Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Barking Geckos

barking geckos in Vanuatu

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

One of the things I really like in Vanuatu is the barking gecko. Actually, I like all geckos, full stop. They do the job of spiders without being anywhere near so nasty about it. We have geckos at home in Adelaide, and there are geckos in many of my favourite destinations in Australia. All different sorts and shapes of geckos, but all a variation on the non-threatening, insect-eating, big-eyed and big-toed small nocturnal lizard. Most geckos make noise of some description, but the barking geckos in Vanuatu are LOUD. It is unbelievable how much noise a tiny lizard can make!

barking gecko

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 11

I have been intending to add Vanuatu’s barking geckos to my everyday quilt inspiration series pretty much since the beginning. I would love to be able to FMQ their shapes onto a quilt such as the Tanna Island quilt design from Monday, or maybe even the black, white and red quilt I am planning for the Splash of Color QAL. They would also make great silhouette shapes for appliqué. For that matter, appliqué is an easier place to start with a new shape because it does not require drawing skills in real-time. You can edit until you’re happy. 🙂

barking gecko

How was I inspired by the Barking Geckos?

To start me on my gecko journey, I photographed several barking geckos as they hunted their evening meal by the light over our backdoor. Then I traced their forms. This gave me instant shapes I can use for appliqué silhouettes, but also a place to start working out a formula to quilt them freehand.

Would you like some gecko shapes for appliqué? Here are the six that I traced today. They are small so I could fit them all on one pdf page, but you can enlarge them as you need. Download my barking gecko silhouettes pdf here: Barking Geckos

How to quilt Barking Geckos

What makes a shape a gecko? Well, for these geckos it is a distinctively shaped head, the angle and size of the legs, the bulbous toes, the fat tummy and a tail that is about the same length as the rest of the lizard combined. When I can recreate these shapes with relative ease, I will be able to quilt barking geckos.

Here is my first attempt at free-hand drawing a barking gecko. Only happy with one of the four legs…..

barking gecko outline

Here is my second attempt.

free-hand barking gecko outline

Better. Three legs are great. The head is right. The tail could be a touch longer, but who would notice? Actually, if I could quilt geckos that looked no worse than this reliably I would be happy. If anyone is analysing my quilting shapes that closely and critically, we are not likely to see eye-to-eye about life’s priorities! So, my conclusion is…. with a bit of practice I think I will be able to quilt geckos. Yay!

barking geckos, Vanuatu

I hope you like geckos. I do! If you like quilting critters, you might also like my post in this series about hermit crabs.

You can also find the start of my 31 Days of Everyday Quilt Inspiration blog post series here. And you can find the Write 31 Days website here, for hundreds more 31-day series on all sorts of topics.

Also, the Fall 2017 Art with Fabric blog hop is now well underway. You can find Day 2 here. My favourite blog post from this set of artists is by Heather about her quilt “Dancers”. She describes how she takes her inspiration and turns it into an abstract representation. If you are looking for more ways to turn your everyday observations into quilt designs, I think you might like her post.

See you tomorrow!

October 9, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Picnic Play Quilts

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Tanna Island Quilt design So…. I think it’s probably time to start playing fair again. 🙂 Finding quilt inspiration in volcanos might be fun, but as I admitted earlier, it is hardly everyday for most people, and certainly not for me. That said, you can take any landscape that you love and turn it into an abstract half-square triangle quilt like I did for Tanna Island. All you need is a grid of half-square triangles (HSTs) and some coloured pencils, or Inkscape software (a free open-source program similar to Illustrator).

As a small thank you for reading along, I am adding a downloadable pdf today of the HST grid I used for the quilt design I showed yesterday. You can download the grid here: HST grid and use it to design your own abstract landscapes.

HST grid I am also happy to share the .svg file for this grid if you are using Inkscape, to save you drawing up your own. However you will need to contact me with a valid email address, as WordPress does not allow direct uploads of .svg files. The advantage of using Inkscape (or other drawing software) rather than pencils and paper, is that you can colour in the triangles with the colour picker and change them easily until you are satisfied.

Anyway, I probably should have thought of these additions yesterday, but it was 10pm before the internet here would accept my post. And I was feeling seedy from a travellers’ tummy bug thing. So here they are now. And I am feeling much better, so it’s time for…..

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 9

children playing chess

I have to admit that I woke up uninspired for a topic for the Everyday Quilt Inspiration slot today. For the first time. Usually I have to choose from ideas, thankfully. But this situation didn’t last long, as my children decided to play a game of chess. And that reminded me of a set of quilts that I have wanted to make for a very long time. Picnic quilts that double as games.

Which Picnic Quilts would I like to make?

