Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Lovely Leucadendron

Lovely Leucadendron color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Welcome to Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Where we always find something interesting to inspire a quilt!

A couple of weeks ago, Paul and I took the kids to see the Christmas lights display at the local brewery. The display is a bit of a South Australian icon, and has been running for 58 years. The link I have supplied gives quite a good overview of the event, if you would like to see it. Like many other Adelaide locals, I do very much like our brewery lights display. But this year the take-home memory was actually a little plant growing in the council strip nearby.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Lovely Leucadendron

Many years ago, my mother grew lots of Australian natives and other plants that thrive in similarly poor, dry soil. Among the non-natives that my mother grew were quite a number of leucadendrons. So I tend to notice leucadendrons on my wanderings. But I have never seen one like this before!

leucadendron

I was struck by the beauty of this small bush, perhaps only 40cm high. Oh, the colours…. like a dusky sunset! I have called this colour scheme “Lovely Leucadendron”. Maroon stems, green and aqua lower leaves, graduating through lavender and lilac, peach, orange to yellow-green at the top of each stem. Once those yellow leaves open up there will be an insignificant flower cone in the middle. But it is the leaves that this plant is usually grown for. You can see why!

A Lovely Leucadendron Quilt?

If I was challenged to make a quilt inspired by this plant, it would have to be a string quilt. One with long thin-ish pieces like the strappy leucadendron leaves. It would be a scrap-busting quilt. And of course, made in the colours of the “lovely leucadendron”. After all, it was the colours that stopped me in my tracks in the first place!

If you arrange the string blocks like this you get leucadendron stems. Or peacock feathers….. 🙂 That’s ok, I like both. You could graduate the colours through the same sequence as the real-life bush, or just scatter them randomly…..

Lovely leucadendron quilt idea — Lovely Leucadendron quilt idea

These colours would also be great on the Regatta Quilt (currently featuring in Home Sewn with Us’s no pressure sew along). I have started my Regatta Quilt. It’s not being made in these colours though. I had an orphaned jelly roll which has finally found its destiny. More about that in a day or two.

Not into dusky rainbows?! Perhaps you’ve been seeing red lately instead…..

Are you joining in the 2018 Monthly Colour Challenge? I have seen a few Red Bears popping up in social media this week. You have no idea how happy it makes me to know that people are actually making my red bear pattern,. I’ll round up a few I/ve seen in a post for you later in the week. They are all different and it is amazing the variation in techniques and tweaks that have surfaced so far. What a clever bunch of quilters you all are!

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 19, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Flying Duck Orchid

Duck into the Sunset color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Welcome to the last Colour Inspiration Tuesday before Christmas! Only one more and that’s it for the year!

Yesterday I hinted that I had recently found out about an Australian flower that is even more strange than my Hoya wax flower!

The astonishing little plant in question is Caleana major, commonly called the Flying Duck Orchid.

The Flying Duck Orchid

Have a look at it. What else could it possibly be called?!? I have never seen one of these in the flesh, even though they are reportedly endemic to the areas where I spent my youth. Apparently they tend to go unnoticed due to their small size. And they are not particularly common, being one of about 20 Australian native orchids now being seed banked by the South Australian Botanic Gardens to ensure their future.

Don’t you think this flower is amazing? It looks more like a typcal orchid from the front.

But if its shape isn’t enough for you, its behaviour is fascinating too. Apparently the flower is vibration sensitive and the duck head part moves to trap insects inside the flower for a short period. This is to ensure the insects collect and transfer pollen before they leave. But those poor panicked insects were lured there under false pretences in the first place…. this sort of attention seeking in the plant world is known as being “sexually deceptive”. Oh, the secret sordid lives of sawflies and flying ducks!

Where will the Flying Duck Orchid lead?

I love the sunset colours that I have pulled out of one of Peter Woodard’s Flying Duck Orchid pictures that he has kindly placed into the public domain. At their brightest, Flying Duck Orchids exhibit these rich purple, red brown and peach tones. Of course, there are also the bright greens and yellows in this picture that I could play with.

Another of Peter’s pictures has more muted colours, colours that I also adore.

