Tiptoe Through the Tulips: Colour Inspiration Tuesday & Linky Party!

Colour Inspiration Tuesday and a Link Party – the party where we inspire each other and the candy is calorie free!

This week has been huge….. on the blog and off! Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on my New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop post….. I have now responded to all comments, but there were two email addresses that bounced, so if you didn’t hear back from me, please be assured I still very much appreciated your comment.

And another big thank you to everyone who came to the Chameleon’s first birthday linky party. He was so very pleased…… he turned all shades of quilt!

If you missed out on last week’s party, don’t worry, we are having a party every week…… Come on over and join in this week instead! Also today, I have a new border quilting motif you can download, and we will take a closer look at last week’s party guests!

Let’s see if you can get the Chameleon to turn your quilt colours this week!

Inspired by Tulips

For me this week, my sewing has been all about tulips, so there was really no second guessing what my Colour Inspiration Tuesday theme should be. I love tulips, and the last couple of years they have become much cheaper and more readily available locally as cut flowers, so I am blessed to often have some cheering up my home. In fact….. look what I got for Mother’s Day! 🙂

Tulips are such a great cut flower. They look sweet in bud. Then they are so sleek and glossy and defined as they fill out. And then as they open up they go all artistic…… draping themselves over the edge of the vase and showing off the patterns on their insides.  Even the dropped petals are the prettiest things to clean up – the epitome of ageing gracefully.

How have I been Quilt-Inspired by Tulips?

I would love to be in the right place at the right time to see a whole field of tulips in bloom. So maybe it should be no surprise that the first quilt pattern I am working on for commercial release is all about tulips. As it happens,  it is actually a mild surprise to me. Because it is not what I had planned for my first “proper” quilt pattern. But that’s one of the joys of life, the unexpected good things.

Sadly, because the fabrics I am using are pre-release, I can’t really show you any sneak peeks of the front right now. But I can share some quilting with you.

Tiptoe Through the Tulips quilting motif

One of the borders on my new quilt is super dark, so in some ways it didn’t matter what I quilted on it, as long as I used a dark thread. I think such spots are great for testing out ideas and practising things outside my comfort zone. So I decided to quilt this border with tulips to echo some tulip appliqués that this quilt features. 

I will be honest…. it took me two goes to get it right. And a date with Mr Ripper in between. The quilting is invisible on the front, but it is a nice surprise for those who take the trouble to turn the quilt over…. and this I can show you. The backing is “Sky”, a hand-dye from Island Batik.

I used my favourite parchment paper marking method to get my tulips nice and evenly spread.

Here is a schematic of how I  quilted my tulips as a continuous line design.

And here is the pdf if you’d like to download it to use on your own project later. It includes how to add tulips to the border’s corners. You can trace the line to get the hang of how it goes. I hope you like it.

What about you? Do you take opportunities to try things out on quilts that have forgiving spaces where mistakes will be hidden?

Join the Fun! Time for this week’s Colour Inspiration Tuesday Colour Party!

I can see a problem with the colour party is that I am going to want to feature everyone! I just love quilts, and I love seeing how other people express themselves through quilts. Especially in colours I don’t use much myself. So for all the brave and marvellous souls who linked up last week – because it was the very first week, I think you all deserve a special mention.

If you linked up last week and would like a featured button for your post/blog, please click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for the code. Thank you so much for joining in and making the first party a success!

So, who was here last week?

I was pretty pleased to find a range of participants….

DebBee linked up directly to a photo she had on file of her quilt of pinks yellows and denims. Love, love, love these colours,…..  I am still collecting old jeans for a denim quilt creation of my own one day.

Remember…. if you don’t blog or use social media, you can still show your quilt on Clever Chameleon just like Deb. 🙂 We always want to see fresh material….. hahaha. Seriously though, we DO want to see your quilts even if you do not blog etc!

Rochelle joined us from Flickr with an awesome patchwork elephant. The Chameleon likes this rainbow look, it reminds him of his very first colours he ever wore.

 

Jan @snell.jan and Jeannette @quilted_collie linked up via Instagram posts. Jan has her 10th finish for 2018 already! I “know” Jeannette through the Beary Colourful BOM, where she always adds something a little extra to her bears, so it was fabulous to see what else she has been up to. 

And there were 5 bloggers.

Of those bloggers, Joy from Days Filled with Joy was the first stranger-follower (I know of) of my blog. But she is not going to be unknown to me much longer, as she going to be in Australia in June and I am going to meet her!!!!! 🙂 She has linked up her “Squared Away” blocks.

Sandra from mmm! quilts linked up one of my favourite quilts of hers… Goddess Eyes. Very fun and very colourful. I have been getting to know Sandra for about 6 months via the internet, and she is another of the most encouraging people in my quilting sphere of influence. Happy days!

I consider it my good fortune to have “met” Kathleen from Kathleen McMusing early this year through the Island Batik Ambassadors program. Kathleen linked up her Vintage Made New Island Batik project. It is stunning and she talks about a half square triangle method I have never encountered before….. very interesting, go find out. 🙂

And the two link ups I want to feature in full:

Sue of Sevenoaks Street Quilts and a fellow Aussie linked up a quilt that greatly appeals to me in both form and colour – her latest quilt for the annual Pantone Color of the Year quilt challenge. I only “met” Sue and her blog a week ago and I’m already a big fan. Look at this house quilt! This is my favourite house quilt I’ve seen in a long time!

 And last, but certainly not least….

Anita from Domestic Felicity has been given some fabric pre-cuts and is working her way through creating two small quilts with them. I especially like the pinwheels she is working on – the turquoise and orange leap out of that colour combo and just grab me. I would quilt in those colours in a heartbeat. Love!

Anita is wondering what to do with this project next. So, be a darling and head over to her post and see if you can give her any ideas. Lots of heads are better than one at this sort of thing. I know that from experience!

Can you imagine how happy I was to hear from all these ladies last week? Nope, you are wrong….. try at least double that! 🙂

Now it’s time to do it all again….. please link up everyone!

We’d love to see what colours you are quilting in at the moment, so show us what you are making or getting excited about! 

Guidelines (for more detail, click here):

• Link up your latest or recent quilt excitement. All construction stages welcome, from a quilt plan, a fabric pull, quilt blocks, a flimsy, to a finished quilt…. if you have a photo you love, we want to see it.
• Tell us what colours you are using – we might get inspired to use a similar colour scheme and be very grateful to you. You have 100 characters in the description…. tell us who you are and what wonderful colours you’ve chosen.
• URLs are not necessary to link up, but if you have one, please use the permalink.
• A link back on your post is appreciated. You can also get a party button here! And visit some of the other participants – don’t party alone.
• People who spell colour a bit iffy are welcome too. All color schemes are equal in my house! 
• Do you use muted/pastel/low volume colours? Fantastic….. the Chameleon wants to see Everything, not just the bright stuff!

I hope you will link up some colours you are working on, or a quilt you have just finished, and come “Tiptoe through the tulips, with meeeee-eeeee!”.

And come back next week to see if you’ve caused the Chameleon to colour change in your direction.

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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. And don’t forget to link up all your current quilting projects on Tuesdays at our Colour Inspiration Linky parties!