The possibilities are almost endless, but here are some of my favourites that I think would make fun picnic quilts:

Hopscotch
Snakes and ladders (or any variety of this game)
Chess and/or Checkers
Chinese checkers
Backgammon
Othello/Reversi

The trick is to make it big! Small picnic rugs are a pain for everyone except romantically inclined couples. And who doesn’t love an oversized game? Not many kids, that’s for sure! The playing pieces could be made as quilted discs (appliquéd with details if required for games such as Chess) or as beanbags or similar. Or use your plates as playing pieces!! 🙂 Coleslaw takes the sausages! LOL.

I would make my quilt with storage pockets, or even as a quillow with carry handles. The hardest decision is which game to make first?!

Chess board

Chess is probably a good one to start with…. the board is super simple, and could be made from practice FMQ quilting squares put together as quilt-as-you-go. Any two contrasting colours will do, so you can make it to suit your preferences. Only trouble for me is, chess is the one board game I detest. Always have. Maybe I should start with backgammon…..

Which board game would you most like to turn into a picnic quilt? Or a play mat. I just suggest perhaps not to put the hopscotch quilt on the bed……. 🙂

See you again tomorrow… it’s Colour Inspiration Tuesday!

P.S. Are you following along on the Art with Fabric blog hop tour? Start here to see all the fabric art creations on this quilt-hop-with-a-difference.

P.P.S. I revisited this subject on Day 19…. jump forward to find more ideas on picnic quilts using noughts and crosses, hopscotch and backgammon.

October 8, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Tanna Island Quilt

Mt Yasur volcano color scheme from Clever Chameleon

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Yesterday, I told you about our adventures on Tanna Island, and served you up some colour inspiration straight from the depths of Mt. Yasur. I hope you got a sense of how spectacular the volcano tour was. It would be a shame not to honour that experience with a full attempt at quilt inspiration.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 8

Mt Yasur colour scheme from Clever Chaneleon Today being Sunday has given me more time to work on this post than most days. So I have happily been working on translating my volcano quilt idea mentioned yesterday into a visual representation to show you today.

First, I gathered the inspiration photos I needed. Apart from the ridiculously large colour board from yesterday, I also needed some visual references for the sea surrounding Tanna Island and the jungle that grows right up to the base of the volcano.

Here are the photos that I chose:

Jungle on Tanna Island, Vanuatu — The jungle on Tanna Island.

At the base of Mt Yasur — The rock formations and grey sides of the Mt Yasur volcano.

Tanna Island beach — The coast of Tanna Island, with volcanic sand beach.

How was I inspired by Tanna Island?

I wanted to capture all of the colours of Tanna Island in a design that could be pieced into a quilt. I thought the design should be evocative of both the volcano and the other areas of Tanna Island.

Tanna Island quilt design by Clever Chameleon — My Tanna Island quilt idea

So, I set up a grid of half-square triangles and coloured them in to represent the ocean, the sands, the jungle, the sides of Mt Yasur, the ash/steam and sulphur plumes, and the after-dark fireworks show. To tie it all together and add interest, I set myself the goal of having a secondary design. I used colour value contrast to create the illusion of diamonds and zigzags throughout the design.

Quilting Tanna Island?

I am not sure that I will ever get to making this Tanna Island quilt. One Vanuatu quilt on the go is probably quite enough! And while it is a simple matter to design a quilt with so many colours, it is quite another to translate it into real fabrics. This design would be a BIG project. But all that said, not all inspiration needs to be acted upon to be useful or good. Every time you stretch yourself to think outside your usual quilting habits you grow your skills and reinforce resources to draw on in the future. Ideas have a habit of percolating until they are needed one day. I’ll be letting “Tanna Island” percolate for a time. 🙂

What about you? Do you keep a journal or record of quilt ideas you might like to explore one day? In some ways, that is what this 31 days of everyday quilt inspiration slot is becoming for me. An ideas journal, with you to keep me focused on getting the ideas recorded. Thanks for being here!

P.S. The latest Art with Fabric Blog Hop starts tomorrow! FInally! My post is on Friday, but you can find the rest of the week’s itinerary in the meantime at Tweety Loves Quilting. It should be a really interesting collection. See you there! 🙂

October 7, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Mt. Yasur Volcano

Mt Yasur Sunset color scheme from Clever Chameleon

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Now, I realise that calling today’s Everyday Quilt Inspiration slot “everyday” might be a little far fetched…… There are only a handful of the people in the world who can genuinely call watching Mt Yasur erupt an everyday experience. But, if you can walk away from an active but relatively friendly volcano and not be inspired in some way, then you are a hard nut to crack! And inspired I was! So today we are exploring volcanoes.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 7

Yesterday’s adventure started with a fly-over of Mt Yasur on the way to Tanna Island. This is what Mt Yasur looks like from the air. We did get to see lava in the crater as we banked over, but photos were difficult from the tail end of the little Cessna Air Taxi.