Flying Duck Orchid colour scheme from Clever Chameleon

I think you might understand when I say that I have my plate full at the moment. We all do, this time of year! But I definitely have to bookmark this idea, as I’d love to make an appliqué version of the Flying Duck Orchid sometime later. A cushion project perhaps.

Or perhaps I could use these colours to make something like this fabulous Migrating Geese quilt by Sandra of Musings of a Menopausal Melon- mmm! quilts. That seems appropriate! Sandra has done a fabulous job of her latest flimsy. Go see!

Before you go….

Just to quell any lingering doubts about whether the Hoya from 2 weeks ago is real……. the flowers do perish eventually. ….

spent Hoya flowers

And there are fresh buds coming. I like these nearly as much as the flowers themselves!

Hoya buds

Wishing you many blessings in the lead up to Christmas and New Year.

December 9, 2017January 19, 2024

Teal Magic Mosaic Challenge

Have you participated in the Toasty Teal mosaic challenge yet?

If not, you still have time. Why not spend a little quiet time this weekend just playing with colours for fun? If your pre-Christmas schedule is like mine you just might need a few moments for a coffee and some colour therapy!

This morning I have done exactly that. I started out with the idea that I wanted to do a really rich purple and teal colour board. As it turns out, I couldn’t find enough purple fabrics that I liked in Bobbie Lou’s Fabric Factory, so my mosaic evolved into this….. More teal and pink. But that’s ok.

Isn’t it fun? And pretty? And a little bit dark and mysterious, like a walk in the woods in late autumn? I’m calling it Teal Magic.

You know that I like to do things with a twist……

Do you want to know what made me pull this particular collection together? Well, as I was trying to create a purple and teal mosaic I discovered a number of fabrics that have disguised or hidden motifs in them. And I was transported into a world of childhood stories and fairytales – a feeling of mystique and intrigue. So I decided to pursue this mood, and while not everything that I found and loved fit into my nine final picks, I had a wonderful time exploring my memories and these fabrics.

In the end I chose these 9 fabrics for Teal Magic because:

the elephants and feathers reminded me of the story of Dumbo. When I was a kid I had “Dumbo” and “The Colour Kittens” on vinyl records, and I loved, loved, loved listening to those read-along stories. (The Counting Elephants fabric is by Dear Stella and Panache in Fresco is by Art Gallery.)
So, once I had the elephants and feathers, I had to have the leaf print called “Eek” by Free Spirit. There is a mouse hidden in those leaves!!! Timothy the mouse was Dumbo’s best friend. But there are also so many other literary and cultural connections between mice and elephants, I wouldn’t know where to start boring you with them. Insert your own favourite(s) here.
The hare from the Tortoise and the Hare story is included (I would have loved to add the tortoise fabric as well, but the colours didn’t do what I wanted, so eventually I had to let it go). This collection is by Free Spirit.
There are water droplets, lanterns and hidden butterflies to add to the mystique of this collection. These fabrics are: Water Droplets in Aqua by Me + You/Hoffman, Lively Lantern by Cotton + Steel, and Atlas in Amethyst by Free Spirit.
Finally, a good dose of unicorns and birds in the woods. Why is it that woods are full of magic? Then again I suppose,, why not? (The fabrics are Magic Folk by Michael Miller and Illusionist Vine by Art Gallery Fabrics).

Even though they didn’t make the cut, they are still amazing……

In the end there were still no pineapples or snails in my second teal collection, just like the first. Although I admit I was still sorely tempted on both counts. My daughter said I had to have the water droplets fabric, which in the end counted out the snails. Not that she was all that happy about that either…. Rachel, if you are listening, my 9yo wants 10 slots in the challenge, please!!!! lol.

And I am 100% taken by Stone Cold Critters by Free Spirit. Even though it didn’t fit. There are animals hidden in that design! Just too clever!

Stone Cold Critters fabric

Your Turn

So there you have it. A little peek into my slightly dreamy state of mind this morning. Christmas is a time for reminiscing…. it is nice to slow down for a few moments and think back to some of the magic that touched my childhood, teal or otherwise.

