discovering her page, I have been waiting for a chance to join in the mosaic fun.

One of the reasons why I am so keen to link in with the mosaic contests is because it takes what we do here at Clever Chameleon – choosing a photo, generating colour schemes (or mood boards), and thinking about their uses in a quilt – and moves it into the world of real fabrics. A bit like I did with Jewel Tone Triangles a while back. Today, the fabrics in question are the pretties of the luscious Quilt Sandwich Fabrics shop on Etsy. It makes us work within the confines of what is available today, from one source. This is a helpful skill to practice!

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Ice-cream Tones

So, back to the matter at hand. Like every other colour palette so far, I have started with an interesting photo from Unsplash.com. This week I focussed on summer-themed photos, and came up with a small short-list of candidates (the contest allows two uploads per participant). To kick us off, we are going to look at ice-cream. Not many things yell summer louder than ice-cream, right?!

The “Ice-cream Tones” colour scheme is yellow, pink and brown. It evokes thoughts of hot days, cold treats and berry flavours. I emphasised the darker pink in my mood board because my favourite summer treat is a frozen yoghurt from the Copenhagen Ice-creamery, which has a dark berry puree swirled through! Delicious!

I would recommend using the dark brown colour as a contrast highlight. Just enough to make the yellows and pinks really shine. I would also add a lot of white to a quilt in these colours, to preserve the clean, light brightness of summer days. 

What to create with the Ice-cream Tones colour palette?

Lately, at this point in each post, I have been adding a visual quilt idea or two for you, based around the colours in  the day’s colour palette. But that’s where this week is different. Today we will be matching fabrics to our colour palette instead. You can do this with any colour palette and your favourite online fabric store, anytime. Great, isn’t it?!

Firstly, I went through the fabrics on offer at Quilt Sandwich Fabrics, the contest’s sponsors. Here are the fabrics that I initially pulled out. 

Ice-cream Tones fabrics first pass
My first pass at selecting Ice-cream Tones fabrics from Quilt Sandwich Fabrics

Now, the rules of this contest say I have to narrow the selection down to just 9. Which nine would I most like to make a quilt with?! 

Here is my process…..

How I chose nine fabrics for an Ice-cream Tones project

My eye was caught by this fabric first – Direction in Yellow, an arrow print on a yellow background, from the Tropical Paradise collection by Josephine Kimberling for Blend Fabrics. 

Not only did it capture the colours of the Ice-cream tones palettes, but it also introduced purples for deep summer sunsets, and aquas and blues from the beach and the sky. All things that very much make up summer here in coastal Australia.

To make sure the aqua, blue and purple sit well in my collection I added 2 more prints that use these colours. The bike sign print (From the Ride collection designed by Julia Rothman) was a seriously good find! My hubby and I and the kids cycle a lot, all year round, but especially in summer. And then the feathers (From the Tsuru collection by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cloud 9 Fabric). I added this fabric because I love it, and because no summer walk around our local wetlands is complete without collecting feathers.

The next step was to make sure there is enough dark contrast and larger scale print in my collection. So I added the pink daisies on the brown background (Daisies and stems in lilac, magenta, olive and lime on a brown background. Designed by Tula Pink for the Acacia collection by Free Spirit Fabrics). Daisies are definitely very summer.

Ice-cream Tones colour scheme from Clever ChameleonI then went back to my colour scheme and emphasised the main colours with small scale print fabrics. Two pinks and two yellows of different colour values. To finish the collection I added a medium scale medallion print that has both pink and yellows as its main colours. It was designed by Keri Beyer for the Dream A Little Dream With Me collection by In The Beginning Fabrics. The circles remind me of the summer sun, but dreams also seem appropriate for summer.

This is what I ended up with. I hope you like it.

Ice-cream Tones colour scheme fabric selection by Clever Chameleon
This is my final selection of fabrics for my Summer Crush Mosaic: Ice-cream and Sunshine

Ice-cream tones color scheme from Clever Chameleon

What about the backing?

Well it’s not part of the contest, but I saw this little gem along the way. And I can say I would love to have this on the back. It is just too cute!!! And all the right colours too. It is covered in bright houses with a happy attitude and is from Timeless Treasures.

Back to some quick Colour Inspiration Tuesday formalities….

12 color schemes to try on your creative projectsSome information if you are new here today…..

Recently I put together our first colour scheme review. For a good introduction to Colour Inspiration Tuesday, you can find 12 colour palettes all together here.

Last week we looked at classic blues and greens in the Another World Blue colour palette. We also explored what the Cat on a Wall quilt pattern would look like if we used these colours instead of the Sunset Wall palette.

Follow the links to find out what we’ve been up to. And subscribe to emails to keep up to speed from now on!

Credit

Today’s photo of yummy ice-cream is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. Credit is not required, but I love to give credit where credit is due, and am always grateful to people who contribute to open source communities. So I would like you to know that this lovely photo was provided by Ian Dooley via Unsplash. Be sure to check out his collection of photos on Unsplash.com.
ian dooley

Clever Chameleon logo in brownFor colour inspiration for your quilts in your inbox weekly follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or follow Clever Chameleon Quilt Colour Inspiration on Pinterest and pin your favourite colour palettes to try later. 

