Our penultimate balloon appliqué for Colour & Inspiration Tuesday is here!
I’ve been shunning the internet as much as possible this week to work exclusively on my secret sewing Storm at Sea quilt for next Tuesday. But today I will briefly climb down from my hobby horse that has become a bit of a workhorse to bring you a seahorse instead.
Today our very last standard Block for the Throw size Love with a Twist quilt along – Block 9B. If you are making the Twin quilt, there is still one more bonus block to fill out the design. Read on to collect your seahorse balloon pattern and enjoy the art of making the balloon version on Youtube if you wish. All the Wow of balloon artistry, none of those squeaky noises. And then join our weekly linky party. Happy Tuesday everyone!
I don’t, as a general rule, do Halloween. Except for this! This is a Dracunculus vulgaris, a Stink Lily. Also known as a Voodoo lily or Dragon Lily. It grows green and lush in winter from a fascinatingly hideous tuber thing, and has the most amazingly beautiful leaves and dappled stalks. And then it flowers in Spring with huge purple lilies in mid-late October. Just in time for a naturally stunning Halloween display of offensively stinky flowers before it dies back down to avoid the Australian summer.
Don’t let appearances fool you!
This is one of five flowers I’ve had this Spring in my Dragon Lily patch. And it reeks. The air has been super still here the last two afternoons , and the backyard has smelt remarkably like a rotting carcass. A big one! As you can see in the picture I took yesterday, there are flies on the lily. It is a carrion flower – it smells like a zombie and relies on flies for pollination. As soon as pollination is complete the flower then suddenly stops reeking of death, and starts looking like it instead. No mucking around.
I went out to measure this one for you this evening, (50cm/20 inches long BTW) and it is already odourless and just a little droopy. Job done, apparently. Of course, the flies get nothing out of the pollination deal…. no rotting meat for their eggs after all. Such is life, I suppose, when you cavort with the undead!
Appearances can be deceptive in sneak peeks too……
Something else in my life nearly as purple and just as beautiful, but far less on the nose, is the Blue Sea fabric collection from Island Batik. If you remember from last Tuesday, I am making a Storm at Sea quilt. I have made good progress, and today’s sneak peek is likely the last until my latest quilt design appears here on the blog on November 5. Did I mention that it’s not “just” an ordinary Storm at Sea pattern? It’s got a sea-cret twist. 🙂
Well, surely you weren’t expecting a normal Storm at Sea quilt…. the Chameleon is many things, but we rarely get accused of being normal! 😀
You know that intolerable squeaky noise that balloons make when they are twisted and folded into shapes? Well, did you know, that’s actually the trapped soul of a departed parrot? The screeching balloon is passing on the parrot’s desire to party one last time before he heads off to wreak havoc in the afterlife. True! 😀 So, today we shall give the parrot soul a party-balloon body – perhaps that will satisfy him and he will leave after the cake without torturing us any further. One can only hope!
In October, we are onto our last two standard Blocks for the Love with a Twist quilt along – Blocks 9A and 9B. Today we have the free pattern for Block 9A. Read on to collect your parrot balloon pattern and enjoy Snowball the partying Cockatoo’s funky dance moves on Youtube if you wish. Happy weekend everyone!
I’ve not a lot to show you today, but I’m teasing you anyway. Since I finished off the turkey, much of my quilting time has been dedicated to secret designing and sewing. This is because the ambassadors who did not do the Island Batik blog hop in August are scheduled on a hop in November. That includes me, and I am slated for early in the lineup. So it is head down, tail up, madly sewing for the Chameleon for the fore-sea-able future. Give or take a couple of balloon animal appliqué pattern posts that I will publish as light relief.
But today, while I finalise October’s Love with a Twist offerings, and try to prevent my sewing machines from sensing an impending deadline, enjoy this taster for my stop on the “A Piece of” blog hop. Let’s sea what I’ve started!
Wishing all my Canadian friends a wonderful holiday for the coming weekend
Australians as a whole don’t do Thanksgiving, although many traditional churches do have a low-key harvest thanksgiving service in our late summer or early autumn. But I like thankfulness, and since it’s likely impossible to indulge in too much thankfulness, the Chameleon and I are getting on the Canadian bandwagon today. Happy Thanksgiving for the weekend and Monday, Canadian friends and everyone!
It wasn’t until last year that I became aware that Canada has its own Thanksgiving Day, separate from the American occasion. And then I forgot again. Until I was reminded recently by Ann on Instagram, after I showed previews of my current Island Batik project. And of course, I was also reminded again right here by several friends on Tuesday. So while, I wasn’t initially planning on having this project done in time for Canada’s holiday, I have since become enthused. After all, my Canadian readers might make up only 10% of my views, but easily several times that percentage of my commenters. You Canadians are such a friendly and encouraging bunch, punching way above your comment weight, and for that I am genuinely thankful.
And so it happens, that I have pulled out all the stops to have a Friday, Canadian Thanksgiving, Island Batik Ambassador October challenge finish. If you are not Canadian, like me and 90% of my readers, then today you get to take an extra, small thankful pause for free. And, if you’ve been eagerly awaiting for the turkey’s reverse side since Tuesday, then be extra thankful. Today’s your lucky day! Your wait has been cut very short and you are about to cop an eyeful.
