Tag: free-motion

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Colour Inspiration Tuesday: She’ll be Apples

She'll be Apples color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Welcome back to Colour Inspiration Tuesday! Today we are exploring a new FMQ mini tutorial “She’ll be Apples”.

Last week I was suddenly inspired to quilt my next charity quilt. I’ve had the pinned quilt in my possession since before Christmas, but I always knew it wasn’t going to get touched until January. Partly because December is a ridiculously busy time of year, and partly because it wasn’t “speaking to me”. In fact, it was confusing me slightly…. apples and roses on one side, autumn leaves, nuts and berries on the other. I quite like both sides, but struggled to choose one quilting theme to make sense of this quilt.

charity quilt before quilting
Here is the charity quilt before quilting….. I nominated it as my January One Monthly Goal.

After musing over this quilt for some time, on and off, and  getting it out several times and putting it away again, inspiration finally struck. I was in a right-brain kind of mood and scrolling through photos on Unsplash over a coffee when I spotted the picture of apples I have used on today’s mood board. And it all somehow just fell into place. I *just knew* I had to quilt apples, but not just any apples. Apples with a little bit of cheeky thrown in!

The “She’ll be Apples” FMQ Motif

I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started doodling. First I started with a continuous line apple motif.

Apple FMQ motif from Clever Chameleon

Then I thought, what if the apple has a bite taken out of it? Well, that’s easy.

Apple FMQ motif from Clever Chameleon

And it’s no more trouble to take several bites, is it?

Apple FMQ motif from Clever Chameleon

But what if the apple has a worm in it? A friendly worm, of course!

Apple and worm FMQ motif from Clever Chameleon

And of course, I couldn’t resist…… The worm and the bite combination! This one’s for my daughter, who is at that age where one of her favourite jokes is “What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?” “Half a worm…..” Hahahaha Snort. Oh the joys of childhood! Anyway, I was mostly well behaved….. I only put this combo on the quilt once. And I did overrule my daughter’s request for the apple and half a worm motif…..

Apple FMQ motif from Clever Chameleon

She’ll be Apples Quilting in Real Life

Here are some pics of the quilting up close, and of the little charity quilt all done. Sorry, the quilting does not show well – which is exactly how I wanted the quilt to be, but it is excruciating to try to photograph.

Apple FMQ motif from Clever Chameleon
Apple FMQ motif
Apple with a bite FMQ motif from Clever Chameleon
The apple with a bite FMQ motif
Apple core motif from Clever Chameleon
Apple core motif
The apple with a friendly worm motif from Clever Chameleon
The apple with a friendly worm motif
Apple, worm and bite FMQ motif from Clever Chameleon
And the one instance of an apple with both a worm and a bite

It didn’t take very long to quilt this little lap quilt. Once I had got the hang of the basic apple shape, I found  quilting these to be quite quick and easy. In fact, I had the whole thing finished before I realised that there is another apple variation that I could have added. The half apple. No matter, I will save this idea for another day.

Half apple FMQ quilting motif from Clever Chameleon

If you would like to give the apple motifs a go, I have made you a printable reference page, which you can download here: She’ll be Apples pdf

And here is the finished quilt. The quilting has made it crinkly and cuddly. 🙂

She'll be Apples quilt finished

So, that’s my January One Monthly Goal done and dusted! I promised you I’d had a lot of fun with it!

I hope you have enjoyed this little project and might put some apples on a quilt soon. My daughter is currently requesting apples on the Regatta Quilt I am making for her. Yes, complete with a half-worm apple. It’s not what I had in mind at all……. the big question is…. “How old will she be before such a thing becomes “cringe-worthy”?” The Regatta Quilt is supposed to take her forward into her teens.  Then again, maybe I should just do it. Kids are not young for very long. are they? And there’ll be plenty more quilts. Thankfully there is still some thinking time on this until I get to the quilting stage of the Regatta Quilt. I’ll see what she thinks when I actually get that far.

P.S. Photo Credits

The photo which sparked the apple motifs was supplied for free by Marina Khrapova via Unsplash. You can find this photo, as well as many others I have used for Colour Inspiration Tuesdays here. They are all available for free for you to use in your own projects however you wish. 