P.S. If you would like to use Ian’s photo 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.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Another World Blue

Another World Blue color scheme by Clever ChameleonColour Inspiration Tuesday: a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts.

It’s Tuesday again already! This week we have a colour combination of blues with a touch of green. Cool and calm, these colours suggest a vastness and stillness that is bigger than than our comprehension. You can use this colour scheme, “Another World Blue”, to bring calmness to your favourite space.

Another World Blue color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Another World Blue

The “Another World Blue” colour palette is midnight blue, navy, royal blue, aqua, turquoise and bright and light sky blues. The greens in this palette are heavily biased towards the blue spectrum, allowing it to feel like a monochrome colourway while adding depth, interest and a slightly softer quality to the palette.

Just for fun, I have coloured last week’s cat on a wall quilt design in this week’s Another World Blue colours. Notice the change in mood?!

Cat on a wall quilt design in two colour palettes
Cat on a Wall Quilt design in original Sunset Wall scheme colours and in Another World Blue scheme colours.

But maybe you want to get rid of the green tinges?

Another World Blue daughter colour scheme from Clever Chameleon

Of course, I always have to play with a colour scheme to see what other ideas it holds. If you ignore the greens in this photo (and the purple-tinted blue), you get a beautiful, clean-looking blue monochrome palette. See what happens just by concentrating on a different portion of the photograph?! This is much crisper.

Autumn Splendour colour scheme from Clever ChameleonOr you could try something completely different and start a project to use during fall….. Try Autumn Splendour for a new take on fall colours.

Or find the first 12 Clever Chameleon quilt colour palettes in one place here.

Credit

Today’s photo of majestic nature in blues is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. Credit is not required, but I love to give credit where credit is due, and am always grateful to people who contribute to open source communities. So I would like you to know that this lovely photo was provided by Jonatan Pie via Unsplash. Be sure to check out his collection of photos on Unsplash.
Jonatan Pie

Clever Chameleon LogoFor colour inspiration for your quilts in your inbox weekly follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or follow Clever Chameleon Quilt Colour Inspiration on Pinterest and pin your favourite colour palettes to try later. 

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

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Sunset Wall

Sunset Wall colour scheme from Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts.

Hi – Welcome to another Colour Inspiration Tuesday! Today I have chosen a photo that is really already a quilt idea…. I bet you can see where this is going!

Today’s colour palette was inspired by a photo that is so warm that you can almost feel the reflected heat radiating off the beautiful solid brick wall. Today we are exploring these colours in the palette “Sunset Wall”.

Sunset Wall color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Sunset Wall

The “Sunset Wall” colour palette is light lavender, salmon, rose, rust red, orange, dusky purple and dark eggplant. Of course, the bricks are already in a easy to piece layout – either with the light “mortar” sashing, or without. 

Sunset Wall quilt layout
A simple rendition of Sunset Wall to give a simple quilt design.

This is a very easy design to customise, Add more rows or width of bricks to make the quilt exactly the size you want. Use scraps or yardage to make the bricks. Piece them randomly or according to the layout you want. The less precisely you sew the mortar strips between the bricks, the more rustic your wall will become. Great for a beginner!

Full sunset wall palette
Adding extra colours to the Sunset Wall palette adds depth.

I used the “Sunset Wall” colour scheme plus two related colours to design my wall quilt. These were an extra mid-value rose pink and a light orange. Here is my full colour range.

You can also decorate this quilt with appliqué. I was thinking to design a climbing plant or hollyhocks onto mine, when my hubby said it needed a cat on the top.

And for once he is right! hahahaha. So a cat is what it got! I like it. I mustn’t make it though, I am still working on the Jewel Tone Diamonds quilt.

Sunset Wall quilt design with cat appliqué
Added some fun to Sunset Wall with a cat!

What would you do with the Sunset Wall colour palette on a quilt? Let me know in the comments below!

These colours too bright? Try using the same colour combination, but in their tones or shades.

Muted Sunset Wall colour palette by Clever Chameleon
Slightly muted Sunset Wall colour palette

Sometimes fabric availability will dictate which shades of colours you can use. Other times you have more luxury of choice. If you are not a “brights” kind of person you might prefer to use a slightly greyed version of this colour palette. This trick works for other colour schemes as well.

If Sunset Wall does not take your fancy, there is a growing number of colour inspirations here on Clever Chameleon. Why not check out this post, which shows you the latest dozen colour palettes all in one spot?

Today’s Photo Credit

Today’s stock photo is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. If you would like to also use this lovely photo, it was provided by Michal Grosicki via Unsplash for license-free usage. Find more of Michal’s photos here:
Michał Grosicki

Clever Chameleon logoDon’t miss a post – follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or follow Clever Chameleon Quilt Colour Inspiration on Pinterest and pin your favourite colour palettes to try later. 

P.S. For your convenience, I have placed all the Unsplash photos from Colour Inspiration Tuesdays in one place. Find them easily for free in my Colour Inspiration Collection.