Mallee Ringneck Parrot: Colour Inspiration Tuesday and Linky Party

Mallee Ringneck Parrot color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Hello!! We are back safely from the Outback.

Which means I have internet and phone coverage again. And that means that I will be slowly catching up on all your lovely comments and seeing what everyone else has been doing on their blogs recently. Being off grid is nice for a while, but quilting is really quite a socially centred pursuit, don’t you think?

The technical isolation of the Outback does have an upside…. for me, heading bush is a time of mental clearing, and of gathering fresh inspiration. Space and time to think and muse over possibilities. Usually quilted ones. 🙂 Arkaroola is especially good for this, being so ruggedly beautiful, and also a bit of a magnet for artistic and inventive people. You never know who you will meet there and what you might learn.

Art class in Arkaroola
What is going on here?! Photo of herself with my boy supplied by Michele Lane.

Want to know who I met on this trip and what we did? Of course you do! 🙂

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The Red Buoy – Colour Inspiration Tuesday and Linky Party

The Red Buoy color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Colours good enough for Paul Signac are good enough for me!

On the weekend I was treated for my birthday with a ticket to the current exhibition at our state art gallery. This exhibition has my name all over it – it is called “Colours of Impressionism”. A collection of masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, this exhibition shows the progressive use of colour over time by Impressionist and then Neo-Impressionist painters.

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Three Wishes Monkey Quilt

Welcome to the first day of the “Wish Upon A Star” Blog Hop

Carol at Just Let Me Quilt has organised for you a HUGE treat this week! A supernova of a blog hop, and it all kicks off today. Carol has rounded up 44 quilt bloggers to show you their star-studded sewing projects. Pieced stars, appliqué stars, star-shaped projects, big stars, little stars…. who knows what you are going to find on the Wish Upon A Star blog hop today? And, for that matter, every day this week until Friday! All sorts of fantastic creations, that’s what… and all of them with a star on them somewhere!

Three Wishes Monkey quilt by Clever Chameleon

I get to help kick off this fun week of sparkly goodness today. And since you’re here, that makes it my turn to help you see stars. So, I am showing you a quilt I made for a very special toddler in my life. I made this quilt a while ago, but when Carol announced this blog hop, I knew it was time to share it on the blog. Designed especially for a little boy named Lucas,  it is called “Three Wishes Monkey”.     

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How to make a sewing machine dust cover

Sweet Sixteen dust cover

Island Batik’s “Try a New Technique” month has given me the push I needed to finally make my machine a dust cover!

As an Island Batik Ambassador, my challenge for March was to choose some of the beautiful fabrics they sent to me in February and create something using a technique I hadn’t tried before. So, I decided to give “invisible machine appliqué” a whirl. But in order to try out such an appliqué technique, I needed something to appliqué onto. So I made a dust cover for my Sweet Sixteen sit-down longarm machine. You can read more about that decision process here.

Island Batik Try a Technique Month

Have you got the same or a similar machine you’d like to make a dust cover for? Or another, oddly shaped machine that needs a cover? Here’s a run down on how I made mine. Hopefully it will give you a few ideas.

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Colour Inspiration Tuesday – Blue Moon Fabrics

Blue Moon colour scheme from Clever Chameleon

March is “Try a New Technique” Month for the Island Batik Ambassador team, and I’m feeling inspired!

Try a new technique?!! You’ll never likely have to ask me twice!! I have loooooong lists of quilty things I want to try “one day”…. patterns to make, gadgets to play with, embellishments and paints and markers and machines and .attachments and ……. and …… and……. and that doesn’t include the countless really cool things I have seen and forgotten along the way. “Try a New Technique” is practically my quilting motto!

Finishing a project I’ve started while trying a new technique…… now that’s a slightly different story…..  but this month I am going to nail that one too. 🙂

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