Marina Khrapova

P.P.S Linking up with Freemotion by the River, Free Motion Mavericks. Elm Street 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. 
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From the Sewing Room: Water and Hibiscus FMQ

One final FMQ design for 2017 – Water and Hibiscuses (a mini tutorial)

As we rapidly approach the end of the year, I am trying to get the Vanuatu Turtle Quilt done and dusted. One less UFO to carry over to the New Year! 

Vanuatu Turtle Quilt top finished
Vanuatu Turtle Quilt top finished at our last check in

So I have used my free time this week, such as it was(!) to piece a backing for this quilt, layer and pin it up and design the quilting.

Vanuatu Turtle Quilt backing
The backing I pieced for the Vanuatu Turtle Quilt
Vanuatu Turtle Quilt pinned
I don’t normally pin at this density….. but some of the fabrics in this quilt are not quilting cottons and have some stretch. I wanted everything to be super secure.

To complete this quilt, I knew I wanted to quilt something curvy……. waves or such like to contrast with the geometric black and white piecing and to evoke thoughts of water. But it needed to be subtle. The black and white graduation in the piecing and the red turtle appliqué are enough major design elements for one quilt. So, quilt something curvy in lightweight grey thread……

I was originally thinking spirals of some description, but as I was piecing the backing, I decided that the hibiscuses on the back were simple enough to become FMQ designs. 

hibiscus fabric
The hibiscus motif that is repeated continuously in the main black and white fabric used in the backing.

Working up the Hibiscus FMQ design

My first attempts at drawing the hibiscuses out with a pencil were appalling…..

hibiscus quilting development 1
Not good….. misshapen clover leaves, anyone?
Hibiscus FMQ design, stage 2
Repeated attempts became better…. better petals, better stamens, better line flow.
Hibiscus FMQ design
Eventually I got a formula for a single line hibiscus that I liked. Here it is traced out.

At this stage I was still thinking to pair this hibiscus FMQ with swirls, when I decided that perhaps that was going to get complicated and busy, when I expressly wanted simple. So I opted to go with a design I do relatively often which is kind of a sideways elongated stipple…… and looks a bit like the gentle wavy surface of slowly moving water. I’m sure many of you do it too. Like this……

Water and Hibiscus FMQ design
Water and Hibiscus FMQ design

I have started quilting this design onto the Vanuatu Turtle quilt. It is hard to photograph though, as it recedes into the quilt. Only to be observed by the most up-close and observant users. As per the original plan. 🙂

hibiscus FMQ
Hibiscus FMQ design
Water and hibiscus FMQ design
Hibiscus FMQ with “water”

So, if you would like to try this hibiscus FMQ design, here it is broken down into steps for you.

Step 1

Quilt into an open space. Double back to quilt a heart shape. Do not quite close the shape.

hibiscus FMQ step1

Step 2

Repeat the heart shape to create four more petals. The petal shapes can be fairly uneven, as long as they adhere to the rough heart shape and return almost but not right to the centre. The five points at the bases of the petals should sit in a small ring formation.

hibiscus FMQ step 2

Step 3

Quilt a hooked stamen into the space defined by the first petal. 

Hibiscus FMQ step 3

Step 4

Create one or two more hooked stamens in the second petal and some flatter stamens in the lower petals. Exit the flower between any two petals.

Hibiscus FMQ step 4

You can download all the steps on a one page pdf here: hibiscus.

I hope you enjoy trying the Water and Hibiscus FMQ motifs at some point, perhaps in 2018.  And I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and happy Christmas holiday. 

P.S. I was honoured to have a guest post on Days Filled with Joy this week. Joy did a marvellous job with her 12 Days of last minute Christmas gift ideas series, including this glittery bauble variation of the couched thread ornaments we looked at here earlier in December. If you liked the bell, tree and star ornaments, you might like to read about the bauble guest post too.

P.P.S. There has been a marvellous response so far to the Monthly Color Challenge running at Patterns by Jen and the appliqué version that we will be doing right here at Clever Chameleon. If you missed the Beary Colourful BOM news this time last week you can find it here.

