Here be Dragons!: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Dragon Block Release Day

Should it be any surprise that the Chameleon thinks he is a Dragon?

A Chinese legend concerning the origin of the dragon tells of an Emperor who waged war with nine tribes. As he defeated each tribe he added features of their totems to his own. Thus the dragon ended up with a lion’s mane, bug eyes like a shrimp, a big mouth like a bull, a nose like a dog, whiskers like a catfish, antlers like a deer, scales like a fish, a long tail like a snake, and claws like a hawk. The Chameleon has but one word for such a professional ishape shifter…. RESPECT!!!! 😀

The Chinese Dragon symbolizes power, nobleness, honor, luck, and success; a supernatural being of talent and excellence. Dragons like to embrace challenges, take risks and lead with aplomb. The Chameleon truly believes that he is all these things and much much more! So he must be a Dragon, right? Did I ever mention that he is one thoroughly vain lizard?! Truly, he looks in the mirror and see this:

And so it is that I am often left wondering both how to tame my crazy “Dragon” friend, and why my alter ego is far more Dragon-like than me. While I am a bonafide, card-carrying Dragon but certified introvert who is happy to leave leadership to other people, the flamboyant, irrepressible Chameleon is actually a tender and lovely fluffy bunny Rabbit. Don’t tell him, but my earliest concept sketches of the Chameleon are from mid 2011, not 2012. He’s gonna have some issues to work through with that, so let’s just change the topic and release the Year of the Dragon block instead. Shhhh.

Also find out more about my new and upcoming 2021 sew along in this post. Starting soon!

Fingers still crossed, 2021 will be a more Charming year

introducing my newest sew along

How would you feel about focussing on friendship, identity and positivity in your sewing space this year? In a totally light-hearted, non-superstitious and low-commitment shallowish Chameleon kind of way, of course; no pressure for self-improvement, resolutions, reflections or any of those serious adulty things. I have a project in mind that is purely celebratory – of the person you are, the things that you like, and the things you wish for. Or the person you are sewing for. Touchstones of happiness, represented in a well-known, recognisable form.

So, shall we sew…… Charm Bracelets?

The Current Plan

I know that 2020 has left many people isolated and/or hurting, and in the past some of the things that have helped me when life is challenging are friends and sewing, especially when the two coincide. So, I am dreaming a bit bigger this year than I have for previous sew alongs – and I am hoping for some support too, in the form of audience participation. I will supply the pattern for the chain links (paper-pieced and appliqué versions) and some appliqué “charms”. Then I am hoping that you will help me by adding a charm or few for yourself, or even better, for everyone to choose from.

The charms only need to be really simple appliqué motifs. If you can draw the basic outline of a shape you can do this. Of course, I will provide plenty of charms for you to collect, but the idea is that this project is also open to contributions from anyone. Designer-bloggers are invited to join a monthly hop where they can provide themed templates of their own. Non-bloggers are invited to draw their charm ideas to share with fellow readers via the Chameleon. And the Chameleon will also take suggestions from readers for extra charms that meet the monthly theme if he has time. Collect, Design, Share.

If this sounds like something that would make you smile, then I hope you will join me in my new project, whether you’d like to design, or sew, or both.

Charmed so far

This week I have been test-sewing and refining the main block for the paper-pieced version of Charmed. One could say, I have been chain piecing. No, not chain piecing, chain piecing! As in – sewing a piece of chain. This is a single 8″ block.

And it can be repeated as many times as required to make a chain.

There will be another similar block that will allow the chain to turn corners for the more committed sewists, but I haven’t completed that one yet.

Once the chain has been created it will be time to decorate it with charms. Here is an example I mocked up. The charms I am planning are mostly simple – think emoji-level detail in one or two colours. But you could definitely colour/embroider them as you wish.

There are so many possibilities for quilt layouts once you have your charms…… here’s some of the rough ideas I have been thinking about…..

