Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Silhouettes at Sunset

Silhouettes at Sunset color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Colour resources for your next eye-catching quilt design

“Halo” and “Welkam” to my second Vanuatu edition of Colour Inspiration Tuesday! Actually it is a combined Colour Inspiration Tuesday and Everyday Quilt Inspiration post. Like last week’s regular slots, this post was largely pre-written in Australia due to uncertainty about how much time and internet I would have for blogging here in Vanuatu. But I have added some extra material to make this post also fit the 31 Days writing challenge I am doing. I hope it gels ok.

“Halo” and “Welkam” is pretty much the extent of my knowledge of the Bislama language. And “Tangkyu tumas” (Thank you very much). But thankfully English usually suffices here, the Vanuatu scenery is beautiful, and this week, the weather is superb. Just like today’s quilt inspiration colour board, Silhouettes at Sunset.

Silhouettes at Sunset color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Silhouettes at Sunset

The “Silhouettes at Sunset” colour scheme is purple, orange, peach, grey, aqua, teal and super dark teal. Isn’t it amazing how the form of a dark silhouette brings out the colours in a sunset? This contrast is something that we should be aiming for in our quilt fabric choices too….. that is if you are after a bold, brilliant effect. (I am fully cognisant that sometimes subtle and low volume is the right choice for a quilt too…. I just personally usually prefer bright.) And isn’t it nice to be reminded that silhouettes don’t have to be black… any high contrast will be effective, in this case a dark shade of teal.

Silhouettes at Sunset evokes thoughts of warm tropical evenings and beach holidays. Perfect to celebrate a trip to Vanuatu, even if it is for work. Would you like to know more about the humanitarian telecommunications side of our family’s pursuits? When things get back to normal I would love to tell you more.

Anyway, back to the task at hand…. It strikes me that “Silhouettes at Sunset” is very much like the love child of “Sunset Wall” and “Another World Blue”. Two colour schemes from earlier editions of Colour Inspiration Tuesday.

So for my Colour Inspiration Tuesday quilt imaginings this week I have decided to see what happens when we colour the Cat on a Wall quilt design with the Silhouettes at Sunset colour scheme. Here is the original design in both parent colour ways.

Cat on a Wall Quilt design

And here are my new colourings. I also added in an eighth colour from the sunset photo – a rose pink. I only meant to do one re-colouring of Cat on a Wall, but I had to amuse myself on the plane to Vanuatu somehow!

Cat on a Wall quilt design, 3 colour schemes

Which do you prefer? One of the new ones or one of the originals? Or would you choose a completely different colour scheme for this quilt? Please tell in the comments below. 🙂

Credit

I really appreciate the talented photographers who generously donate their art to the world without strings attached. Today’s such photos are from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. Credit is not demanded but I give it anyway in thanks. Today’s featured photographer is Aldain Austria. Be sure to check out his collection of photos on Unsplash.

Aldain Austria

blue Clever Chameleon logo

I hope you will tell me which your preferred colours are….

Before I go though, I had better add in some everyday quilt inspiration. This one is easy – there have been many “sunset and silhouettes” moments in my life that I have thought at the time would make great art. We are fortunate in Adelaide to get lots of great sunsets over the gulf. I distinctly remember one such moment when I was heavily pregnant with my second child. I was sitting on the beach, watching my husband and eldest daughter (2 years at the time) jump the wavelets, silhouetted against the setting sun. That is a moment that would definitely be quilt-worthy.

Anyway, here are some more recent silhouettes at sunset. These were taken the second night we arrived here in Port Vila.

Sunset and ships, Port Villa Vanuatu — Ships in harbour at sunset, Port Vila

Sunset and silhouettes. Vanuatu — Enjoying the warm tropical waters.

And to finish off – your everyday colour inspiration board…..

Silhouettes at Sunset, Port Vila color scheme from Clever Chameleon

See you for more Everyday Quilt Inspiration fun tomorrow. In the meantime, if you haven’t been following along, you can find the start of this series here.

P.S. On a completely different topic, I must tell you, the Art with Fabric blog hop is ON! It started yesterday (although that might still be today in your time zone…..) Anyway, my post on the hop is not until Friday 13, but there is a huge lineup ahead of me. Visit Tweety Loves Quilting to see the blog hop from the very beginning.

Here’s a sneak preview of my art piece…. it’s called “Remember to thank the Cleaner (Shrimp)”. It’s art with gratitude. 🙂

Art with Fabric blog hop @ tweloquilting.blogspot.com

October 8, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Tanna Island Quilt

Mt Yasur volcano color scheme from Clever Chameleon

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Yesterday, I told you about our adventures on Tanna Island, and served you up some colour inspiration straight from the depths of Mt. Yasur. I hope you got a sense of how spectacular the volcano tour was. It would be a shame not to honour that experience with a full attempt at quilt inspiration.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 8

Mt Yasur colour scheme from Clever Chaneleon Today being Sunday has given me more time to work on this post than most days. So I have happily been working on translating my volcano quilt idea mentioned yesterday into a visual representation to show you today.

