What’s all the stink about?! Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

There’s no gilding this Lily!

I don’t, as a general rule, do Halloween. Except for this! This is a Dracunculus vulgaris, a Stink Lily. Also known as a Voodoo lily or Dragon Lily. It grows green and lush in winter from a fascinatingly hideous tuber thing, and has the most amazingly beautiful leaves and dappled stalks. And then it flowers in Spring with huge purple lilies in mid-late October. Just in time for a naturally stunning Halloween display of offensively stinky flowers before it dies back down to avoid the Australian summer.

Don’t let appearances fool you!

This is one of five flowers I’ve had this Spring in my Dragon Lily patch. And it reeks. The air has been super still here the last two afternoons , and the backyard has smelt remarkably like a rotting carcass. A big one! As you can see in the picture I took yesterday, there are flies on the lily. It is a carrion flower – it smells like a zombie and relies on flies for pollination. As soon as pollination is complete the flower then suddenly stops reeking of death, and starts looking like it instead. No mucking around.

I went out to measure this one for you this evening, (50cm/20 inches long BTW) and it is already odourless and just a little droopy. Job done, apparently. Of course, the flies get nothing out of the pollination deal…. no rotting meat for their eggs after all. Such is life, I suppose, when you cavort with the undead!

Appearances can be deceptive in sneak peeks too……

Something else in my life nearly as purple and just as beautiful, but far less on the nose, is the Blue Sea fabric collection from Island Batik. If you remember from last Tuesday, I am making a Storm at Sea quilt. I have made good progress, and today’s sneak peek is likely the last until my latest quilt design appears here on the blog on November 5. Did I mention that it’s not “just” an ordinary Storm at Sea pattern? It’s got a sea-cret twist. 🙂

Well, surely you weren’t expecting a normal Storm at Sea quilt…. the Chameleon is many things, but we rarely get accused of being normal! 😀

The Storm at Sea is gathering size and momentum

There is really very little to say about my week, except that I have been sewing. And sewing. A lot. In between Mrs Mum Taxi duty to the biannual State Cub Scout Camp, a birthday party, the new season of swimming lessons….. you get the picture.

The one downside to not doing a standard Storm at Sea quilt is that it means I cannot mindlessly mass produce the blocks and zip them all up together. Instead, there is a lot of getting the right colour into the right position for my design to emerge. But it’s proving all too easy to get things transposed and rotated and just plain wrong. Hence, it’s slow going. But I’m getting there. Here is your sneak peek of my week, in pictures.

Hopefully the rest of the quilt will come together more quickly now. Like a jigsaw, surely it will get easier after some pieces have been locked into place. Although, also like a jigsaw, I have started with the easy edge pieces, so we will see how that pans out.

I’m not the only one who’s been sewing a lot

Gail at Quilting Gail has been sewing a lot too….. and has nothing to show you just yet. But she has found an internet halloween quilting gem, so if you are after a little quilt-related giggle, go take a peek at Gail’s post. She has pics of her considerable collection of Bonnie Hunter quilts for your enjoyment too.

Sandra at mmm! quilts has been busy with several finishes. Including her version of Cluck Cluck Sew’s pattern “Touchdown”. This beautiful quilt full of love, words and texture was made for Sandra’s adorable grandson. I love this quilt, and I don’t even like football. That’s impressive form!

And you always knew there was something fishy about that Chameleon, didn’t you?! Now there’s evidence. Courtesy of Andrea at Mouse in My Pocket, who has been getting the jump on her handmade Christmas presents. She has already made an impressive set of fish for a fishing game. Terrific!

Time to join the fray

What are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? We want to know so we can visit, in between dodging frustrated flies…. I’m sure your post will be a breath of fresh air! 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.
• Do it now……. before you forget! That would stink!

---

The Chameleon turns rainbow with pleasure when he hears from you. I am more reserved, so I will respond in gratitude by email instead, although I am a little behind at the moment. 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!