Colour Inspiration Tuesday is here!! Let’s start with Butterfly Loves Red

Butterfly loves Red color scheme from Clever ChameleonWould you like a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts?

Perhaps you have seen a fabulous quilt pattern but you don’t like the colours. Perhaps you do like the pattern’s colours, but the fabrics featured are already out of print (don’t you hate that!!). Or perhaps you just want to try something different to what everyone else is doing…… Colour Inspiration Tuesday is here to help. 

On occasional Tuesdays I will post a photo and a corresponding colour palette using the photo as inspiration. You can follow along by subscribing to my blog. Or you can find all the related posts whenever you like by using the Colour Inspiration Tuesday category tag. 

So let’s get started….. the very first Clever Chameleon Colour Inspiration Tuesday.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: "Butterfly loves red". Crimson, dark green, tan, slate, brick red, olive.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Butterfly Loves Red

The “Butterfly Loves Red” colour palette is crimson, fire brick red, peach, tan, slate, dark slate and dark olive. Use these different colours in different proportions to get the effect you want. Using mostly reds with sparing use of the dark colours for contrast will give you a very vivid, warm looking quilt. Predominately using the more neutral colours with the reds as highlights will give you a modern elegant look. There are no right or wrong combinations, just the ones you prefer and those you don’t.

Today’s stock photo is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. While there is no obligation for me to tell you where I got this photo thanks to their open community-minded licensing, I love to give credit where credit is due. So; this lovely photo was provided by Tung Minh via Unsplash.

Clever Chameleon logo redI hope you will join me at Colour Inspiration Tuesday to explore new colour combinations you could try in your quilt projects. These suggestions are just the starting point…. have a look in your stash or in your local quilt store to see how you can translate these colours to fabrics. See what you can add or change to make it truly your own. Remember: choose the variation that you like the best…. it’s all about you or your recipient at this stage of the process……make sure you are quilting your own story!

P.S. If you would like to use this photo for your own projects, you can find all the Unsplash photos from Colour Inspiration Tuesday in one place in my Colour Inspiration Collection.

Clever Chameleon Blog Welcome

Hello and Welcome!

Stepping Out: textile art by Dione Gardner-Stephen. Girl made of geoweb, with zipper, found on the Clever Chameleon blog.
Stepping out into the world wide web!

Clever Chameleon Steps Out

Welcome to the launch of a long-held dream! My all new Clever Chameleon blog and website is a  patchwork and quilt design resource, focused on helping you make your quilts most truly your own. Whether you waYellow and orange chameleon magnet with wobbly eyesnt to find a new pattern, design a pattern, change a pattern or add to a pattern, The Clever Chameleon blog will offer you ideas to give you confidence on your next textile journey. As I explore all sorts of techniques to expand my skills, I will share my journey with you – my quilt story to empower yours.

As my blog expands you  will find:

Why the Clever Chameleon blog?

Improvisational quilt That's Pants by Dione Gardner-Stephen
A quilt made from another quilter’s scraps and then gifted to that person is just one example of a very powerful gift!

Chameleons are one of the best known colour-change-artists. But did you know that that they use colour as a social signal? And that these signals affect other chameleons around them?!  It strikes me that quilters are like this too. We can convey mood and message in our work, through choices of colour, pattern and form. Quilts and textile art pieces convey love, happiness, comfort, thanks, memories, fun and many other things through our design choices. We express ourselves – and in doing so, affect others around us. The clever quilter knows the power of the quilt, and plans their project for the biggest impact. After all (and I’m sure I don’t need to tell you) – quilts are expensive and time consuming to make. So we might as well get the most value for our efforts, right?! Absolutely!

We can all create

So accordingly, the Clever Chameleon blog is a collection of my ideas. thoughts and experiences around designing, embellishing and personalising quilts and textile crafts, laid out especially for you to draw from. I love designing my own work, and I am usually drawn to strong colours and contrasts. So expect plenty of brightness.! I enjoy watching my kids design their own makings and seeing the joy that this brings them. Conversely, I feel disappointed when I hear people say that they don’t do art because they feel that they can’t “draw/create/do art like ….. (insert your favourite excuse here)”. I believe that we CAN all definitely create awesome stuff that makes us joyful on the inside and is meaningful to us or an intended recipient. Some of us may even turn out to be Picasso’s; who knows?! Let’s create joyfully like children before they get bogged down in self-consciousness.

Child's drawing of a house and family
Home is where the art is. Children don’t hold back on their creativity and neither should you!

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” – Pablo Picasso

I also like writing and teaching ….. so on this blog I am going to gather my thoughts and link in some great resources about improving your quilts and making them truly yours and truly awesome, in the hope that you might learn something that you wanted to know. Maybe even things you didn’t know that you want to know……

Clever Chameleon LogoLearn and Connect

If you hang around here, be prepared to catch the urge to design and personalise your own quilts to make them special. Let me know what topics you’d like to cover. Learn to Colour Your Mood. Let your quilts Brighten Your World. And always Quilt Your Own Story!