Vanuatu Turtle Appliqué Finished!

Vanuatu Turtle Appliqué complete

Vanuatu Turtle Appliqué Finished! – A Splash of Color Quilt-Along Update

Done! My Splash of Color Quilt-Along quilt top is constructed. The red border strip is added, the piano key borders are on, and the Vanuatu Turtle appliqué is laid out and stitched down. Both layers. Happy days!

The last time I formally up-dated you on this quilt for the Splash of Color quilt-along, I had all the major pieces constructed and the centre blocks pieced into one unit.

Vanuatu Turtle quilt progress

Then I decided this quilt needed a little push to get it done on time and out the way of some other projects. So I nominated it as my One Monthly Goal for my link up with Elm Street Quilts. By that point I had finished constructing the pieced part of the quilt top and had fused down the aqua turtle appliqué pieces.

Vanuatu Turtle Appliqué stage 1

Since then, I have been working very hard on this project. And now I have finished sewing down the aqua Vanuatu Turtle appliqué layer, fused on the red overlay and just this morning, finished sewing that down too! So, that means my quilt top is finished. 🙂

Vanuatu Turtle quilt top finished

The current link-up for the Splash of Color quilt-along at Busy Hands Quilts requires that I have a finished flimsy quilt top to enter. So we are good to go! With 19 hours to spare! As I pointed out in my One Monthly Goal post, this last minute thing really has got to be wound back a little……

Vanuatu Turtle Appliqué Progress and Process

Anyway, I thought you might like to see some pics of the progress between the last update and the finished top, so here are the highlights.

Vanuatu turtle appliqué layer one — Stitching down the first layer of the Vanuatu Turtle appliqué.

aqua Vanuatu turtle appliqué finished — Aqua layer of the Vanuatu turtle appliqué finished

Vanuatu Turtle appliqué second layer — Laying out the red Vanuatu Turtle Appliqué pieces

Close up of raw edge appliqué — At the moment, my go-to appliqué technique is raw edge appliqué. Fast and furious for busy mums! I free-motion straight stitch around the edge of each piece 4-5 times to secure them well for everyday use.

Vanuatu Turtle appliqué layer two — This morning…. mild relief as I hit the last appliqué piece.

Vanuatu Turtle appliqué finished — Finished!

Here’s the back. I simply use the batting as the stabiliser for my raw edge appliqué when I can, so currently this quilt has the top and batting layers but no backing.

back of Vanuatu Turtle Appliqué — The back of my raw edge appliqué

Next job…. piece a backing and get this quilted. Any suggestions on a quilting motif? I think perhaps some sort of large simple swirl/wave curl pattern in grey might be in order. I certainly don’t want to add to the complexity of this quilt any further.

Have you seen the other completed quilt tops in Myra’s Splash of Color Quilt-Along? I have enjoyed this exercise immensely and I’m going to get a finished quilt to keep…… Not something that happens at my house very often. I only Start quilts to keep. I usually Finish quilts to give away! Anyone else out there with this problem?!! I suspect I am in good company…… let me know. 🙂

Linking up with: The Quilting Room with Mel, Cooking up Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt, Sew Can Do, Freemotion by the River, Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Midweek Makers, Confessions of a Quilt Addict, Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts.

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 or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Thanks for your support!

December 7, 2017January 19, 2024

UFO Attack December 2017

Just this once I am going to be Done. on. Time! Ha! Just to find out what it feels like!
Welcome to My One Monthly Goal with Elm Street Quilts

Well, there is really only one thing to say about late November/early December if you have school age kids in Australia!!! But I suggest you plug your ears first! Here it comes…….. “Aaaaaggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”

Thankfully, I believe the worst of the concerts and end of year break-up parties and special excursions and graduations and farewells and etc. etc are done with, and the end is in sight. School is out for the summer in a week’s time….. which will bring it’s own joys and challenges, but also hopefully, more sewing time. I really, really hope more sewing time. Because there are several projects I want/need to get on top of. Which leads me to…..