P.P.P.S. Sharing on my favourite linkys: Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Quilt Addict, Busy Hands Quilts.

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UFO Attack November 2017

November One Monthly Goal

Gonna Finish This Sucker! One Monthly Goal with Elm Street Quilts

Vanuatu turtle quilt designTo be honest, this month I already have a couple of quilt and crafty deadlines. Firstly, I have to make some reasonable progress on my Vanuatu turtle quilt so I can link up with the Splash of Color quilt along. By now the schedule says I should have about half my blocks sewn. Hahahahahaha! Okay……..

And secondly, I have a Christmas ornament tutorial to get prepared for you by the 16th. Thankfully, this project is progressing more or less on time to date. I will be sharing it in the 2017 Ornament Exchange. If you like making your own Christmas ornaments, you most certainly do not want to miss this blog hop! 47 projects are lined up this year. It’s gonna be huge!

So what to nominate for November?

pink and green charity quilt
My November OMG quilt

But I feel it would be cheating to nominate either of these projects for the Elm Street One Monthly Goal, because they have to be finished anyway. So, for my November OMG I am nominating a charity quilt currently in my possession. It is not large, so it really should only take me a coupe of sessions to quilt. I didn’t piece it, I have just been entrusted to quilt it. This little quilt is very pretty in pinks and greens, and I want to try my allover strawberry vines FMQ design on it. It would be great for the charity to have it back by the end of the month. 

So, thank you Elm Street OMG and you, dear readers, for keeping me accountable and motivated. With any luck, someone in need will have this quilt before Christmas. 

Do you have a quilt goal for November? If you do, share it with us here in the comments below. And consider joining us at Elm Street Quilts for some accountability (and be in the running for a prize as well!).

I’d love to hear from you!

P.S. Also linking up with Quilt Fabrication, The Inquiring Quilter, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Crazy Mom Quilts.

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Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Pineapples and Other Art

Pineapple Farm color scheme by Clever Chameleon31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

It doesn’t matter where I go, or how far from my sewing machine I am, there always seems to be a little voice that follows me around saying “Look at that…. you could put that on a quilt……” Of course, that little voice is actually startlingly loud at the moment. Since I am documenting one such instance everyday for this series, I have entered a kind-of hyper-vigilant quilt-inspiration-observation state! But, while noticing quilt patterns in the everyday is not unusual for me, recording them is. Usually the ideas come and then they depart, with no real effort to record them for when I might want them later.

pineapple stencils on wall
Pineapples stencilled on the kitchen wall in our Vanuatu accommodation

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 12

One good thing about travelling is that you get exposed to a lot of new art. Even if you don’t visit art galleries and museums. There are new sculptures in public spaces to notice. There are artworks on the walls of cafés. Murals on buildings. Tiles in the public restrooms…. oh yes, I spend much more time than I would care to admit contemplating the merit of floor tile designs while I am attending to business. 

green floor tiles
Floor tiles in a local  Indian restaurant

So for my last ad lib post from Vanuatu, I am going to tackle the idea of finding inspiration in the artworks displayed around me. I have chosen three ideas from my recent unintentional brushes with art.

How am I inspired by the art around me?

Firstly, the pineapples…..

stencilled pineapples

I have a thing about pineapples. I am certain that there is a pineapple-inspired quilt in my future. This is mostly because there is a story from my family history that revolves around pineapples – not because I have some sort of bizarre fetish for pineapples. (You can read about the pineapple story here.)  Actually, I don’t even particularly like pineapple, except on pizza.

I think my pineapple quilt will be an abstract representation related to my family’s pineapple story. But the pineapple art stencilled on my kitchen wall is reminding me that it also wouldn’t be that difficult to appliqué a pineapple on a quilt. 🙂 And it just so happens that the village we worked in today has a large pineapple patch in their garden…..hence the pineapple colour board. It is actually possible the pineapples are stalking me….

Secondly, the floor tiles…..

green floor tiles

I spotted these tiles at an Indian restaurant here in Port Vila the other evening. I was very taken by the continuous design evident on these tiles when they are laid edge-to-edge. Wouldn’t it be fun to do something like this with a repeated quilt block? For no real reason except that we can?

