Welcome to Colour & Squirrel Tuesday!
Last night I was sifting through my email inbox and came across a reminder that September is Make Modern Magazine’s birthday month, and that they are throwing a party. And we all know how the Chameleon loves a party, so I thought I should take an evening off the paperwork to join in the festivities.
The result? An orange patchwork cat mini quilt top, and a very small dent in my orange and brown fabric scraps. 😀 The party runs until the end of September, so consider this your invitation! The Chameleon always loves a “plus one”.
Happy 5th Birthday, Make Modern!
Make Modern, the Australian online modern patchwork magazine is turning Five, and September’s Issue marks their 30th publication. To celebrate, they are inviting everyone to make something in September from any issue of Make Modern and share it on Instagram for a chance to win from a great list of prizes.
I own a few issues of Make Modern, and from them I have a huge list of wanna-makes. So many good ideas, so little time….. However, one small and doable Make Modern project that has been on my list for almost five years is Geometric Kitty by Jane Kelly and Kristy Lea. It was published in Issue 5….. how’s that for a fun coincidence?
The original Geometric Kitty in Make Modern issue 5 is a black and grey tabby.
You can see a beautiful blue version of this pattern by another South Australian quilter, Cassandra Madge, here on her blog. Or you can find it here on Instagram:
I knew the name Cassandra Madge was familiar…. she is also the piecing genius behind this win at the latest Royal Adelaide Show….
Anyway, I digress. I decided to make my Geometric Kitty in oranges and brown. You may be familiar with my black and white fur baby Mew, but you are less likely to be aware that our family actually has two cats. Smoochy is our second cat. He is a long hair ginger tabby, and lives outside due to his difficulties in accepting his role as a loving member of our family. Mew is the replacement indoor cat we adopted after three long years of trying to convince Smoochy to make the grade.
Smoochy is several cows short in the top paddock and a bit surplus to requirements. But because we rescued him by choice and consider that mistake a commitment, he gets fed and vetted and talked to from a safe distance, even though he gives back nothing much in return. He likes to chat, and smooch your legs, as long as you Do Not Touch or ask personal questions. He is scared of mice. Cohabitates happily in the shed with brushtail possums. And can’t find his way home from four houses away. In short, he’s quite clueless about being a cat. But he is pretty.
He thinks he is a lion-person-god-thing. He also believes he is invisible on green grass. I guess the green and his ginger both look the same shade of grey to him. He was beautifully clean until I pointed the camera at him. He then promptly rolled in the dirt. Did I mention contrary?
Although Smoochy was already 9 months when we got him, he was quite short haired at the time. I did not want, and do not ever want again, a long haired cat. As he gets older his fur just seems to get longer and longer. He is nearly 7 now. By the time he is 14 he’ll be tripping over that mane and I’ll be making a fortune from funny cat videos……
“If Smoochy is such a dunce, why is he suddenly on the blog?” you ask. Well, for the first time in his life, poor Smoochy has served a useful purpose. He has supplied the colours for my version of Geometric Kitty.
Geometric Kitty, Ginger Tabby Style
Here are the fabric scraps that I pulled out to make this mini quilt.
I didn’t take pictures as I went along. Sometimes a girl’s just gotta make. 😀
This is an easy pattern, with no really critical points that make or break the design. In a few short hours those scrappy scraps became this Geometric Kitty.
I resisted the urge to redraft the tail to a big fat puff. Because I am time poor, not because I have suddenly developed any self-restraint, don’t you worry!
Now all I need to do is finish this panel into a mini quilt or a cushion. Then I can enter it into the Make Modern birthday celebrations. You can make something to enter too – there is still time to make something small – a pillow, a pouch, a table runner or a mini. If you don’t already subscribe to Make Modern, you’ll need to buy an instant download of the issue with your favourite project in (for AUD$8, which with this moment’s exchange rate is just under US$5.50).
For example, you might like to make this quick pouch from the current issue (Issue 30).
You can peruse all Make Modern issues on their website. All issues are available for individual sale – or there is a terrific deal where you can buy a year’s membership with access to all back issues (and a free bonus enamel pin if you do it in September). There are other 6-month and 12-month deal combos too.
Birthday Party Instructions
The prize list and full competition conditions can be found here under the #highfivemakemodern menu.
Entering is easy:
1. Follow Make Modern on Instagram
2. Make any project from any issue of Make Modern magazine
3. Share a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #highfivemakemodern. Don’t forget to include which issue your chosen pattern is from.
This is my third project from Make Modern lately-ish
I made Sarah Scott’s Vegemite pillow for Caleb a couple of months ago. That was quick, and fun. He loves it; being Aussie, he loves everything Vegemite.
You can find Sarah’s pattern in Issue 29.