First, I gathered the inspiration photos I needed. Apart from the ridiculously large colour board from yesterday, I also needed some visual references for the sea surrounding Tanna Island and the jungle that grows right up to the base of the volcano.

Here are the photos that I chose:

Jungle on Tanna Island, Vanuatu — The jungle on Tanna Island.

At the base of Mt Yasur — The rock formations and grey sides of the Mt Yasur volcano.

Tanna Island beach — The coast of Tanna Island, with volcanic sand beach.

How was I inspired by Tanna Island?

I wanted to capture all of the colours of Tanna Island in a design that could be pieced into a quilt. I thought the design should be evocative of both the volcano and the other areas of Tanna Island.

Tanna Island quilt design by Clever Chameleon — My Tanna Island quilt idea

So, I set up a grid of half-square triangles and coloured them in to represent the ocean, the sands, the jungle, the sides of Mt Yasur, the ash/steam and sulphur plumes, and the after-dark fireworks show. To tie it all together and add interest, I set myself the goal of having a secondary design. I used colour value contrast to create the illusion of diamonds and zigzags throughout the design.

Quilting Tanna Island?

I am not sure that I will ever get to making this Tanna Island quilt. One Vanuatu quilt on the go is probably quite enough! And while it is a simple matter to design a quilt with so many colours, it is quite another to translate it into real fabrics. This design would be a BIG project. But all that said, not all inspiration needs to be acted upon to be useful or good. Every time you stretch yourself to think outside your usual quilting habits you grow your skills and reinforce resources to draw on in the future. Ideas have a habit of percolating until they are needed one day. I’ll be letting “Tanna Island” percolate for a time. 🙂

What about you? Do you keep a journal or record of quilt ideas you might like to explore one day? In some ways, that is what this 31 days of everyday quilt inspiration slot is becoming for me. An ideas journal, with you to keep me focused on getting the ideas recorded. Thanks for being here!

P.S. The latest Art with Fabric Blog Hop starts tomorrow! FInally! My post is on Friday, but you can find the rest of the week’s itinerary in the meantime at Tweety Loves Quilting. It should be a really interesting collection. See you there! 🙂

October 7, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Mt. Yasur Volcano

Mt Yasur Sunset color scheme from Clever Chameleon

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Now, I realise that calling today’s Everyday Quilt Inspiration slot “everyday” might be a little far fetched…… There are only a handful of the people in the world who can genuinely call watching Mt Yasur erupt an everyday experience. But, if you can walk away from an active but relatively friendly volcano and not be inspired in some way, then you are a hard nut to crack! And inspired I was! So today we are exploring volcanoes.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 7

Yesterday’s adventure started with a fly-over of Mt Yasur on the way to Tanna Island. This is what Mt Yasur looks like from the air. We did get to see lava in the crater as we banked over, but photos were difficult from the tail end of the little Cessna Air Taxi.

Mt Yasur from the air — Mt Yasur, Vanuatu

The landscape around Mt Yasur is often described as lunar. It certainly feels like nothing else I have ever experienced. It is surreal leaving footprints in the fine grey ash.

When you get to the top of the volcano, you are greeted by plumes of smoke and steam, smells of sulphur, and lots of noise. But not a lot of visible lava activity. It was nerve-racking to begin with…. the path around the top was not particularly wide, and the sudden noises from the volcano set off my flight responses continuously. In addition to the threatening bangs and rumbles, I’d just trekked through a field of cooled lava bombs. At some point it dawned on me that sometimes the volcano is not friendly. Indeed, yesterday the volcano was at it’s maximum activity allowed before the tours are cancelled.

Looking out from Mt Yasur — Thankfully, when the volcano gets too overwhelming, the view in the opposite direction is spectacular too.

How was I inspired by the Mt Yasur Volcano?

As the sun set, the colours of the lava became visible. Imagine our excitement when we first saw the volcano’s heart.

By the end of the evening, when it was truly dark, the show was spectacular. I forgot to be afraid. Pure awe took over.

I could have watched this beast for hours. It was absolutely mesmerising.

Mt Yasur Explosion color scheme from Clever Chameleon

I took a lot of photos. Many were rubbish. It is hard to photograph an unpredictable volcano with whirly-whirlies spiting dust and stones at you. But there are a few shots that I will treasure forever.

