Designing quilts Archives - Page 14 of 48 - Clever Chameleon Quilting

July 9, 2019January 19, 2024

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……

July 2, 2019January 19, 2024

Artsy Fartsy: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Artsy Fartsy Christmas color scheme at Clever Chameleon

Making a Start on my July project for Island Batik

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?

June 25, 2019January 19, 2024

The Colour of Music: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Colour of music colour scheme at Clever Chameleon

Today I finished my Island Batik Ambassador project for June 🙂

In the works here for a while now, has been a new book bag for my daughter to take to music lessons. And today it’s done. It features a paper-piecing technique that is new-to-me, Island Batik fabrics, HOBBS Thermore batting and six music motif block patterns by Juliet of Tartankiwi.

Read on to see my new, and very simple, drawstring bag. And to see how the Chameleon got himself into a little strife after our latest Colour & Inspiration party. Happy Tuesday!

June 18, 2019January 19, 2024

Rubber Duckie, You’re the One…… Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Rubber duck sculpture colour scheme from Clever Chameleon — Created from a photo by Tonyluichung – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34933222

Rubber Duckie You’re the One…… You make bathtime lots of fun!….

Rubber Duckie, I’m awfully fond of yooooooo-ooooou!

Sorry, couldn’t help it…. I’ve been working on the next block for our Love with a Twist quilt along. No prizes for guessing that it’s a duck. And that I have done my appliqué in yellow and orange. 😀 And given myself a dose of “Rubber Duckie” earworm from Ernie of Sesame Street.

This set of thoughts also reminds me of the huge rubber duck sculptures by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman that brightened up cities all over the world between 2007 and 2017. They still make me smile.

I hope this post brightens up your inbox like a huge rubber duck in an international seaport! And also I hope you’ll pop over to the blog for a dose of Colour & Inspiration Tuesday and a sneak peek at June’s Love with a Twist appliqués. Psst… I plan to have the duck pattern ready for you on Friday.

June 11, 2019January 19, 2024

Sew Melodic: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Sew Melodic colour scheme from Clever Chameleon

June is “Try It” month for the Island Batik Ambassadors, where we get free rein to choose a technique that we haven’t done before and give it a whirl on any project. New technique, Island Batik fabrics; that’s it for the rules.

So, I thought – “It is about time I tried the traditional method of paper-piecing”….. you know the one….. the method with the actual foundation paper. 😀 I have done freezer paper paper-piecing before, when I first started patchwork and quilting, but I’ve never done a project using a paper foundation that you stitch through.

It’s going quite well, I think. Wanna know what I am making?