My One Monthly Goal for December

On the top of my list to finish for December is my Vanuatu Turtle Quilt. Here’s where we were at on the 24th of November.

black and white quilt in progress — Most of a quilt top

And this is where I need to get to by New Year. A completely finished version of this…..

Vanuatu Turtle quilt plan

Some background info in case you are new here….

This quilt is my project for the Splash of Color QAL at Busy Hands Quilts. A quilt along that encouraged everyone to choose their own project, as long as it fit the theme of black and white, with colour highlights. Then it was up to us to keep up with a set of deadlines for quilt construction milestones.

Currently the milestone on the table is to have a finished quilt top (flimsy). The whole way along I have been running down to the wire to get each milestone done before Myra’s linky closes. And of course, my current status is no different….. the opportunity to link up a finished quilt top will expire on Monday.

But I am getting there….. yesterday I added the first layer of the turtle appliqué. I was going to sew the appliqué down today but I like to machine appliqué with the batting under it. And the batting I rinsed out last night is not dry this morning…. of course after a record-hot Spring we had showers early this morning………

turtle applique in progress

Anyway, I should be able to get the aqua appliqué layer sewn down tomorrow, and then once the red pieces are ironed on I am calling this flimsy done.

So that just leaves the finish line…… a completed quilt. The linky for finished quilts opens on the 2nd of Jan 2018. Technically I have until until the 15th Jan to be linked up. But, I hereby declare that I intend to have my quilt done by the 31st of December, thereby being ready BEFORE the last linky opens, rather than throwing my URL under the descending roller door of a rapidly expiring linkup, again! Can I do it? With OMG at my back, anything is possible! 🙂

Why such enthusiasm to get the Vanuatu Turtle Quilt done?!

Good question! Well, I need to put this quilt to bed (so to speak) so I can get on with some new exciting projects for 2018. Otherwise I fear it will end up on my UFO pile.

There are two things that I am currently planning for Clever Chameleon next year that are making me really happy just thinking about them. Both are BOM style projects that will be available for you to follow along with if you wish or to go back to over time. I hope at least one might appeal to you.

Exciting Project 1

The first project is a joint BOM quilt with Joy of “Days Filled with Joy”. We are going to be doing a skill-builder quilt. One that focusses heavily on techniques that you can use to texturise or embellish a quilt. We are still finalising the details, but I can tell you it will be a house block quilt and will start a little way into 2018 after all the New Year dust has settled. This one will be very informal and lots of fun. I’ll keep you posted as we get closer to launching.

Exciting Project 2

I am thrilled about my second big project for 2018 because it will complement my weekly colour board posts very nicely! It is the brainchild of Jen from Patterns by Jen, and involves a monthly Color challenge. This one kicks off on the 1st of January 2018, so not long to go now!

Jen is doing a colour challenge BOM quilt project, with free patterns and instructions available to you from her website. She has asked for a small group of quilt bloggers to support her by either making her blocks or something else in her colour of the month. I have opted for the second option and will be doing a Beary Colourful quilt. Twelve appliqué bears in Jen’s 12 colour challenge themes. Oh happy day! This one is making me wriggle with anticipation already!

I will be giving away the instructions for each bear each month on the same schedule as Jen. My aim is to get some of those scraps moving from my sewing room…… want to join in?! I’ll keep you posted on this project as it develops too.

And of course, linking up to One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts! There are a lot of goals linked up this month! Go check it out!

Wishing you all a fabulous December!

P.S. Also linking to Confessions of a Quilt Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts

If you would like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I find all over the internet, you can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Thanks for your support!

November 24, 2017January 19, 2024

Black and White Friday

black and white quilt under construction

From the Sewing Room: Vanuatu Turtle Quilt Progress

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve updated you on the quilt that I am doing for the Splash of Color Quilt Along at Busy Hands Quilts. I have been slightly distracted with the homemade ornament blog hop and a few other small projects. They’ve been lots of fun, but I must admit, it’s really nice to get back to quilt making again.

