Love with a Twist: Nifty Neck Balloon Giraffe

Nifty Neck Giraffe appliqué from the Love with a Twist series by Dione Gardner-Stephen of Clever Chameleon

Shall I tell you a tall story….?

Sure! Once upon a time, there were two slightly naughty, spotted goats who lived with their grandma in a thatched cottage in a small village. Their names were Girome and Giraldeen, and they were non-identical twins. Girome had already grown a little larger than Giraldeen, and a little bit naughtier too.

Girome and Giraldeen, the balloon giraffes

One day Girome said to Giraldeen, “I spy a new lolly jar! Let’s raid it”. And Giraldeen replied “I like your thinking, but we’re banned from climbing the shelves. Remember?”

“Ahhh…..” said Girome, “But Nan didn’t ban us from using our Ninja skills. We won’t be climbing to get it”. And with that Girome fetched a rope.
“Ninja skills?! Do we have Ninja skills?” wondered Giraldeen. “Indeed” assured Girome, “We are kids, of course we have Ninja skills”. And he tied the rope around his middle and explained to Giraldeen what he wanted her to do.

Disaster!
Girome and Giraldeen, the balloon giraffes

Giraldeen had never been particularly good at sports, but Girome insisted. Honest! So Giraldeen whirled Girome around and around with the rope, attempting to throw him up to the lolly jar. But unfortunately, when she let go, Girome overshot the shelves. Instead of nabbing the lolly jar in an awesome Ninja move, his head lodged in the thatch in the ceiling, where he stuck fast. Giraldeen’s throw was way off the mark!

Attempting to put things right, Giraldeen pulled and pulled on the rope, but when Girome finally popped free his neck was streeeeee-tched. Giraldeen took one look and burst out laughing. She was laughing so hard she couldn’t talk. “Gir….. Gir…. ha ha hafff, Gir hahahaha, Gir haff”, she spluttered.

Read on to finish this tall story, collect your two gir-haff balloon pdf patterns and find out all the details for making the most of the next block of the Love with a Twist quilt along.

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Love with a Twist: Wonder Wader

Wonder Wader Flamingo appliqué from the Love with a Twist series by Dione Gardner-Stephen of Clever Chameleon

It’s that time again!

My monthly Ambassador challenges are done. Various minor and secret projects are plugging along according to schedule. So my thoughts are free to turn once again to our Love with a Twist sew along. 😀 Yay! I’ve had so much fun with these to date. How are your blocks going?

This month we are standing tall and tackling Block 3. The first option for Block 3 is a lofty Flamingo, in a few days we will have an even loftier giraffe. A balloon animal quilt would not be complete without the option of a giraffe, don’t you think? Quite so! But, Wonder Wader, the flamingo is first. Keep reading to collect your flamingo balloon pdf pattern and find out all the details for making the most of the next block of the Love with a Twist quilt along.

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Always Choose Tropical: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Always Choose Tropical colour scheme by Clever Chameleon

Always Choose Tropical

I am slowly working through a huge backlog of blog-relevant news and quilty happenings! I can’t believe July has been such a huge month, it certainly wasn’t forecast that way. Or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention! Anyway, we’re halfway in, and I still need to post two Love with a Twist patterns (aiming for one on Friday), an unboxing post for Island Batik (next week), and a number of other smaller things I’m messing around with.

But before all that, I really want to give you the lowdown on the Chameleon challenge quilt that I made for our recent Festival of Quilts, “Always Choose Tropical”. It was so much fun to make and show, so let’s do that now.

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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……

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Success at Festival of Quilts 2019

"Always Choose Tropical" chameleon quilt at the SA Festival of Quilts. By Dione Gardner-Stephen of Clever Chameleon

The Chameleon gets his 15 seconds of Fame!

The Chameleon will have to forgive me for taking so long to get around to making a chameleon quilt now, don’t you think? Not only did I make him a quilt FULL of cheeky chameleons, but I showed it in our local Festival of Quilts, and it won its category’s blue ribbon. That ought to keep him off my case for a while!

The weekend just gone was the annual Quilters’ Guild of South Australia’s Festival of Quilts. After judging, entrants who are successful get a specific invitation to the awards and opening ceremony, but no indication of the flavour of their award. Happily, happily, happily I got one of those calls. So I toddled off into the city centre on Friday morning to accept my prize.

Four competitive ribbons

Turned out, it was four prizes, one for each quilt I entered. I had dared hope that the chameleon quilt would place, because I put my all into that one. Anything that wasn’t perfect on that project met Mr Ripper, pronto. But two of the other ribbons were pleasant surprises, and the third was more of a very pleasant shock.

If you will indulge my excitement for one post, I will show you what I entered in our annual quilt show and what I was awarded. Two of the awarded quilts were made primarily for this blog in the past year, so I hope you will also accept my thanks for reading and giving me a reason to make more quirky quilts. 🙂

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