There are so many things you could do with this project – it all depends on who you are sewing for and what size quilt you want. It would also make a good quilt to work on as a group if your guild/sewing group is looking for a cooperative project. I hope you are getting inspired….

A Tentative Schedule

I intend to have a theme per month for the charm appliqués, to give the project a bit of focus. So far I have:

February – love and friendship tokens

March – luck, hope, good fortune

April – land animals, Easter and the great outdoors

May – beach and ocean

June – children’s toys, names/alphabet letters

July – national and cultural icons – eg flags, foods, symbols

August – favourite household items, sewing symbols, hobbies

September – garden and insects, birds

October – scary, mythology, fairytales, magic

November – music, weather, celestial bodies

December – Christmas, religions, peace

January 2022 – transport, New Year, miscellaneous

It won’t matter if (when) there’s overlap in the themes between months – there will be no charm police. And if there are major themes I’ve missed, now is the time to help me out with that! I’ve got a lot of things going on this week…. first aid course, uniform shopping for two new schools, visiting my dad for a few days, etc etc.

I will promote motifs shared by the Chameleon’s friends in the third week of each month, through embedded links to committed participants and a linky party for casual contributions. If multiple people share similar motifs, that is perfectly wonderful. There are many styles of the same charms out in the real world, so we can embrace the same here too.

What do you think? Are you interested in actively participating in the charm collection? Spread the word – everyone’s welcome.

And now to the Year of the Dragon Lunarcy block….

If you were born after Lunar New Year in 2012, 2000, 1988, 1976, 1964, 1952, 1940 or 1928 etc the Dragon is your Chinese Zodiac animal and today I am releasing our special block. I hope you are more Dragonish than me, although perhaps more subtly than the Chameleon.

The Dragon is the fifth animal in the Chinese zodiac and the eleventh download in the Lunarcy series.

Part Eleven of the Lunarcy Quilt pattern is available to download via the button below. This new pdf supplies you with all the appliqué templates you’ll need to create the Year of the Dragon appliqué and his Chinese lantern.

This quilt pattern is very kindly supported by Island Batik, who supplied all the fabrics to me for the sample. The fabrics I used are detailed in the pattern, and are all from their Foundations Basics and Blenders collections. This means that if you wish to use any or all of the same, they are still available through your favourite Island Batik stockist.

Year of the Dragon download

**** It is really important that you print this pdf at 100%, otherwise your pattern pieces will be the wrong size for the quilt blocks. Turn off any “fit to page” options in your printer dialog and ensure that the printout size is set to 100%. There are check boxes supplied in the document. If your printout is successful, these will measure 1″ square. The document is designed to fit on US Letter and A4 paper. ****

Inside the Year of the Dragon pdf you will find the templates for the dragon and his lantern, and also an appliqué placement key. The placement of the blossoms is given as a suggestion, but feel free to add as many or as few as you’d like.

The next release will be the Year of the Rabbit appliqué.

The Lunarcy Quilt measures 75.5″ x 94″ and is designed for a single/twin bed. Part 1 of the pattern lists the fabric requirements and details how to put the quilt top together. It is your choice whether you prefer to do this before or after the appliqués. You can download Lunarcy Quilt Part 1 here. Part Two of the pattern is the Branches and Blossoms motifs used throughout multiple blocks. There will also be 12 animal appliqué files, of which today’s Dragon is the ninth. You can still find the Rat pattern, the Pig pattern, the Dog pattern, the Rooster pattern, the Monkey pattern, the Goat pattern, the Horse Pattern and the Snake pattern at their respective links. The remaining animals will arrive in this order: Rabbit, Tiger and Ox.

I hope you will enjoy making something from this pattern and I’d love to see what you’ve made if you do. If there are any problems with the file, please let me know.

And, your weekly dose of Linky Inspiration….

Quilters are masters at creating simple symbols, motifs and imagery. Just take a look at these from the past week’s linkup.

Now, it’s your turn….

Do you have something to share? 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!

---

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!