Gnome for the Holidays: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Quilt, quilt as fast as you can!

A surprise package of quilting-friendly weather arrived here at Arkaroola yesterday. You’d never know it now, but the week started out with days of 37C (99F), with severe wind and dust storms. Some poor school holiday campers in the caravan park even had to down their tents and book emergency accomodation in the main village; it was simply that YUCK. But then yesterday a cold front rolled in and now it’s raining. Today’s predicted maximum is 14C (57F)! I know, crazy, right?! Spring!

Mr. Mew is not happy. He’s just finished shedding his winter coat everywhere. So he’s cold and clingy. I am personally grateful for the sweet juxtaposition of the cooler weather, the school holidays and no travel commitments – perfect for quilting. I’ve just finished all the patchwork for my “It’s a Garden Party quilt” and I’ve started on the appliqués. First I stitched the pigeon and bird bath centre panel, and now I’m working on the blocks around it.

I’ve told the cat to stay off the quilt from now on – it’s been declared gnome man’s land. By way of reply, Mr. Mew pointed out that it is he who gets up to mischief at night, steals my bobbins and kills all my plants. Turns out, Mr. Mew is a fully qualified, card-carrying member of the Gnome Society. Figures.

My “It’s A Garden Party” Garden Party Quilt

What do you call a psychic gnome who has just scarpered after commiting a crime?

A small medium at large. 😀

Hahaha, sorry, got distracted. My daughter has recently discovered that her parents (particularly her father) are “Not Funny”^TM. Strangely, I now find myself increasingly looking for material that is “Not Funny”. Unfortunately for her, her parents are both quite easily amused and her brother has not yet developed an allergy to Dad jokes. Cruel.

Anyway, back to the Garden Party quilt progress…. here are the main details of my final design.

This is the bottom left hand corner of the quilt. As you can see, it has a garden gnome, as well as a birdhouse and a flower bed. The gnome and birdhouse are based on Joan’s Gnome in my Garden design at Moosestash Quilting. The pink bird is from Cheryl’s block at Quilter Chic, and the hummingbird and flowers are rearranged from Brenda’s design at Songbird Designs. The gnome is also slightly altered from Joan’s original design in that his hat had to be downsized to fit. I resisted the (very strong) urge to add a lucky pigeon message to the gnome’s hat. I decided that the bathing pigeon is not of the gnoming variety.

Moving On

This week I have also added the Floral Vine block by Patti of Patti’s Patchwork to my quilt. I placed it next to the Coneflowers I made earlier from Beatrice’s (of Pumpkin Patch Patterns). You may notice the coneflowers have been staked and size graded since prior musings – if you like them, I did it. If you don’t, it was that blasted gnome.

I also added a gecko (from Paula of Mountain Meadow Designs), two mushrooms (from Teresa of Your Sewing Friend) and some bunting from Debra of Tuning my Heart Quilts). The top right hand corner of my Garden Party quilt is now a happening place alright!

Not to be outdone, the folks in the bottom right hand corner upped their party game. The birds, turtle, and frog from the Garden Friends block (Your Sewing Friend, Teresa Weaver) were joined by a flamingo from Debra of Tuning my Heart Quilts. The flamingo took one look at the place and insisted on some landscaping – tulips and bluebells by Teresa, daisies by Joan and water lilies from….. ? Hmm mystery Gnome Depot ring-ins I think. Gift for the hostess, perhaps.

And to finish, for the top left hand corner I made the top third of Karen’s runner design from The Quilt Rambler.

To me it looked a bit like a bower… so I added more birds from Cheryl of Quilter Chic and flowers from Moosestash Quilting Joan’s Gnome in my Garden. That gnome sure has been busy.

That’s about all I can show you today. There is one more major block in the quilt, on the right hand side, but it isn’t released in the row along until Thursday. So it has to remain gnome of our business until then.

Oh dear.

Come back next week for the full reveal!

This week’s Garden Party schedule

Congratulations to the winner of the LED Lighting kit giveaway on my post of the It’s A Garden Party row along. The winner was Laurie A – I hope Marian has been in touch with you. Thank you to Inspired LED for sponsoring the row along again this year.

Here are the final stops on the “It’s A Garden Party” row along. Don’t miss any of the patterns, or the last rounds of giveaways. Thanks to Marian at Seams to be Sew for running this event.

Tuesday, October 06, 2020

Bumbleberry Stitches | Charlie’s Daughter
Seams To Be Sew | The Quilting Room with Mel
Words & Stitches

Thursday, October 08, 2020

Duck Creek Mountain Quilting | Lynn’s Beauty
Quilt Art | Renee’s Quilting Addiction

And of course, you can still download my block pattern. I will keep it up for free until at least the end of October.

Enjoy!

Clever Chameleon’s Bulletin Board

Before we get to last week’s linky features, I want to share another quilt along you might like. My dear friend Joy, who blogs at Days Filled with Joy, has just announced a brand new quilt along:

This is a vintage inspired quilt with a little piecing, a little appliqué and some optional embroidery. It’s not a long commitment (finished October 26), and not a mystery sew either, so why not pop over and take a look at this sweet little project?

Your weekly dose of Linky Inspiration….

Since this week has been all about the weather surprises here, and it’s currently raining, the Chameleon could not go past a quilt flimsy of umbrellas in the link up!

That’s your Chameleon Quota for the week. Now it’s your turn to share!

Joy is not in things – it is in sharing quilt ideas (and hanging out with Chameleons). So, tell us – what are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? 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!

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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!