It’s been a week of good progress on a few things, but…..

Do you ever find, the less urgent and less important a quilt project is, the more attractive it is to work on?! That has been my struggle for much of this week. The Regatta Quilt, which is supposed to be my project for weary evenings and small slots of otherwise wasted time, has been calling to me…. “Sew me…. Sew me….. Please sew meeeeeeee! You know you want toooooooooo!”

The Regatta Quilt is a sew along being hosted by Home Sewn by Us. The quilt is designed by Daniela O’Connell and you can get the free pattern  here.  The sew along originally appealed to me because there are no deadlines and no pressure.  Something to fit in as time allowed. But of course, now that I’ve started, I am sucked in and could happily sit and sew until it is done!

I am making my Regatta Quilt with a jellyroll that I was gifted years ago. I threw away the packaging long ago, but I have dug up the details. The fabrics are “Pedal Pushers” by Lauren & Jessi for Moda fabrics. I am making this quilt for my daughter, as she is fast outgrowing some of her early childhood quilts.

Regatta Quilt Design Finalised

My self-restraint started out well. I cut some white strips and put them aside. I even joined pairs of white strips together into longer strips some time later, and again put them aside. Then! One evening I decided to choose a layout for the coloured strips, and….. well you know how it goes! Hours later…… way past bedtime…..

The Regatta Quilt calls for 19 pairs of coloured fabric strips and a light background fabric. My layout challenge was that the Pedal Pushers jellyroll doesn’t have pairs of fabric strips. Only a handful of fabrics are repeated. The rest of the jellyroll is made up of unique strips. So, I paired similarly coloured fabrics together and placed the more subtle of each pair of prints on the right and the bolder prints on the left. The picture above has a few gaps where one strip will be cut and used in two places.

Last night I did treat myself to a little sewing. Of course, I *should* have been writing this blog post.

Good thing I have a furry helper stopping me from sewing any more of it today. I only laid it out on the bed to look at it, honest……!

Coming up soon on Clever Chameleon

This morning I worked on my charity quilt for my One Monthly Goal. I have been designing a new FMQ motif to share with you in a mini tutorial next week (update – you can find the motifs here). As you will see, I have had a lot of fun with it.

The Beary Colourful BOM update

The rest of my sewing time this week has been dedicated to testing my pattern for the Blue Bear block for the Beary Colourful BOM in February. Super fun. There will be sneak peeks on facebook closer to the end of the month, so  like Clever Chameleon on FB to meet the blue bear before Feb 1!

In the meantime, I am deliriously happy to see a few red bears appearing on the internet and social media. Have you made your red bear yet? There is still time to do a bear, or another red project to enter into Jen’s Color Challenge linky party at the end of the month.

Bears on Instagram

The very first red bear shared with me was this cutie by Jeannette. Jeanette managed to share her bear with me via Instagram, despite us both being absolute rookies with this platform!  I am currently still getting the hang of this social medium, so I don’t actively promote my account yet. But if you would like to share your red bears with me via Instagram you will find me at @cleverchameleon. 

Notice how Jeannette has used a fussy-cut cupcake fabric print to fill in the tummy? This is a brilliant idea and a great tip for beginners. It is also a good option for anyone on a tight time budget.

Bears on facebook

More bears….. Several people have also been kind enough to share their bears with me on facebook. I was very excited when Denise shared her bear-in-progress, because she is doing turned edge appliqué! I have to take my hat off to her, as I thought some of the small details might not transfer well to this technique. But she has included everything! 

Jean has made her red bear in raw edge appliqué with pink paws and a beautiful mottled background fabric. Isn’t he a character? Jean has been so encouraging as well – thanks Jean!

Bears on the Internet

Finally, I want to share that Lynette from What a Hoot Quilts has made her red bear too. She wasn’t supposed to start a new project just now – but I’m so glad she did. I especially want to show you Lynette’s, because she is doing her bears Quilt-As-You-Go. This is another great idea that you could do too.

Isn’t everyone so clever? I hope I get to see lots more red bears at Jen’s link up in late January. But if you would like to share them with me in the meantime, I am all eyes.  You can send me a pic on Instagram (@cleverchameleon), via facebook or email (scroll right to the bottom and you will find the envelope icon).

P.S. Have you been following the latest Island Batik Ambassador blog hop? This is the last project for the 2017 Ambassadors, and I am really enjoying this hop. So many great ideas from so many talented quilters. Today there is a wow! quilt on the the hop at Slice of Pi Quilts. Wander over and have a look.

P.P.S. Linking up with Freemotion by the River,  The Inquiring Quilter, Quilt Fabrication, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Confessions of a Quilt Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts, Busy Hands Quilts.