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

November 6, 2017January 19, 2024

Vanuatu Turtle Quilt Progress: blocks

Vanuatu Turtle Quilt: Design process, warts and all.

In the last few days I have finally had a chance to get back into the sewing room. And I have to admit it was very therapeutic. I have missed sewing. So has our cat. I swear he is addicted as I am!

My goal this week was to design and sew the blocks for my black, white and red Vanuatu Turtle quilt for the Splash of Color Quilt Along. I started with this basic plan…

Vanuatu turtle quilt plan

And these fabrics…..

Vanuatu turtle quilt fabrics

If you wish, you can read more about the what and why of my original plans, and see my turtle appliqué pieces all cut, waiting for a quilt top.

So, on Thursday, I started on the quilt top. I looked at my plan. I cut six 6½ squares. And I went off script.

That might be a record, even for me!

Changing my mind….

Firstly, I decided that I wanted to add in a very dark, plain fabric behind the bulk of the turtle appliqué. Plainer than any fabric I have brought home from Vanuatu. I did actually look for a mostly black fabric in Vanuatu, but there wasn’t any to be had.

So, I went hunting among my scraps here at home and found an Australian Aboriginal print in black called Sand Dunes. The Sand Dunes scraps are leftover from the backing of a dear friend’s quilt. It is very soft and colourfast – an amazing piece of fabric to work with. So I added it to the mix. I also found some black 2½” pre-cut strips inherited from another friend. Perfect for extra darkness behind the appliqué.

Turltle quilt background — Dark corner for the turtle appliqué background. Sand Dunes is the black with the dotted wavy lines through it.

Changing my mind, again…

Although I had a 5×5 grid drawn up for my colour gradient in the quick diagram above, I had actually intended to do an 8×8 grid of 6″ squares. Some fussy cut whole squares and some pieced squares to get a black and white gradient. That is why I started by cutting 6½ squares of each Vanuatu fabric.

However, I quickly realised that 6″ squares of pinwheels and HSTs in these prints is going to result in a very. busy. quilt. Which would be fine, except that this was supposed to be the background for my appliquéd turtle. And it was also going to take waaaay too long to construct.

So, I decided that my mockup was trying to tell me something – that I should have 5×5 8″ finished blocks. I cut some new 8½” squares, and recycled the 6½” squares into 8½ squares by adding 2½” strips on two sides. This had the added bonus of being an easy way to graduate through colour values and tie the blocks together visually.

Vanuatu Turtle Quilt progress — Building up the Vanuatu Turtle Quilt

And again…

As I started on the more intricately pieced blocks, I decided that I needed some more solid or solid-like fabrics. Specifically in the grey range. Somewhere for the eyes to rest from the prints. I had already included a blue-grey hand-dye and a white solid in my original fabric choices. Now I added two grey Shadow Play fabrics from my scraps. I only had enough of the dark grey Shadow Play for 4 pieces. But that is half the fun, making do. 🙂

And again…

At this point it was time for me to head out to the South Australian Quilters’ Guild evening meeting. I’m glad I got this far before I had to go, because I was beginning to heed the little voice that said I needed to add a nearly white fabric. There were no nearly white fabrics in Vanuatu, just as there were no nearly black ones. I had thought that I might get by with fussy cutting. Or using the reverse side of a fabric. But…

At the Guild meetings there is always a shop stall, and in the end I picked up something to round out my fabric choices. Actually I picked up two somethings. One was a white fabric with a fine black print. It had slightly more black than I wanted, but it was the best pick available. I was happy at least that the swirls on the print are consistent with the patterns already in my quilt. 🙂 The second purchase was a fat quarter of a dark blue-grey Grunge that happens to be the exact same colour as the blue grey on two of the Vanuatu fabrics. Score!

Finishing off the design

A little more playing and switching fabrics around and I settled on this layout (with a few more tweaks as I sewed).

Cat designing a quilt — Somebody who thinks he is invisible siiting here…..

And now I have finished sewing up the 8½” blocks for my Vanuatu Turtle quilt. They are ready to be assembled into a quilt top and have borders attached.

Pile of blocks for Vanuatu Turtle Quilt — Happy with my pile of blocks

So, how am I feeling? Well, I really love this quilt top so far. I think the design is actually quite effective as it is. A small part of me even thinks that I should claim the grey-blue as my “Splash of Color” and leave it really simple. Because there is a whisper of a question in my head as to whether it will marry well with my appliqué. Despite all the changes I have made, it is still very busy.

