Artsy Fartsy Self-Portrait: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Another 15 seconds of Fame for the Chameleon

Last Tuesday I was battling to find Artsy Fartsy inspiration for July. I was tired from neighbourly construction noise, end of term-itis, and from madly preparing quilts for showing. Tiredness is definitely not good for creativity. Thank you to all the lovely people who reached out with sentiments of empathy.

The good news is that the kids are now on hols, the quilt show was a resounding success and the demolishing is finished. I can cope with construction noise on just one side of our house! But before any of these resolutions occurred, on Wednesday last I went back to bed after I sent the kids to school for some catch-up sleep. I even snoozed though trucks being dump loaded with bricks! And of course, when I awoke, my head was full of new ideas. Bing!

Something I wrote last Tuesday stuck in my head and specifically resurfaced after sleep…. “the Chameleon is off colour”….. Oh! We should fix that. Game On!!!

So, what happened next was that my Artsy Fartsy Christmas wreath took a dive in the priority queue. Specifically yielding to some new threads for the Chameleon. And more specifically, Aurifil threads, in partnership with Island Batik. Read on to see my new Artsy Fartsy project; it’s finished and not changing again, I promise. Although, with a challenge name like Artsy Fartsy, I hope Aurifil aren’t hoping for output that is too highbrow. ‘Cause the Chameleon is in a silly mooooood……

The fabrics and threads featured in this post were given to me to use in my role as an Island Batik Ambassador.

Artsy Fartsy: Pretentiously Artistic

Artsy Fartsy means “Pretentiously Artistic”, according to Merriam-Webster. Honestly, I’m a bit surprised that the Chameleon wasn’t specifically named in that dictionary entry. 😀 Maybe he will be, after this post.

But in light of this definition, I thought….. “What could possibly be more artistically pretentious than a thread-painted self-portrait of an imaginary Chameleon? Surely nothing!” So, that’s what we did.

Taa daaaaaa!

Oh yes, we did! Bahahaha.

The Process

Aurifil specifically asked for blogs to share the details about how their threads were used in the Island Batik Ambassador projects this month. And you know, I like to tell anyway. So here goes….

The Threads

These are the Aurifil threads I have access to. I started a Christmas wreath pillow with them last week. But that’s on hold. If you visit that post, however, it has the details of the weights of all the threads in my budding collection.

The Background for the Chameleon’s Selfie

I always start thread painting with a piece of fabric that matches one of the main colours, in this case a 10″ of “snake skin” by Island Batik. If I don’t choose an appropriate fabric, I find that any gaps in the stitching look a bit messy. It’s easier to get a nice finish on a background that blends in.

I layered my batik over HOBBS Thermore, then a scrap of HOBBS cotton batting on a scrim and finally a layer of tear-away stabiliser. For a piece this size I didn’t worry about pinning.

I then started thread painting with the Aurifil 50 wt cotton threads.

Where to start, and which thread to start with was arbitrary, as my initial aim was simply to stitch a block of thread colour that I could later turn into a piece of art.

The variegated orange and yellow thread #4150 was great for this task because it looks like several thread colours without the effort. 😀

After I had laid down some stitching with each 50 wt colour I have, I moved onto the 40 wt cotton threads in my collection. At this stage I am still just stitching random blocks of thread colour.

Then I added some 28 wt Aurifil cotton.

And a 12 wt Aurifil cotton thread. I was a bit lazy here – I should have changed up several needle sizes but I didn’t and I got away with it because Aurifil cotton is a good, strong, smooth thread and I slowed down my stitch rate here. I wouldn’t try this with a 12 wt Lana (wool blend) though.

I finished off the gaps in this stitching and evened out the colour distribution with more 40 wt and 50 wt thread.

The Chameleon’s Portrait

Once I had a piece of thread painting big enough, I needed a way to accurately draw the portrait of the Chameleon. I decided the best way to mark out my chameleon was with freezer paper. I used my brother ScanNCut to cut out a stencil of the Chameleon’s cheeky features and I placed him over my thread work. We spoke of pressing matters while I ironed him down.

I haven’t tried this before, but the freezer paper stuck sufficiently well that I could stitch in the gaps with a dark maroon 28 wt Aurifil thread colour #2465.

An Important Aside

Aurifil claims its cotton threads to be strong, lustrous, magnificent in colour and virtually lint free. In the interests of honesty and your trust in my blog, I will tell you that I do find Aurifil to be strong, to have a really beautiful sheen and to be glorious in colour. However, in my Sweet Sixteen, I get copious amounts of lint. Whether this is a problem in other setups I cannot tell, this is just my experience over the last 18 months.

I can also tell you that I typically don’t run 100% cottons in my Sweet Sixteen, so I don’t know how this build up compares with similar threads of other brands. The 40 wt Aurifil, which I sometimes use for quilting Island Batik projects, isn’t as bad as this 28 wt, but it is still too linty to use in the bobbin.

Peeling off the freezer paper revealed the splendid Chameleon. I was originally thinking to cut out the Chameleon and place him on a different background, but then I decided he’d rather be a framed portrait. So now I had an unplanned blank area that needed filling somehow……

Which brought me to the answer to my original question… “What could possibly be more artistically pretentious than a thread painted self-portrait by an imaginary Chameleon?” The answer is “A signed, thread painted self-portrait by an imaginary Chameleon!” I hope you are laughing, because I am.

A big signature for a big, pretentious Chameleon!

I marked the writing with baking (parchment) paper and removed it as I stitched.

That just left me to fill in the edges of the background that I had previously ignored due to thinking that they would be cut off, and to come up with an idea for framing.

The Self-Portrait Finish

In the end I settled for two paper “mats” to set off the Chameleon’s wonderful artwork and a big bold fabric frame. Now he has his statement piece to hang in his boardroom, or wherever it is that Chameleons with inflated egos hang out. 😀

Don’t you think it was lucky for the Chameleon that I wasn’t asked to feature invisible thread?! Emperor’s New Clothes!!

The Chameleon is also an Art Curator

Or at least he now fancies himself as one. hahahaha. Give him an inch……

From last week’s link ups, the Chameleon Artiste-cum-Artist has a new friend! Drama Llama! I am told Lucille the Llama has flair and the personality to go with it. And won’t settle for anything but an atmosphere fit for celebrities. By rights, she and the Chameleon should get on like an Arthouse on fire.

You will find Drama Llama at Pieceful Thoughts of my Quilting Life with Wendy. Perhaps Wendy can also make a No Prob Llama to add some balance to this situation. 😀

Even before the Chameleon fancied himself as an art aficionado (more than usual), he liked quilty texture. And Sandra from mmm! quilts has been playing with Lots of quilty texture. mmmmm! She tried out Superior Thread’s Texture Magic (affiliate link) to be precise, a product also on my long-term must-try list. The Chameleon gives full marks to Sandra’s Pastel Froth art quilt for texture and touchable goodness!

And what would an artsy fartsy missive be without a bit of embellishment? Yes, the textile kind, as we’ve probably already had enough of the story kind today! Andrée from Quilting and Learning – What a Combo! can always be relied on to test out different artsy things for us. These stitched motifs are buttonhole wheels. Very cool!

I hope you will head over to some or all of these links for some quality quiltin’ discussions. Thanks to everyone who linked up last week, and please show us what you’re up to this week. We’ll see you back here in a few days, with hopefully a less pretentious Chameleon on board.

Help turn the Chameleon’s attention outwards…..

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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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!