The current milestone in the Splash of Color QAL is to have all our blocks completed, ready to sew up into a finished quilt top. If you haven’t been following along on this journey, you can find the relevant links here:
The quilt along guidelines and schedule at Busy Hands Quilts
My design thoughts and fabric choices
My cut pieces – appliqué preparation
The blocks for my quilt centre completed

In a nutshell, my plan is to make a quilt with fabrics predominately from Vanuatu. The intention is that this quilt will be a memento of our family’s visit there earlier this year. It will also double as a TV snuggle rug and protection for the couch from the cat. This is roughly what I’m aiming for:

My Vanuatu Turtle Quilt design for the Black and White and Splash of Color QAL

So, the progress report….

Now I have all the components prepared for my quilt top. I have sewn the centre blocks from my last check-in together.

black and white quilt

And I have sewn up four border strips.

border strips

It would have been quicker and simpler without the assistance……

Cat affected quilt

black and white cat — You can’t prove anything…..

Now all that remains is to combine these pieces with a red strip border to create the flimsy. And then it will be time to add the appliqué. 🙂

black and white quilt under construction

Short and sweet this week!

If it’s part of your heritage, I hope you had a special Thanksgiving. And wishing everyone a great week ahead as we enter Advent. My kids are eagerly anticipating the hanging of the Advent quilt (aka the candy-pockets quilt)! Do you have any Advent or Christmas quilts that will be making their seasonal appearance soon? I’d love to hear from you!

P.S. Don’t forget to go see what the other Splash of Color QAL participants are up to.

Also sharing on:
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Crazy Mom Quilts

October 25, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Turtle Fabrics

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

About a month ago I signed up for the Splash of Color quilt along from Busy Hands Quilts. The rules mostly consist of a few deadlines for the quilt stages, and that the colours of the quilt are to be predominately black and white with colour highlights. Apart from that, the direction the quilt takes is up to each quilter.

So, I decided to do a quilt with some fabrics my husband bought me in Vanuatu some time back. Two of them are black and white, the other is red. Here are my original fabrics and the post I wrote about my idea for a black, white and red turtle quilt.

black and white and red fabrics from Vanuatu — The fabrics for my Splash of Color quilt inspiration.

Vanuatu décor color scheme from Clever Chameleon — The colours in our Vanuatu bedroom.

Since that post, we have been back to Vanuatu to continue Paul’s humanitarian telecommunications research. While we were there I acquired more fabrics specifically for this project :). And some more inspiration. I decided to add a little greyed blue or teal to my splash of colour, thanks to the Vanuatu décor in our bedroom.

Here is my final pile of goodies to work from:

Vanuatu fabrics — The white, grey and teal fabrics are from my stash here at home. The red and black fabrics are all from Vanuatu.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 25

The next challenge in the Splash of Color quilt along was to choose a quilt pattern. Well, I am not known for working to a quilt pattern. So I have opted to design as I go, as per usual. But I do have a basic idea of where I am headed. I am making a turtle quilt inspired by the tribal turtle motif on two of the original fabrics.

I have now designed my turtle appliqué. It is influenced by the turtle above, but also by a beautiful turtle batik I have in my collection. If you like batiks, you might recognise this fabric, its been around for a while.

Turtle batik fabric from Lunn Studios for Artisan Batiks from Robert Kaufman Fabrics

I actually started a quilt for my nephew two years ago inspired by this turtle batik, that I also intended to put a turtle appliqué on. But he got a monkey quilt instead. Long story for another day. But it s nice to be returning to the turtle idea. Perhaps I can knock off this UFO too.

My Turtle Appliqué Quilt Design Concept

Here is my turtle appliqué design:

It is quite likely that the quilt background will be significantly different from my quick diagram. The basic plan for the background of the quilt is to create 8×6″ finished blocks out of the black and white fabrics. Some blocks will be fussy cut 6″ squares. Some blocks will be created from 4″ and 2″ squares, with possibly some half-square triangles and/or pinwheels thrown in. I will decide on their overall layout at the end. Basically, I am going to give the free die that comes with the Accuquilt GO! cutter a whirl.

