Talking Turkey: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

October’s Island Batik Challenge is “Top It Off”

My challenge as an Island Batik Ambassador in October is to: create a holiday runner or table topper, any size; must include appliqué. But don’t you think that’s a bit too easy for the Chameleon? He’s a challenge veteran by now!

So, let’s make it a proper challenge then. Purely self-imposed. Hmmm…… How about also: use the Accuquilt Cleopatra’s Fan die supplied in the July ambassador supplies box; make it juvenile; and choose a culturally irrelevant holiday. That should Top it right Off!

Hahaha. Sure! Luckily, I have just the thing in mind…. 😀 Remember when I said that I had lots of ideas for September’s Accuquilt challenge, but most of them didn’t meet at least one of the challenge requirements? Well, I wasn’t joking! Several of my designs fit all the requirements, except that they were too small. Luckily for me, a little tweaking and *taa dah*, one of them is now perfect for a small Thanksgiving quilt. Now also known as a table topper! So, I’m making a September’s-reject, decidedly juvenile, Cleopatra’s Fan turkey for October’s Island Batik challenge. One un-adult Thanksgiving table topper, involving appliqué, coming right your way. Brought to you by a confused Chameleon (who doesn’t do Thanksgiving because he’s Australian, but would like to), by a brave Island Batik (who asked for a holiday quilt, but may yet regret it) and poor Accuquilt (who is the innocent victim this time around).

Just remember…. Cleopatra’s Fan is a nice, staid, formal block and you don’t have to abuse it like the Chameleon does! Buuuuuuut, it is fun…… 😀

Disclaimers: The fabrics and Accuquilt die featured in this post were given to me as part of the Island Batik Ambassador program. This post may contain affiliate links.

An Accuquilt Make-up Session of sorts

Last month I had an Island Batik Ambassador challenge to use the Accuquilt Cleopatra’s Fan die (affiliate link) to make a juvenile quilt.

I had a really juvenile idea involving pieced Cleopatra’s Fans that I badly wanted to make, but was too small to meet the challenge guidelines. So I made my deadly serious and very beautiful Dandelion Dream quilt instead. Which I also thoroughly enjoyed, I might add.

To make Dandelion Dream though, I had to use the Cleopatra’s Fan die off-target to make appliqué templates and turned-appliqué pieces. Not a single full fan block in the entire quilt.

So this month, I am making good on that. Six genuine, standard, normally pieced Accuquilt Cleopatra’s Fan blocks are going into my October holiday appliqué challenge. Which is the aforementioned quilt that I badly wanted to make in September. Say what?! Contrary? Nah, I prefer to think that I am just too creative for my own good….. a bit like my 8yo son who managed to break a toe on the trampoline on the past weekend purely by landing creatively. Ouch! I’m getting tired of the local ED, and they’re probably tired of us. If you didn’t get a response to your recent comment or linkup yet, that’s why. I’m still working on my backlog. Anyways…..

Here’s where I’m at so far with the Turkey

I have made six Cleopatra’s Fans using the Accuquilt BOB die given to me in July’s Island Batik Ambassador box. I used solid grey Island Batik fabric for the background of my table runner and a variety of purple and pink Basics and Foundations fabrics for the turkey feathers. The white and grey feature feather inserts are made from one of the light Graphic Gems fabrics I excluded from the Dandelion Dream background. How great is that? Waste not, want not!

I then pieced three of these into a square, including a grey fill block to make the turkey’s tail.

And added a grey border to make the quilt larger.

Over the top of this magnificence I added an appliqué turkey. Hellooooo delicious!

And lettering to spell “Happy Thanksgiving”. Although using turkeys to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving (or Christmas) seems a little sadistic. You will have to bear with me on that front though. The turkey does get a little more say later on in this process.

I used a measuring tape pinned in the centre and quilters’ chalk to mark the circular line for the lettering. This table topper is going to be my very first round quilt! 😀

I am still in the process of finishing stitching down the appliqué and quilting the turkey. Hopefully that part of the construction will be done tomorrow.

What about the other three Cleopatra’s Fans?

