Birds and Bees: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Autumnal Willie Wagtail colours at Clever Chameleon

Noticing all the Details

Funny how the most obvious things can bypass me sometimes. And amazing how much more there always is to learn about a place if I just stay still long enough. Changes of seasons bring new rounds of wonders….. and colours… and challenges too. Many of our days here in the Australian desert are still sunny and warm, but the nights are getting bitterly cold already. The nocturnal moths have mostly stopped coming to the windows. But the cooler weather is bringing out some more interesting day critters.

So, the Chameleon requests permission to talk a little about bugs again. Only the nice ones, mind. He thinks he was very restrained last week, and should be cut a little slack. He wants to mention the birds and the bees this week, if that’s ok. And rats. All fun things humans are known to be a bit touchy about, but he promises that is nothing icky involved this week. Chameleon’s honour!

Year of the Rat appliqué at Clever Chameleon

Those tricky details

The Chameleon has an eye for detail. Actually two eyes, capable of looking at two independent details at the same time. Me? I am just an amateur. Look what I managed to miss.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that we currently have lots of butterflies hanging around the Cattle Bush flowers. Including Australian Painted Ladies. Like this one.

But this week, it suddenly dawned on me that the majority of the orange and black butterflies hanging around are not Painted Ladies, but Lesser Wanderers. Like this one.

Lesser Wanderer butterfly at Arkaroola

They are not even really all that alike once you start paying attention, but clearly I wasn’t. Sorry, Lesser Wanderers.

I had to let the Chameleon show you the Lesser Wanderers – they are my son’s favourite. He really likes their spotty bodies. Which is what eventually made me twig.

Those elusive details

In contrast to my butterfly obliviousness, there are some critters that I know are around here but haven’t managed to document up until now. After four months of seeing evidence of echidnas, I finally crossed paths with one this week while I was weeding. At dusk the other day, when I only had my phone camera with me, an echidna sauntered past. Until it noticed me, that is…. then it very deliberately and swiftly parked itself headfirst into this collection of rocks and tree stump and actively IGNORED me. In softer soil it would have dug itself in. If this doesn’t silently scream “Go. Away!” I don’t know what does. Not all insect eaters are friendly like the Chameleon.

I took a couple of shots and let it be. It was my dinner time too, although I wasn’t quite this hangry. Social distancing lessons, anyone?!

The tuft at the bottom end of the echidna is his tail. At the top is his shoulders – his head is hidden underneath.

More elusive details

Another thing that are often around but just too sneaky to get caught on camera are one of my favourite Australian birds, the Willie Wagtail. This fantail bird is another insect eater. He has expressive eyebrows, a melodious happy call, and a way of life that always looks carefree. They flit and float around by fanning their wings and tails to chase insects, and I’ve always loved their antics.

Willie Wagtail at Arkaroola
Willy Wagtail at Arkaroola

Willie Wagtails are reputed to be eavesdropping spreaders of gossip/bad news (Australian Aboriginal folklore) or bringers of good luck (New Guinea). Just a fun fact.

Willie Wagtail at Arkaroola

Yet more elusive details

The promised bee to go with the bird is an Australian native bee, called the Blue-banded bee. It is a solitary bee that nests in dirt burrows in dry creek beds, and preferentially likes blue flowers. There is a favourite spot for them in the creek by our driveway….. a dry creek, full of Cattle Bush with blue flowers, perfect!

Blue-banded solitary bee at Arkaroola
Australian Blue-banded bee at Arkaroola

The Blue-banded bee is a really loud and very fast bee (and hard to catch on camera because it doesn’t sit still on each flower like a european bee). Apparently it “buzz pollinates” – essentially it vibrates the pollen the flowers around as it looks for nectar. The internet assures me it will pollinate yellow tomato flowers, which as I showed you last week, may yet come in handy.

I hope you found this week’s offering of Australian curiosities interesting.

The cooler weather seems to suit me

I’ve been getting some of my groove back. Have you noticed? Three posts in three weeks, and all with sewing progress! That’s a hat-trick!

Anyway, I’ve started on the appliqués on the Lunarcy quilt, and all but finished the first block: the Year of the Rat (2020). Look at the Island Batik fabrics starting to sing!

Lunarcy Rat appliqué at Clever Chameleon

Disclaimer: Island Batik supplied these fabrics to me free of charge to create the prototype Lunarcy BOM available here soon at Clever Chameleon for the remainder of 2020.

I have secured the edges of the block, stitched down the rat, and added some detail to the lantern.

Lunarcy Rat block lantern appliqué at Clever Chameleon

I also started stitching on the flowers. But I am a bit undecided what to do for the flower centres. My very first designs for yearly mini quilts used buttons for the flower centres. But this is a bed quilt and I am not going to be sewing 600 buttons onto it. That is a solemn promise. My current design calls for dark red circles, which I can do, if I over-dye some more red batik like I did for the lanterns. Here’s an example (not stitched).