Accuquilt GO! die

Then, the intention is to add a 1″ red border, and then an 8″ piano key border in black and white. It will finish at 66″ square and I will bind it in red. Or teal. Subject to mind changes, of course!

Where am I at?

Well, the sharing link for having the fabrics cut opened 10 days ago or so. So, you can tell I am a little behind schedule as usual. But the link is not closed yet, and I have my appliqué printed, traced and cut out, so all is not lost!

Turtle appliqué design — Turtle appliqué templates

Turtle appliqué cut out — Here are my turtle appliqué pieces. The teal fabric will be mostly covered by the red, so I bought a cheap Prima solid for this layer.

I actually have no intention of pre-cutting my black and white fabrics. I will do this as I create blocks. Not efficient if I was producing a quilt from a pattern, for sure. But it is the way I design quilts from scratch. So I am claiming that this QAL stage is done to my satisfaction. And I hope you will find my design process more interesting if I actually report it like it is rather than showing you just the end result.

Linking this post up with the Splash of Color QAL on the cutting fabric page.

If you would like to see the other projects in this quilt along, the original ideas links are found here. There were 14 projects joined up from the very beginning – there may be some late comers too if you keep an eye on the progress linkys. There is certainly a great variety, you are sure to see something that inspires you!

See you again tomorrow!

Linking up to:
Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Freemotion by the River, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts

October 22, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Previous Quilts

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Have you ever made a quilt for someone and wished you had a second one to keep? Have you ever made a duplicate for that reason?

Or have you ever made a quilt that you thought could be better? And then been so driven to actually make the better version?

Sometimes the best ideas for your next project might just lie in your last project!

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 22

Since we are talking about my quilting friend Susan (well, at least we were, yesterday), I want to tell you about a quilt I made for her milestone birthday a few years back. I called it: Tomato on a Snoozy Pizza. Yes. Really!

Tomato on a Snoozy Pizza quilt — The Kool Kaleidoscope quilt I made for Susan

This quilt is a slight variation on the Ricky Tims Kool Kaleidoscope. I changed the method to better suit my strengths, but the overall principle is the same. I also added a little appliqué to the kaleidoscope at the last minute to correct areas I wasn’t happy with. The kaleidoscope’s colours came from the batik border fabric. I knew Susan would love it.

Now about the quilt’s name…… When I was laying out the large wedge-shaped pieces for the kaleidoscope medallion, my young son (who was about three and pronounced Susan as “Snoozy”at the time) insisted that I was making a pizza. And proceeded to “help” me by laying extra pieces of red fabric on top.

“What are you doing, matey”.

“Putting tomato on Snoozy’s pizza, Mummy”. hahahaha

And Snoozy’s pizza it stayed!! 🙂

How I was inspired by Snoozy’s Pizza quilt

I was really happy with how Susan’s quilt came out, and she loved it too – I even managed to keep it a surprise for her. 🙂 I didn’t really want another one just the same, but I did want some token to remember it by. So, I set about making a miniature version art piece out of the scraps.

miniature art quilt

At the time I did this project I had been learning thread painting and was also starting to take an interest in embellishing quilts with other materials. So this mini quilt has thread painting, ribbon and felt to represent the original, more conventional quilt. There is no piecing in this piece. Only appliqué and embellishment.

Kaleidoscope mini quilt detail — Thread painting and satin stitch were added to create some of the details.

The only supply I purchased specifically for this project was the green ribbon for the inner border.

To finish off, I stretched the mini quilt over a paint canvas and added a hanging wire. I am very happy with my token reminder of the original quilt Tomato on a Snoozy Pizza.

I would never have thought to do a project like this, if I hadn’t been motivated to have a keepsake of the quilt I made for Susan. But now it is one of my favourite keepers.

What about you? Have you ever made a quilt inspired by previous project Please comment, we’d love to hear.

Tag: applique