Got a few moments to play? You can find the mosaic challenge instructions at Stitched in Color. And the fabrics at the challenge’s sponsor, Bobbie Lou’s Fabric Factory. You have until the 10th to have a play with making an ebundle of your nine favourites under the theme of Toasty Teal. You might even win fat quarters of them all. Good luck!

November 28, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Christmas Bells

Christmas Bells color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Celebrating the Holidays with Inspiration from Real Life

Here in Australia, sometimes it can be hard to reconcile the major seasonal holidays with the weather. Spring is now in full swing and summer is doing its best to come early this year. So here I am, merrily decorating our Christmas tree in ornaments which, on the whole, celebrate winter….. while quietly pondering whether I should just abandon ship and head to the pool instead…..

But, not everyone here is as confused as I am. There is at least one local that does our summer Christmas wholeheartedly, with absolutely no inhibitions. It is not a person though, it is a street tree. For the rest of the year, this tree is actually a bit on the plain side, possibly verging on ugly. A funny, almost stunted looking tree, unassuming, lacking in any apparent vigour and vitality. But come November and December, it does this!

Brachychiton tree in flower

This tree is a hybrid from the Brachychiton family. Two Australian natives – the Kurrajong tree (white bell flowers with pink/red insides) and the Flame Tree (scarlet red bell flowers) – can be crossed to get hybrids like this one that produce masses of pink bells.

To add to the fun, because the tree is so unworthy the rest of the time, I forget how amazing it is for the few weeks that it flowers. So, every year the kids and I get a nice moment of sudden realisation that the “Christmas Bells” are back, heralding the end of school and promising Christmas.

Brachychiton tree in flower

How to respond to such extravagant Christmas Spirit?

Well, the obvious answer is to produce something Christmas flavoured in dusky pinks and green. A “Christmas Bells” quilting motif or quilt design perhaps? Well, these bell flowers actually put me in mind and mood of a small Christmas project I have been musing over for a couple of weeks, ever since the Ornament Exchange Tour. And I would have made it in pink but I couldn’t lay my hands on my pink pearl cotton yesterday. So purple had to do. Since I still have purple and green on the brain from the last few weeks, and our purple Bougainvillea is still out in full flower, I admit that wasn’t a hard compromise to make.

This is what I created in response to my thoughts around Christmas Bells.

Christmas Bells Ornaments

How to make my Christmas Bells Ornament?

Would you be interested in a short tutorial on how to make this ornament? I wanted to do the tutorial for you today, but there are just too many other things that need attention before the end of the week. I am hoping I might be able to write it up for you next week though. How does that sound?

Sorry for the tease (or maybe it is just a sneak preview?), but it seemed silly not to show you what I made in a rare quiet moment in response to my musings around today’s Colour Inspiration Tuesday. November is simply a crazy month for our family! It’s the same every year. Update: the tutorial is done – you can find it here!

So on that note, I must be getting on with those other things, but I wish you a lovely and productive week and hope to catch you back here on Thursday with my One Monthly Goal. Yup, last minute, as usual! Did you really expect anything else? 🙂

P.S. BREAKING NEWS!! Last night Clever Chameleon arrived on Facebook….. I know, not exactly earth shattering, but another step forward for my baby blog. 🙂 If you’d like to follow via Facebook, I’d be very glad of your company! Thanks a million!!

P.P.S Sharing in this weeks linky fun at:
The Quilting Room with Mel
Love Laugh Quilt

November 21, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Aurora Star

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: From colour scheme to quilt block and beyond!

I love green and purple together. Always have, although I have not really given it any particular thought before. They look so strong and comfortable together, complementing and magnifying each other without competing. And it is a generous, welcoming colour scheme…. in that you can add in other colours without making a hideous mess (usually).

But until recently it flummoxed me why this is so. They are not complementary colours. They are two parts of a triadic colour scheme, the third ingredient of which is orange. But quite honestly, purple and green can sing together without orange. Helen Godden, one of my all time favourite Australian quilt artists, shared a comment on facebook recently that helped make sense of the brilliance of purple and green. She says “It’s a well balanced combo. Both green and purple are blue (primary) based, one has yellow (primary) added and the other has red (primary) added so all bases are covered and it looks visually balanced.” I had never looked at it in this light before. Thanks Helen!