Mt Yasur Fireworks color scheme from Clever Chameleon

And there are a few more that are not brilliant from a photography perspective, but the colours are amazing. One of my favourite photos is the one from the colour board at the top of this post. The focus is slightly off, but the mood is phenomenal. Have you ever considered that a photograph does not have to be technically brilliant to be a great source of inspiration? Especially if you are after colours!

A Mount Yasur Quilt in the offing?

Colour boards are all I have time for today, but there is an actual quilt idea percolating in my head from yesterday’s experiences. I think a real volcano can warrant two days of quilt inspiration, don’t you? I will try to get my idea down “on paper” for tomorrow’s Everyday Quilt Inspiration spot. If not, I will surprise you with something else. 🙂

I am also putting these colour boards into my ideas folder for the black, white and red Vanuatu-inspired quilt that I am planning for the Splash of Colour quilt-along. Most appropriate!

What about you? Do you use your photographs for craft colour inspiration? Are you able to look past the subject matter and/or your photography skills to see the colours? You might be surprised at what you find in your happy snaps if you look at them with a different mindset. Why not try putting a few photos through a free online program like Canva’s Palette Generator just for fun? But beware….. it’s addictive!

I hope you’ll be back here again tomorrow. You can follow along by email or Bloglovin’ to make sure you catch the entire 31 days of my Everyday (and occasionally extraordinary day) Quilt Inspiration series.

You can also find lots more 31 day series on all sorts of topics at the Write 31 Days website here. A great way to get a feel for lots of bloggers you may not have noticed before. Thanks for coming by!

October 6, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Coconut Lorikeet

Coconut Lorikeet colour scheme from Clever Chameleon

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Yesterday we treated ourselves to lunch at a resort, situated just past one of the Vanuatu villages where we are working to develop emergency telecommunications. It turned out to be a good idea, as the owner is an Aussie who was able to help us out with quite a variety of local intel.

While we were waiting for lunch, my next quilting inspiration wandered up to greet us (actually to try to steal our soft drinks and our shoe laces).

Coconut lorikeet eyeing off soft drink — A moment after this shot, that empty coke can was toast.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 6

The resort has two pet lorikeets, who wander among the guests biting shoelaces and climbing backpacks. I admit, at the time I assumed they were rainbow lorikeets like the birds we have back at home in Australia. They are indeed similar in size and colour and behave just as poorly: loud, rude and bossy! But now looking at the photos, it is clear that they have a different colour pattern that is more muted than the Australian rainbow lorikeet. I believe they are a subspecies of Coconut Lorikeet.

coconut lorikeet in glass — Bottom’s up! Clearly these birds have partied before!

Coconut Lorikeet on backpack — Smug success…. yes, you are well aware you aren’t welcome on the backpack, bird!

How was I inspired by the Coconut Lorikeet?

Because these characters were so persistent about sharing our resources, I had plenty of opportunity to take all sorts of photos. And it will definitely be fun to create appliqués from some of the poses. Like I did for the hermit crab yesterday. Sadly I don’t have time to mock you up an example at the moment, so you will have to settle for a colour board and some cheeky bird pictures so I can go to bed. Here’s one last picture of the lorikeets checking out Paul’s telecommunications equipment.

Coconut Lorikeets attacking a mesh extender — Paul wanted a photo of the birds on his telecommunications box. They tested the antennas just like their Australian cousins would. But they were super unimpressed and moved on straight away.

The Coconut Lorikeets were pretty funny and annoying all at the same time….. much like a pair of toddlers on too much sugar!

See you again tomorrow!

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

September 26, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Hot Chocolate

Hot Chocolate color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: delicious colour combinations to try on your quilts.

Hello! Happy Colour Inspiration Tuesday! Did you have a chance to try out the Strawberry Vines quilting motifs inspired by last week’s colour board? I haven’t found anymore time to play further with Strawberry Vines as yet. But do you know what goes well with strawberries? Chocolate. Hot Chocolate to be precise. Mmmmm.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Hot Chocolate

The “Hot Chocolate” colour palette is dark red, red-orange, greyed-teal, off white, and warm shades of grey through to almost black. These colours are a really close match for the Jaffas and Cream charity quilt I blogged recently. You can find out a lot more about that quilt here.

Quilt with Hot Chocolate color scheme — The dark brown, red, red-orange, off white, and greyed teal can all be found in the fabric choices of Jaffas and Cream.

What will I do with this colour scheme? You know there is likely something, right? Well, to tell you that story, first I need to tell you this story …..

The colour scheme that nearly never was

Frosty Berries color scheme from Clever Chameleon — Frosty Berries colour palette

I started the Hot Chocolate colour scheme for last week’s colour inspiration slot. But then I realised that it wasn’t very different from the Frosty Berries colour scheme we had two months ago. And that it also bore a fair resemblance to the warmer colour scheme Red-Eye Flight that we explored three months ago.