Carved tree fern sculptureAnd thirdly, a carved sculpture…… 

I haven’t ever considered incorporating ideas from sculptures into a quilt before. There have been some lovely wood carvings here in Vanuatu, as well as carved tree fern trunks. I could definitely free-motion quilt a representation of this guy. Maybe this would be a good idea for quilting my black, white and red Vanuatu quilt.

It suddenly occurred to me to look for quilt designs in sculptures thanks to Yanicka and her contribution to the current Art with Fabric blog hop. I love all the entries in the blog hop so far, but Yanicka got me thinking with a quilt called “Our Fragile Vessel” which was inspired by a spherical sculpture by Donna Marcus. 

green clever chameleon logo

Speaking of the Art with Fabric blog hop…. tomorrow is finally my turn to show you my art-inspired quilted contribution! I have been waiting to publish this post for ages! It is doubling as my Everyday Quilt Inspiration series slot for tomorrow, so I hope you will come back to find out what I did. And I hope you will visit the blog hop and enjoy all the other art-inspired quilts as well.

See you tomorrow!

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Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Barking Geckos

barking geckos in Vanuatu

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

One of the things I really like in Vanuatu is the barking gecko. Actually, I like all geckos, full stop. They do the job of spiders without being anywhere near so nasty about it. We have geckos at home in Adelaide, and there are geckos in many of my favourite destinations in Australia. All different sorts and shapes of geckos, but all a variation on the non-threatening, insect-eating, big-eyed and big-toed small nocturnal lizard. Most geckos make noise of some description, but the barking geckos in Vanuatu are LOUD. It is unbelievable how much noise a tiny lizard can make!

barking gecko

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 11

I have been intending to add Vanuatu’s barking geckos to my everyday quilt inspiration series pretty much since the beginning. I would love to be able to FMQ their shapes onto a quilt such as the Tanna Island quilt design from Monday, or maybe even the black, white and red quilt I am planning for the Splash of Color QAL. They would also make great silhouette shapes for appliqué. For that matter, appliqué is an easier place to start with a new shape because it does not require drawing skills in real-time. You can edit until you’re happy. 🙂

barking gecko

How was I inspired by the Barking Geckos?

To start me on my gecko journey, I photographed several barking geckos as they hunted their evening meal by the light over our backdoor. Then I traced their forms. This gave me instant shapes I can use for appliqué silhouettes, but also a place to start working out a formula to quilt them freehand. 

Would you like some gecko shapes for appliqué? Here are the six that I traced today. They are small so I could fit them all on one pdf page, but you can enlarge them as you need. Download my barking gecko silhouettes pdf here: Barking Geckos

How to quilt Barking Geckos

What makes a shape a gecko? Well, for these geckos it is a distinctively shaped head, the angle and size of the legs, the bulbous toes, the fat tummy and a tail that is about the same length as the rest of the lizard combined. When I can recreate these shapes with relative ease, I will be able to quilt barking geckos.

Here is my first attempt at free-hand drawing a barking gecko. Only happy with one of the four legs…..

barking gecko outline

Here is my second attempt.

free-hand barking gecko outline

Better. Three legs are great. The head is right. The tail could be a touch longer, but who would notice? Actually, if I could quilt geckos that looked no worse than this reliably I would be happy. If anyone is analysing my quilting shapes that closely and critically, we are not likely to see eye-to-eye about life’s priorities! So, my conclusion is…. with a bit of practice I think I will be able to quilt geckos. Yay!

barking geckos, Vanuatu

I hope you like geckos. I do! If you like quilting critters, you might also like my post in this series about hermit crabs. 

You can also find the start of my 31 Days of Everyday Quilt Inspiration blog post series here. And you can find the Write 31 Days website here, for hundreds more 31-day series on all sorts of topics. 

Also, the Fall 2017 Art with Fabric blog hop is now well underway. You can find Day 2 here. My favourite blog post from this set of artists is by Heather about her quilt “Dancers”. She describes how she takes her inspiration and turns it into an abstract representation. If you are looking for more ways to turn your everyday observations into quilt designs, I think you might like her post.

See you tomorrow!

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