Mt Yasur from the air — Mt Yasur, Vanuatu

The landscape around Mt Yasur is often described as lunar. It certainly feels like nothing else I have ever experienced. It is surreal leaving footprints in the fine grey ash.

When you get to the top of the volcano, you are greeted by plumes of smoke and steam, smells of sulphur, and lots of noise. But not a lot of visible lava activity. It was nerve-racking to begin with…. the path around the top was not particularly wide, and the sudden noises from the volcano set off my flight responses continuously. In addition to the threatening bangs and rumbles, I’d just trekked through a field of cooled lava bombs. At some point it dawned on me that sometimes the volcano is not friendly. Indeed, yesterday the volcano was at it’s maximum activity allowed before the tours are cancelled.

Looking out from Mt Yasur — Thankfully, when the volcano gets too overwhelming, the view in the opposite direction is spectacular too.

How was I inspired by the Mt Yasur Volcano?

As the sun set, the colours of the lava became visible. Imagine our excitement when we first saw the volcano’s heart.

By the end of the evening, when it was truly dark, the show was spectacular. I forgot to be afraid. Pure awe took over.

I could have watched this beast for hours. It was absolutely mesmerising.

Mt Yasur Explosion color scheme from Clever Chameleon

I took a lot of photos. Many were rubbish. It is hard to photograph an unpredictable volcano with whirly-whirlies spiting dust and stones at you. But there are a few shots that I will treasure forever.

Mt Yasur Fireworks color scheme from Clever Chameleon

And there are a few more that are not brilliant from a photography perspective, but the colours are amazing. One of my favourite photos is the one from the colour board at the top of this post. The focus is slightly off, but the mood is phenomenal. Have you ever considered that a photograph does not have to be technically brilliant to be a great source of inspiration? Especially if you are after colours!

A Mount Yasur Quilt in the offing?

Colour boards are all I have time for today, but there is an actual quilt idea percolating in my head from yesterday’s experiences. I think a real volcano can warrant two days of quilt inspiration, don’t you? I will try to get my idea down “on paper” for tomorrow’s Everyday Quilt Inspiration spot. If not, I will surprise you with something else. 🙂

I am also putting these colour boards into my ideas folder for the black, white and red Vanuatu-inspired quilt that I am planning for the Splash of Colour quilt-along. Most appropriate!

What about you? Do you use your photographs for craft colour inspiration? Are you able to look past the subject matter and/or your photography skills to see the colours? You might be surprised at what you find in your happy snaps if you look at them with a different mindset. Why not try putting a few photos through a free online program like Canva’s Palette Generator just for fun? But beware….. it’s addictive!

I hope you’ll be back here again tomorrow. You can follow along by email or Bloglovin’ to make sure you catch the entire 31 days of my Everyday (and occasionally extraordinary day) Quilt Inspiration series.

You can also find lots more 31 day series on all sorts of topics at the Write 31 Days website here. A great way to get a feel for lots of bloggers you may not have noticed before. Thanks for coming by!

October 6, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Coconut Lorikeet

Coconut Lorikeet colour scheme from Clever Chameleon

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Yesterday we treated ourselves to lunch at a resort, situated just past one of the Vanuatu villages where we are working to develop emergency telecommunications. It turned out to be a good idea, as the owner is an Aussie who was able to help us out with quite a variety of local intel.

While we were waiting for lunch, my next quilting inspiration wandered up to greet us (actually to try to steal our soft drinks and our shoe laces).

Coconut lorikeet eyeing off soft drink — A moment after this shot, that empty coke can was toast.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 6

The resort has two pet lorikeets, who wander among the guests biting shoelaces and climbing backpacks. I admit, at the time I assumed they were rainbow lorikeets like the birds we have back at home in Australia. They are indeed similar in size and colour and behave just as poorly: loud, rude and bossy! But now looking at the photos, it is clear that they have a different colour pattern that is more muted than the Australian rainbow lorikeet. I believe they are a subspecies of Coconut Lorikeet.

coconut lorikeet in glass — Bottom’s up! Clearly these birds have partied before!

Coconut Lorikeet on backpack — Smug success…. yes, you are well aware you aren’t welcome on the backpack, bird!

How was I inspired by the Coconut Lorikeet?

Because these characters were so persistent about sharing our resources, I had plenty of opportunity to take all sorts of photos. And it will definitely be fun to create appliqués from some of the poses. Like I did for the hermit crab yesterday. Sadly I don’t have time to mock you up an example at the moment, so you will have to settle for a colour board and some cheeky bird pictures so I can go to bed. Here’s one last picture of the lorikeets checking out Paul’s telecommunications equipment.