Vibrant Violet: Colour Inspiration Tuesday and Link Party

 

September and October are going to be Very Violet for the 2018 Monthly Colour Challenge

During September we will celebrate all things pinkish-purple – partying on the red side of violet. And then in October we will even things up with the bluer side of the colour family. All very pretty, to be sure.

Purples are high on my list of colours to feature on a quilt. No difficulties there. But I am a little worried about one thing. I suspect what two months of thinking about soft purples really means is…….  I am going to spend 9 weeks thinking all too often about berry-flavoured frozen treats…. mmmmm….

So, to make sure I am not alone in this torturous state, there is one Berry Colourful Bear appliqué coming right up!

There is also lots of new blog hop action for September, a Pattern Tester call and last week’s quilter link up features all packed into this post. Welcome back to Colour Inspiration Tuesday at Clever Chameleon!

Luckily it is still too cold here at the moment for me to be at a serious risk of a major frozen calorie blowout. It is good quilting weather though, which means I have finished September’s Beary Colourful Bear for you in Red-Violet hues. And he really is September’s Berry Colourful Bear…….. But no more hints just yet. If you want sneak peeks of September’s bear you need to keep an eye on my Facebook page this week. Or Instagram. You know the drill.

Have you knocked August on the head yet?

Before we get to September’s bear (and September’s Island Batik Ambassador project, and the Welcome to My House blog hop…… and the My Happy Place row along -whew!!), you still have a few days to finish strongly for August. Have you made your yellow-orange or red-orange block for the 2018 Monthly Color Challenge running at Patterns By Jen? The link up is now open. This month’s prize for one lucky winner is a $25 voucher from The Fat Quarter Shop.

The yellow-orange pattern offered here for August was the Yellow-Orange Bear of Loving Friends.

That makes eight bears in the series so far. In a few days there will be nine…. which is enough for a small lap-size or bed-topper quilt. Just like my new friend Michele-Marie is making. Take a look at how she is joining her bear blocks together!

Michele-Marie has made the most of the sashing opportunity to place her bears into window boxes. I love it… the idea and the execution of it is brilliant. It has definitely got me pondering how I will eventually sash my own bears….

I must say, I love meeting people through quilting blogging, like I am slowly getting to know Michele-Marie. As a new designer it is also a special thrill to see my bears in action and not just cluttering up hard drives. I hope Michele-Marie’s progress might nudge a few more bears into sewing rooms everywhere. Here is the proof that this will actually be a pretty cool quilt when it is done….. Thank goodness……. This is as reassuring to me as it may be to you, since I don’t have a finished one yet either! 🙂

Keep an eye out for these goings on soon

September is loaded with quilting goodies as Northern Hemisphere thoughts turn to Fall and for us Southern Hemispherers, to Spring.

You may like to follow along with these:

My Happy Place Row-Along with Seams to Be Sew starting Sept. 4.

Welcome to My House Blog Hop with Just Let Me Quilt starting Sept. 10.

And the Island Batik Ambassadors’ theme for September is “Starstruck”.

Or if you’d like to be more actively involved in something…..

Tester Call: An Invitation to Road-Test my Patterns

Would you like to join the Clever Chameleon’s inner circle? Have you enjoyed making the Beary Colourful Bears, the Pumpkin Banner, or wished there was a pattern for the Owls, the Monkey, the Turtle etc? Hopefully by now you have some idea of my style of design –  a mix of piecing and appliqué, often with a side dish of silliness.

I am working on getting some of my patterns up for sale and/or published. But I need some help. At this stage I am looking for expressions of interest from people who would like to have first crack at one or more patterns I have coming up soon. They are patterns that have been accepted into catalogues and magazines, and/or use fabric lines yet to be released, so for the time being these patterns would be supplied to you under the conditions of secrecy. 

I am initially looking for a small group of generous quilters who enjoy Clever Chameleon and would like to see it continue enough to volunteer some time and expertise. In all honesty, for now I cannot offer significant compensation for your input. I have delusions of grandeur that this will change, but for now all I have to offer is exclusive free patterns, promotion on my blog if you wish it, and gratitude. HUGE amounts of Gratitude.

The first quilt up will be tulip-themed and a large lap size (62″ square). I will be looking for feedback on the quilt-top construction which is a mix of simple piecing and appliqué. Following that there will be a baby quilt featuring appliqué animals constructed of triangles. And into next year, hopefully a simplified version of the Turtle quilt. 

But first I really need to hear from anyone who might like to make a tulip quilt in September or a triangle animal quilt in October. These patterns should be ok for quilters who consider themselves confident beginner to experienced.

If this sounds like something you’d like to be part of please drop me a comment or a private email and I will contact you with more details for your consideration. Thanks, from the bottom of my heart!

On with last week’s features

Let’s go with a water-theme….. 

Jen at de Jong’s Dream House linked up some spectacular scrappy quilts, including a couple of Bonny Hunter patterns. Here is Jen’s “On Ringeis Lake” quilt. Nope, that’s not a typo, you’ll have to visit to find out about the name twist.

Did you know chameleon’s can change form as well as colour? No? Well, it was a surprise to him too, don’t you worry! hahahaha.

The Chameleon has gone to all this effort for Kathleen of Kathleen McMusing because she linked up this beach-themed fabric pull….

And showed her progress in turning these into polaroid blocks. Isn’t this such a great idea. I like polaroid quilts for scraps, and I love the beach, so for me, this is just perfect. Also there a couple of extra special fabrics in this group, head on over to find out what makes them precious.

Our last water-themed quilt feature is an update on Cherie’s Nostalgia Twist quilt at Cherie’s Quilting Journey. Cherie is testing this paper-pieced beauty for Denise at For the Love of Geese and is sticking to a nautical theme for her version. This week she added the corner stones to the latest border and used the artistic license the pattern allows to make a change. You guessed it, you’ll have to head over to find out what it was. Don’t you think you should be following this beautiful quilt as it’s constructed anyway? 🙂 

And that wraps up our water-themed feature link ups from last week. My sincerest thanks to everyone who linked up last week. If you were featured you can find a badge of honour here.

So, with all the water themed quilts last week, did that make it a pool party? An inquiring Mer-meleon wants to know. hahahaha Silly boy!

Link up to the Chameleon’s  Linky Party and show us your projects……

What are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? Link up a blog post, a Flicker pic, an IG post or simply a photo from your computer.  See if you can get the Chameleon to turn quilted with happiness. And hopefully he will get his legs back! We’d love to see your quilting colours.

Guidelines (more detail here):

• Link up your latest or recent quilt excitement. All construction stages welcome.
• You have 100 characters in the link description…. tell us who you are and what your fantastic project is.
• URLs are not necessary to link up…. non-bloggers 100% welcome! If you don’t have a URL, simply link up with just a photo. 
• Do it now……. before you forget! 

[inlinkz_linkup id=795544 mode=1]

P.S. Don’t Forget

Have you entered your name for this quilt yet?!

I am running a competition to name this quilt. The winning name will be chosen by the quilt’s new owner, my daughter. The winning entry will win some Island Batik fabric samples – the equivalent to 48 charm squares from the Victoria and Albert fabric collection. A second prize is also offered exclusively to Australian and New Zealand entries. Head over to that blog post to name my quilt and be in the running to win. Entries close 6th September.

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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!

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!