You’ve Goat to Be Kidding Me: Colour & Inspiration Thursday

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Goat Block Release Day

Welcome to a special edition of Colour & Inspiration….. yes, it’s a Thursday. One last curveball for you for 2020. Might as well finish the year in the manner to which we have become accustomed! 😀 And besides, I was flat out like a lizard drinking on Tuesday, moving the last of our things between houses. It’s good to be done now though. 2020 has a line under it and 2021 is a clean slate.

I hope you had a great Christmas. We had a lovely quiet one in the lull between episodes of moving house. We got the tree up with rudimentary decorations on Christmas Eve, and all the presents bought and wrapped on time. Santa’s cover is intact while my kids still choose to engage in their carefully cultivated temporary suspensions of disbelief.

Our preparations did not stretch to Christmas crackers on the table though and I can’t say I missed them. But I researched one last baaaad but relevant Christmas joke just for you anyway….

How does a Goat sign his Christmas cards?
Season’s Bleatings!

I can’t think of a better way to see 2020 out than with a goat. Just kidding. I totally can (curries aside). Butt, a goat appliqué to kick off my New Year’s Eve is a good start. Writing this, I did find out one last interesting thing for the year – the group noun for goats is “a trip or a tribe”. Perfect. 2020 has been pretty trippy, on and off collectively speaking – so let’s honour its passing with the Lunarcy goat.

And thanks for being part of my tribe in 2020.

Goodbye 2020 and Hello 2021.

This is the moment when I would normally reflect on my quilting achievements for the year and set some goals for the future. But this year I have only one finished quilt and one finished flimsy. So my wrap-up is most succinct: quilting-wise 2020 was the Year of the Lunarcy quilt and the Spring Garden Party.

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Short and sweet.

And my goals for 2021 can be summed up just as easily. Sew more, finish more quilts, write more patterns. I also had specific phd quilt plans for 2020 that I never even started, so I am simply going to recycle those for 2021. You can see all the details in that post from a year ago if you are interested in what’s in my UFO cupboard. A lot of well-travelled quilt parts, having now been to Arkaroola and back!

At Arkaroola…

…. we finally said goodbye. Our Outback year is over – it’s kind of surreal to think we moved to Arkaroola in January 2020 and now we are back in the city until our next excuse to wander presents itself. But with our eldest starting high school, such opportunities will likely be limited for a while.

Thanks for sharing my 2020 adventure from afar, I hope you have enjoyed the window into our Outback life and School of the Air experience. Here’s some photos of our final trip out from Arkaroola.

Goodbye “Fauna House!”

Pausing briefly at Echo Bend and Italowie Gorge on the way out to admire the scenery without the kids and cat in tow.

The rains this year have made a huge difference to the health of the large trees along the creeklines, even though the total is still below average. We really hope the area continues to get rain over the summer before the winter dry returns.

The recent rains have also suited the emus. There are lots of new emu families to be spotted on the drive from Arkaroola to Port Augusta: all the chicks about half-grown and hanging out with their Dads. (Mum lays about 10 eggs, convinces Dad to sit on them and shoots through long before they hatch in search of another wanna-be-single-father). Here’s a group that had 5 large chicks (one out of frame), with Dad making sure we stayed in the car.

Closer to Port Augusta, we passed the Pichi Richi Railway volunteer folks running a diesel engine on the heritage railway, pulling flatbed carriages of new rail sleepers. This freight train (NT76) was built in 1968 and is the last remaining of its kind, the rest having been scrapped 30 years ago. While the ladies drove the train and manned the caboose, the gentlemen were dispensing the sleepers to where they will be used along the track to replace the worn logs.

The diesel tourist train won’t resume until March and the steam trains won’t run again until the fire risk drops in April, so this sighting was an unexpected bonus.

Now to Goat on with it…

If you were born after Lunar New Year in 2015, 2003, 1991, 1979, 1967, 1955, 1943 or 1931 etc the Goat is your Chinese Zodiac animal and today I am releasing your special block. People born in the Year of the Goat are traditionally seen as gentle, kind-hearted, shy, stable, sympathetic and just. They are also touted to be creative and persevering – so if you are a Goat, I want to know…. Do you actually finish most of your quilts?

Part Eight 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 Goat 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 GOAT 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 Goat pdf you will find the templates for the goat 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 Horse appliqué. Not my tween daughter’s zodiac sign, but one of her favourite blocks regardless. As you might expect.

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 Goat is the sixth. You can still find the Rat pattern, the Pig pattern, the Dog pattern, the Rooster pattern and the Monkey pattern at their respective links. The remaining animals will arrive in this order: Horse, Snake, Dragon, 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….

Here are my last 2020 Chameleon party highlights for you.

And that’s it. I hope you will take 2021 by the horns, no ifs or butts. A Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all! See you next year!

Now it’s your turn to party! Link up something to celebrate…

Tell us – what are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? Do you have a 2020 review or 2021 goals to share? 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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