I said there were six fan blocks, didn’t I? And I’ve only shown you three so far. Well…. I said this was going to be a juvenile quilt and that Island Batik might regret it. What could be more juvenile than a quilt with a back side? *snigger* Growing older might be compulsory, but growing up is not. You’ll have to wait to see the rest of this project though. Sorry, hugs!

Let’s look at the latest week of the Chameleon’s adventures instead

Brenda of Songbird Designs brought Spring to our Colour & Inspiration party this week with a set of clever digitised flower-butterfly embroideries. The Chameleon was very taken with this idea…. he thought it would be fun to grab a friend and be a colourful Chamelerfly for the day….

Flitting further around the internet, the Chamelerfly quickly found himself strangely attracted to Becca’s quilt at Pretty Piney. Apparently Edelweiss is a favourite food source of the Chamelerfly. His long sticky proboscis can suck up all the nectar.

Did you know that the Chamelerfly can change colours in the blink of an eye to camouflage against predation? You do now!

Becca’s post is all about camouflage too…. Lederhosen at Oktoberfest in South Jersey cranberry country. No one’s ever going to notice a thing going on there……. hahaha. Her Oktoberfest party is over, but there is still a great Oktoberfest table runner to be admired at Becca’s place, so go notice that. 😀

You’re thinking that the Chameleon has lost it, aren’t you?! Well, maybe, but at least he knows where his canoe is…… he left it at Made by Marney’s place when he accidentally traded it for Slice of Pi’s police car. Not like Vasudha, who has lost all of her canoes! And she had quite a number of them too. Apparently she put them down on a quilt and they disappeared. Don’t you hate it when that happens?!

Vasudha blogs at Stories Quilts and very cleverly used the Accuquilt Crossed Canoes die to create a tumbling blocks-like effect on her latest quilt. Called Lost Canoes. Great quilt and a great idea. Make sure you pop over to take a closer look and to find where Vasudha’s disappearing canoes went. And then…..

One last plug for the Once Upon A Story blog hop

Today is the optional Show and Tell day for designers in the Once Upon a Story row-along with Seams to be Sew. This year I did not find time to make a stand alone project from my row or a mixed design quilt, but some others did. You can see them all here:

Just Let Me Quilt
Words & Stitches
Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Ursula Prandtstetter at Tuning My Heart Quilts
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Linda B Creative
Charlie’s Daughter at Bobbin In Quilts
Seams To Be Sew – Layout Tutorial

And there are more prizes! Northcott is giving away two bundles of Fat Quarters each valued at US$20 (to two winners willing to pay postage), C&T Publishing has a US$100 voucher to give away (via email code), and Anita Goodesign is giving away a Christmas machine embroidery pattern collection (value US$179.95, must have embroidery machine to use, shipping available internationally, winner to pay postage). Follow the instructions in the rafflecopter to enter, terms and conditions can be found here. This is not my giveaway, I am not responsible for the prize draw nor the prizes. Eligible comments need to be on the participating blogs, not here, although also I’d love to hear what you think of my turkey. All giveaways end Thursday October 10, 2019, Marian will postwinners Friday October 11, 2019.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enough of that – Let’s Talk Turkey. Time for Your Show and Tell!

What are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? Clever Chameleon readers gobble up all things clever and quilting! Link up a blog post, an IG post or simply a photo from your computer. See if you can get the Chameleon to turn quilted with happiness. We’d love to see your quilting colours!

• Link up your latest or recent quilt/sewing excitement. All quilt construction stages welcome – finished quilts, quilt blocks – even fabric pulls! Or inspiration sources!
• You have 50 characters in the link description…. tell us who you are and what your fantastic project is.
• URL links are not necessary to link up…. non-bloggers 100% welcome! If you don’t have a URL, you can link up with just a photo.
• Take a moment to visit some friends who came to the party – leave a little love and make their day. And a link back to Clever Chameleon is always appreciated.
• Do it now……. before you forget!

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The Chameleon turns rainbow with pleasure when he hears from you. I am more reserved, so I will respond in gratitude by email instead. Now that it’s your turn…. Scroll right to the end, leave me a comment and tell me, what do you think? Thanks for connecting!

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, IG or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Don’t forget to link up all your current quilting projects on Tuesdays at our Colour & Inspiration Linky parties!