Red-Eye Flight color scheme from Clever Chameleon — Red-Eye Flight colour scheme

So, I set Hot Chocolate aside and started over with the Strawberries Vines post instead. I had no intention of resurrecting Hot Chocolate this week either, but then something happened. A good something.

I was drifting around the quilting part of the internet, as I do (a lot). And I discovered that Myra at Busy Hands Quilting is starting a fresh quilt along called Splash of Color. And I have taken the bait. Possibly the line and sinker too. The aim of the quilt along in question is to produce a black and white quilt with colour highlights.

Splash of Color Quilt Along

Now, I have to confess, I don’t do quilt alongs. I don’t do crowds. I don’t do other people’s patterns without a really, really good reason. Let’s be real here – I don’t even do my Handi Quilter homework til the due date! I get distracted. I end up with UFOs and inferiority complexes and all the other baggage that social media can trap you with. But I think this quilt along will suit me, and I’m actually pretty excited.

Why? Because:
– it covers a quilt theme that I have wanted to try ever since I borrowed a certain book several years ago from my local library. That book was “Quilting in Black and White” by House of White Birches. (I have actually borrowed it several times). Many of the quilts in this book are black and white with colour highlights, and the effect continues to appeal to me.
– I have a Pinterest board dedicated to black and white quilts (with or without colour highlights) because I have always believed that some day I will get around to making such a quilt. It has over 300 pins on it. That is not a casual relationship!
– I have two black and white fabrics I specifically want to use. My husband bought them for me as a gift from one of his work trips. They are probably not what I would have chosen. But one should never discourage gifts of fabric! 🙂 And now they are exactly what I need. Yeah!

Black and white fabrics from Vanuatu — Black and white/grey scale fabrics from Vanuatu

– And, probably the clincher…. there is no pattern for this quilt along, the only boundaries are the colours and the timing. So I can create, and emotionally invest, and wander around this quilt theme all I like. Awesome!

So, back to my Colour Inspiration Tuesday/quilt along idea…..

I always thought my future one-day black and white with a splash of colour quilt would be black, white and brilliant blue. Or black, white and rainbow. But it is going to be black, white and red.

Because I realise that I must really like this combo. “Hot Chocolate” is the third colour scheme in this general genera, out of less than 30 colour palettes. And I had another photo lined up in my ideas folder that would have resulted in a fourth (don’t worry, I am NOT doing a fourth). So clearly I am attracted to this graphic colour combination.

black, red and white photo of a puffin — This ultra cute puffin was also begging to be a colour board!

There is also a measure of expediency in my choice. I have a great big piece of red fabric, also purchased by my husband, that is the same print as one of the aforementioned black fabrics. It will be perfect for the backing. Easy.

Here are my fabrics. I will probably have to add to them. (Oh, that’s so unfortunate…. hahahaha). My rainbow batik stash is sooooo wrong for this.

Fabrics from Vanuatu — My three fabrics to work with

I am hoping I will be able to find some other fabrics to match when we go to Vanuatu soon, which is where these first three came from. I also am hoping that the finished product will be a lovely souvenir of our family trip. And an encouragement to hubby to keep bringing that fabric home. (Hello dearest – just checking whether you actually read this.) And a couch protector… my black and white quilting friend with a red collar is playing havoc with the furniture :(.

Cat on Bugs in my Garden Quilt — Who me? Guilty as charged, Mr.

I am going to do a black and white background, and for my splash of colour, I am going to appliqué a red turtle on top. There might also be a hint of teal. The turtle will be inspired by the turtles on the fabric. I hope it will be eye-catching, just like the photos for my mood boards.

Turtle fabric from Vanuatu — I intend to design a turtle appliqué in this genera

Want to join the Splash of Color quilt along but terrified by the open-ended nature of the requirements?

Try my Pinterest Board above for over 300 ideas of black and white quilts with colour, or B&W quilts that could easily have colour added to them. Or get your hands on a copy of either Quilting in Black and White by House of White Birches or the quilt along’s theme book: Splash of Color: A Rainbow of Brilliant Black-and-White Quilts by Jackie Kunkel.

Today’s Photo Credit

Finishing up with the formalities….. Today’s stock photos are from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. These photos are gifted freely and without demand for recognition, but I like to thank people who live so generously. So, if you would like to also use the hot chocolate photo, it is provided by Jennifer Pallian via Unsplash. The puffin photo is by Ray Hennessy. Click on the badges below to explore Jennifer’s or Ray’s other photos.
Jennifer Pallian
Ray Hennessy

Red Clever Chameleon logo I hope you will join in the quilt along. And keep an eye on this blog to keep me accountable….. even leave an encouraging message or two. Comments make my day and I do try to respond asap. If you are joining in the quilt along, let me know and I’ll visit your creations too.