But the whole point of this quilt is the turtle appliqué….. And if I stop now this quilt top will be too small to be particularly useful, and my turtle appliqué will be orphaned. So I will push on. If, in the end, it isn’t as fantastic as I envisioned, then I won’t mind it going on the couch, right?! And there is always something to be learned in quilts that don’t quite make it to awesome. Fingers crossed that I am just over analysing things and it will be just fine!

If you are also participating in the Splash of Color Quilt Along I hope that you are pleased with your progress so far. If you like black and white quilts and haven’t been over and checked out the progress of the other projects yet, be sure to do that. Everyone has chosen their own project, so this QAL is very interesting, even as a spectator sport. 🙂

P.S. Colour Inspiration Tuesday resumes here tomorrow! Yay!

Also linking up to Freemotion by the River, Wednesday Wait Loss, Quilt Fabrication, Needle and Thread Thursday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts.

October 31, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection 4

Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection 4 from Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday, 31 Days of Everyday Quilt Inspiration Finale and October 2017 Roundup, all in one!!!

Well!

Today is the last day of the 2017 Write 31 Days bloggers’ challenge! I’m actually not sure how I feel about that! A little sad…. A little joyous! Lost….. Free….. Excited…. Tired. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

I learned a lot. About myself, about quilting, about the world around me, about blogging. I noticed things I normally pass by and learned more about those things so that I could write about them. I found others’ blog posts on related topics. My blog post writing speed is now faster; and for better or worse, my posts are probably sounding more like the unedited me. I really hope you enjoyed the series and got something out of it. If you have been reading along – faithfully or sporadically – Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 31

It seems fitting that today being both a Colour Inspiration Tuesday and the last day of my 31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday series, that we should be due for another Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection. Another set of 12 mood boards to inspire your crafts and quilts.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection 4

A quick summary of the ideas behind Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection 4…..

Since the last Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection we have used colour boards as a springboard to talk about getting the colours you want from your photos, how the contrast between a silhouette and a sunset makes the colours more brilliant, and how magnifying the things around you can give you a whole new perspective.

There was a new quilt design and a revisit of an old one.

Revisit: Sunset Wall quilt design, coloured three ways

There was also one quilting design in the mix: Bougainvillea Surprise.

The Fourth Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection

To access the colour palettes and complete posts of Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection 4, click on the thumbnails below.

Beyond mood boards and their associated posts

But October 2017 was so much more than just mood boards! We had a tutorial on Shadow Trapunto, joined in the Art with Fabric Blog Hop and met my great aunt.

Pacific Cleaner Shrimp art quilt — Art with Fabric blog hop

We looked at lots of quilt design ideas. In addition to the two from Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection 4, there were 5 others of note.

There were two discussions about appliqué inspiration, including a free downloadable file of 6 gecko shapes.

Hermit crab appliqué — Hermit crab design

And we also explored the ideas that have inspired some of my quilts in the past. Here are two of my favourites.

Children's Drawings — Children’s Drawings

fabric scrap quilt — Other People’s Scraps

Even after all of these, there were still plenty more ideas…. For more colours from October visit Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection 3. For the entire 31 Days of Everyday Quilt Inspiration series, start here. This latter post contains the complete list of links to the whole series.

Staying Connected

I hope you had a wonderful October. I sure did, although I hope you managed to fit in more quilting or sewing than me. And I also wish you all the best for a November full of blessings.

This coming month I will be sharing tutorials for two Christmas tree decorations made primarily of fabric and other scraps from my quilting adventures. One of these will be part of a much bigger project – the 2017 Ornament Exchange, with tutorials from 47 different bloggers. If you don’t want to miss these, sign up for email reminders on the sidebar or follow along on Bloglovin’. We will also be revisiting the Splash of Color Quilt Along at some point soon.

If you like colour inspiration, you can find all my previous mood boards anytime in one easy location on the main menu. Or keep an eye on my Pinterest account.

So that was October. November awaits, ready or not! See you there!

P.S. Now that I have finished my own 31 day blog series, I will have more time to catch up with some of the other writers who participated. Have you read any of the other Write 31 Days series from this year? Would you recommend any?

I can recommend an excellent series to you. My blog friend Joy from “Days Filled with Joy” wrote a fantastic series on 31 Days of Earning from Sewing and Quilting! It’s all about how to turn your quilt hobby into cash and it’s very thoughtfully written. Joy is also an extremely lovely individual and has a nice community of quilt friends that interact regularly around her blog. Pop over, say hi and tell her I sent you. 🙂

P.P.S. Linky parties I enjoyed this week:
Cooking up Quilts, Love, Laugh, Quilt, The Quilting Room with Mel, FreeMotion by the River, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom 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!