And for those who’ve been around since the beginning of this year, you might remember that I had a publication in Issue 26. Triangle Friends will take you a bit longer than a pillow, but it is pretty easy. All straight edge fused appliqué. For larger projects, a flimsy finish is all that’s required to join the 5th birthday celebrations – you could get that far.
Or there’s about 300 other projects to choose from. Time to get cracking!
This post contains links to products and posts for your convenience, including affiliate links. Using affiliate links does not change the price of your purchase if you choose to make one, but may result in a small commission being paid to Clever Chameleon for the referral. These payments help offset the costs of running this website, thank you.
Also time to check out last week’s party guests
My project is scrappy this week, so let’s see what other scrappy projects were partying with us on the Chameleon’s red carpet.
Julie at Pink Doxies is making a scrappy hexie quilt. She is machining these… that is a lot of Y-seams! Spare a thought…. But it sounds like Julie’s got it under control and is a master at those tricky start and stop points now. So much so, I think I’d like to give it a go one day!
Andrea at Mouse in My Pocket has a scrappy work in progress. She is making a baby quilt with her bright scraps. Isn’t it glorious?
But the Chameleon and Smoochy both want to know… “Why there is a mouse in Andrea’s pocket?” They both think a chameleon would be a better choice and cause less trouble….. (yeah right….).
And Yummy of Sew Yummy linked up this finished charity quilt. A scrappy nine-patch zig zag quilt – so simple and effective. Yummy’s quilt evolved in size and purpose over time, and I am sure someone is going to love it.
One last party for you to consider
The Once Upon a Story blog hop is still on, with your chance to win a copy of EQ8. There are only 13 more days until this amazing prize draw… I want this prize soooo badly, but I’d be happy for you if you win it instead. 😀 This week’s participants are:
September 24, 2019
Pumpkin Patch BC (Bremen Town Musicians)
Stitchin at Home (I’m a Little Teapot)
September 26, 2019
From My Carolina Home (Baa Baa Black Sheep)
Words & Stitches (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
Tuning My Heart Quilts (Little Bo Peep)
The Winner of the LED Lighting Kit from Inspired LED on Ursula’s guest post with the Pied Piper block was Dorie D. Congratulations Dorie! And thank you to Inspired LED for supplying the prize.
And BTW, I sewed all the remaining samples for our Love with a Twist blocks on the weekend, so September’s patterns will be ready for you ever so soon now. Hopefully the Elephants will be up later this week, then the Crocodile. Something to look forward to.
Join the Chameleon’s party this week!
What are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? Are you a scrappy quilter or a squirrel chaser? Or a thoroughly planned crafter? We want to know so we can visit and be inspired. Link up a blog post, an IG post or simply a photo from your computer. See if you can get the Chameleon to turn quilted with happiness. We’d love to see your quilting colours!
- Link up your latest or recent quilt/sewing excitement. All quilt construction stages welcome – finished quilts, quilt blocks – even fabric pulls! Or inspiration sources!
- You have 50 characters in the link description…. tell us who you are and what your fantastic project is.
- URL links are not necessary to link up…. non-bloggers 100% welcome! If you don’t have a URL, you can link up with just a photo.
- Take a moment to visit some friends who came to the party – leave a little love and make their day. And a link back to Clever Chameleon is always appreciated.
- Do it now……. before you forget!
The Chameleon turns rainbow with pleasure when he hears from you. I am more reserved, so I will respond in gratitude by email instead. Now that it’s your turn…. Scroll right to the end, leave me a comment and tell me, what do you think? Thanks for connecting!
Would you like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I design as well as find all over the internet? You can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest, IG or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Don’t forget to link up all your current quilting projects on Tuesdays at our Colour & Inspiration Linky parties!
Love your Kitty. It is a great pattern. I’m going to look it up too.
Love your scrappy Smoochy – just as handsome as the real thing! You’re a saint for taking good care of Smoochy. I’d have a tough time if I got nothing in return.
Your Smoochy and our Max ( a stray who came and went ) could be brothers so easily. He never slept on a bed, could not be patted, picked up or got close to. Then one day he had to go to the vet, he was really ill, with a friend we finally managed to get hold of him. Your boy was a superb inspiration for a patchy cat.
Hi Dione! Smoochy is just the perfect muse for this ginger tabby. I don’t even like cats but I sure like all three versions you’ve shared today. Would I be able to pick a favorite if I had to? Nope! ~smile~ Roseanne
Those kitties are my favs!
What a fun kitty quilt! Sorry Smoochy is such an independent kitty but you do seem to have figured out what each of you needs/gets. I honor your commitment to the cat even though he sure had other ideas about what belonging to your family meant.
Love your kitty, AND your contrary kitty, too. I will definitely check out Make Modern!