Too Coo’ for School: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

School’s out for a fortnight. Time to play!

The Chameleon’s on Term break. The Arkaroola “school house” is closed. The tables have been reclaimed as sewing spaces. It’s time to catch up on some sewing, writing and other activities that have been on the backburner so long that they might just have mutated into new life forms.

To celebrate, I’ve started with sewing the next batch of blocks for my Garden Party quilt. Did you catch last week’s quilt blocks in the “It’s A Garden Party” row along and blog hop? I released my fun pigeon/bird bath block amid another flurry of amazing patterns, this time for cardinals, frogs and turtles, hexie flowers, fall leaves, a cactus garden, inspirational pillows, pinwheel flowers, octopuses and even a floral vine block.

Since then I’ve been collating printouts like crazy, and making all sorts of impossible decisions. Will this block fit? Does it suit? Can I squeeze it in? How should I balance the colours? You know, world changing stuff.

I’d like this quilt to turn out well, so I have actually spent a fair bit of time deliberating. I’ve got to make my sewing time count at the moment. So far, I’ve managed to incorporate eleven patterns into my small quilt and I think I have space for three or four more. In the end I will have used about one third of the Garden Party block options, although not all in their full form. Not bad going for a small lap quilt, I think. I estimate you’d have to make a queen size to use all the terrific patterns in this year’s row along!

Come on, let’s see what fun designs are on offer this week! I’m sure I can squeeze one or two more in!

So many choices

Last week my small garden quilt was already looking like this. Plenty to smile about so far. It’s going to measure about 44″ x 50″.

Unless I decide to add a border to make it bigger. Or change something (or everything). I am already several iterations into my original idea as it is. 😀 But each change I make makes me happy, so if anyone asks, it’s very cheap entertainment/therapy. It’s nice to “design” a quilt by simply rearranging ideas rather than having to do all the hard work of writing up each block. I hope you’ve got plans for your Garden Party collection.

Garden quilt progress

Here is what my last couple of days have yielded:

A slightly truncated version of the “Home tweet home” block by Heleen Pinkster (Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design);

Birds, a turtle, a frog and my first mushroom from the Garden Friends block (Your Sewing Friend, Teresa Weaver);

And more motifs from Teresa’s Garden Friends block (Your Sewing Friend) – combined with a couple of leaves stolen from the pieces I made from Brenda of Songbird Designs‘ design already. Appliqué blocks are great for filling in odd-shaped spaces between other blocks, as you can mix and match as much as you like. 🙂

I also managed a little secret sewing of blocks not released yet…. but those photos will have to wait for next week. Instead I will show you evidence of a happy weekend. I have never had a pair of slippers that collect debris as efficiently as these two disemboweled teddies do. But I guess it saves me having to sweep up!

This week’s Garden Party schedule

As this post goes to press you can still enter the prize draw on last Thursday’s posts, including by commenting on my post here. And of course, you can still download the pattern. I will keep it up for free until at least the end of October.

Here are the newest and upcoming stops on the “It’s A Garden Party” row along. Thanks to Marian at Seams to be Sew for continuing to run this event.

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Cynthia’s Creating Ark | Miss Loreen’s Schoolhouse
Moose Stash Quilting | Tuning My Heart Quilts
Cheryl LaPlante

Thursday, October 01, 2020

Barbara Dieges | Linda B Creative
Orange Blossom Quilt Design Studio | Ursa Minor
Sunflower Stitcheries and Quilting

Enjoy!

Your weekly dose of Inspiration….

While I am sewing Spring, everyone else seems to be sewing Autumn. But it is what it is – the Chameleon insists that he is not a fall guy, especially in September. Such is the lot of a Southern Hemispherian, I suppose. Actually, it generally works out quite well for me. I sew to the Northern Hemisphere seasons, and by the time I’ve actually finished a project, it’s bang on time for that season here! 😀

Anyway, as you may have guessed, this week’s inspiration features are three Linkers for whom another hop has been going on lately – the “Hello Fall” blog hop. Like the Garden Party hop, there are lots of fun things to see in this one too. Here’s a taste. If you like what you see, you might want to delve deeper into previous stops on that tour too.

Now it’s your turn to share

Tell us – what are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? Spring, Fall or otherwise, we want to know so we can visit and be inspired. 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!

While you’re doing that, I need to pop over to Joan’s blog at Moosestash Quilting and collect her garden gnome pattern. My pigeon needs somewhere to roost…. 😀 Thanks Joan!

• 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!

---

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!