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Aurora Star

This week I needed to make a once-off 12.5″ pieced quilt block. No further guidelines were given. Which is a much harder task than “make this block”, don’t you think? Anyway, I had no initial ideas beyond wanting to make a scrappy batik block in greens and purples. Thankfully, this past weekend we decorated our Christmas tree (earlier than normal), and that sparked of a whole raft of ideas. And like many of my ideas, the one I settled on came to me via a rather circuitous route.

green star atop Christmas Tree — My daughter’s green star atop our tree. .You can also find a tutorial on how to make your own drum ornament like this one here.

On top of our tree this year is the paper star that my daughter made in Germany last Christmas. It is green. And her green star somehow reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of the Northern Lights, which are predominately green with purple. There are some amazing pictures of the Aurora Borealis on Unsplash.

While I am not a bucket-list kind of person, the northern aurora is one thing I do want to see one day. I was fortunate enough to see small southern auroras from my home twice when I was a teen and I will never forget them.

Anyway, getting back to the point, I started wondering whether people take pictures of Venus (the Morning Star/Evening Star) with the auroras. And of course they do. One of the photographers I have featured before has even shared one on UnSplash. The amazing Jonatan Pie.

Aurora and Venus

But in the end it was his photo of the aurora at sunset that captured my colour imagination.

Aurora at sunset

So I put all these ideas together and decided to make a simple aurora star block in green and purple with splashes of sunset colours. Here is what I made.

It turns out that I didn’t have as many green batik scraps at hand as I thought. But I am still happy with my pretty little block. Of course now I want to make a whole quilt! hahahaha! But that Vanuatu Turtle quilt is the next thing in line for attention, so I shan’t.

Want to make your own Aurora Star?

Now it turns out that there is truly very little new under the sun. A little digging revealed that Em of Sewing by Moonlight has already shared a very good tutorial on how to construct the block I wanted to make. So I decided not to re-invent the wheel. I can tell you that the template she provides works very well, so if you would like to make this block, I wholeheartedly refer you to her post. About the only change I made was that I did not trim the outside edges of the block until I had it all constructed and blocked it square.

Of course, Em’s reasons for making this block were completely different to mine…. if you place multiples of this block together side by side you get octagons (spider webs) with stars in between. But if I were to make a quilt from today’s aurora star idea I would actually use offset blocks to break up the octagons. Because I would want to emphasise the stars in a sea of aurora colours and swirls. Something like this…..

Aurora Star Quilt 1

Or this….

Aurora Star Quilt 2

Or maybe with most of the stars darkened out for the sky…… I think this is my favourite so far.

Credit

Today’s photos are from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. Credit is not required, but I’m sure you’d love to know who is being so generous with their talent. Accordingly, the aurora photos that inspired me to make the aurora star block were provided by Jonatan Pie. Be sure to check out his collection of photos on Unsplash.

Jonatan Pie

You can also see Vincent Guth’s photos here.
Vincent Guth

I hope you enjoyed today’s Colour Inspiration Tuesday! Let me know if you’ve been lucky enough to see Aurora Borealis! Or share your favourite aurora quilt with me – I know there are quite a few bargello versions out there. You can send pictures via the blue, round email icon at the very very bottom of this page. I always love to hear from my readers!

P.S. If you like vivid colours and free-motion quilting, you are sure to like Helen Godden’s work. If you are not already familiar with this amazing quilt artist, then go check her out. She is my recommendation for the week.

P.P.S. If you would like to use Jonatan’s photos or another Colour Inspiration Tuesday photo for your own projects, you can easily find all the Unsplash photos from Colour Inspiration Tuesday in one place for free in my Colour Inspiration Collection.

P.PP.S. Check out the other hubs of creative activity I am linking up with this week:
Main Crush Monday
Love Laugh Quilt
Quilt Fabrication
Sew Fresh Quilts
Freemotion by the River
Busy Hands Quilts
Crazy Mom Quilts
And a new party for me this week: Moving It Forward at Em’s Scrapbag