Lunarcy Rat block appliqué at Clever Chameleon

Or I could just draw in circles or stamens with stitching (red or otherwise)….. Any suggestions?

Next, meet the Chameleon’s Latest Merry Band of Colour Changers…

Clever Chameleon logo

Gretchen from Gretchen’s Little Corner is making a quilt called Calico Stars from a fabric called Summer Breeze. This collection is such a breath of fresh air.

Gretchen has been playing with her block layout, an exercise that is always fun. The Chameleon loves changing and exploring things, even when they end up back where they started. Head over to Gretchen’s post for more gentle eye candy like this block.

Summer Breeze Stars by Gretchen
Clever Chameleon logo

Melva at Melva Loves Scraps was busy changing blocks and exploring colours this week too. Her block is anything but gentle though. This is the “Our Country” block in German flag colours.

Our Country block by Melva
Clever Chameleon logo

Jeanette of aria_quilt on Instagram has been changing her fabric scraps and stray embellishments into greetings and sunshine. Head over to Instagram for more details.

And last but not least this week, Rebecca Grace at Cheeky Cognoscenti has been changing her mind about the thread colours on her latest quilt. If you haven’t seen Spirit Song so far then you need to head over for a look at this amazing scrappy quilt. With unique perspectives this week, I might add.

When Rebecca Grace wrote her post, she was in the throes of rejecting her first thread choice for the main quilting……. something that seems to also happen to me a lot. I am always interested to hear how other people get past the dreaded thread decision stage of quilting. Apparently wine and Facetime come highly recommended.

Rebecca Grace's quilt

Are you a chatty bird or a busy, solitary bee?

Either way, we’d love you to join this week’s party and tell us what are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room. 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!

  • 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!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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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!

14 Replies to “Birds and Bees: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday”

  1. No link up today, but I sure enjoyed your post. Fun to see all the birds, bees and rats. No suggestions on the flower centers; I would’ve said stitch them in, but you had already thought of that.

  2. I look forward to your posts. This one certainly didn’t disappoint. Your curiosity and observation of your environment show up in your quilts. I’m loving seeing your area that I haven’t had the opportunity to visit.

  3. I’m the solitary busy bee, if you couldn’t already tell! Thanks for sharing all of the wildlife you see!

  4. Hi your post are always welcome, I have lost my quilting mojo and despite looking for inspiration no luck, today I have resorted to painting the garden fence just to get outside see the birds and flowers in my garden. I brought a wisteria two years ago and I now have two beautiful pink flowers well worth the wait, if you see a mojo hanging about in Australia it’s mine please send it back with so new inspiration

  5. Read your post and the color inspirations have helped me a lot.
    Thank you.

  6. I love reading about the animals and other things in nature within your country. Especially if there is folklore behind them. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to starting your new BOM.
    Robin (in Florida, USA)

  7. Loved the pictures and information about the birds and Bees and others.

  8. Hi Dione, thanks so much for sharing. I’m like you – a yellow butterfly is a yellow butterfly. Good that now you can tell the difference! Wow, an echidna. I’m assuming that its backside was to the camera? At least he’s in camouflage mode, although not as clever as a chameleon 🙂 I think that you should do a little bit of all three suggestions on your flowers. Who says that they all need to be the same? Some can have centers with fabric, some with FMQ and others with nothing! Since there are so many, I’m sure that it would look lovely. It looks really great so far. Good luck!

  9. I love learning about the plants and creatures of Australia. I’d love to visit some day. 🙂

  10. How cool. I just love it when you share the wild life in the area. Thank you. Ohh but your quilt is coming along beautifully. I am loving all the flowers and extra details. Well done. Again, thanks for sharing.

  11. Hi Dione! HAHA – permission given not that it’s needed. I’ll read everything! Oh, the butterfly differences are slight but oh so obvious when you point them out. And, I’ve never even heard of the echidna but his stunt reminds me of Addison. She covers her eyes, too, and then assumes that you cannot see her. That Go Away message was loud and clear. What a fun name for a bird – the Willie Wagtail. Do the blue-banded bees sting? I can see where just walking by them in their dirt burrow might be dangerous. Hmm. I think drawing in the centers of those little flowers would be the easiest. Or, you could quilt them in but there are a lot of them. Good question! ~smile~ Roseanne

  12. How about a combination for flower centers? I like the red circle, but it also looks good along side some with no center. You could do some with stitching, some with red circles (or other colors?) and leave some plain? After all, it’s unlikely 600 different flowers would all have the same center.

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