June is Purple – Colour Inspiration Tuesday and Link Party

June is Purple color scheme by Clever Chameleon

June is Purple! Yes folks, May is nearly done and it’s time to start thinking about next month’s Color Challenge feature colour! Purple.

“they mixed red and blue together — and what did that make? It didn’t make green. It made a deep dark purple. Purple as violets, Purple as prunes. Purple as shadows on late afternoons.”

Purple as violets purple as prunes
Photo credits. Violets: 小池 隆 [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons. Prunus plums: Jebulon [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons.
Do you recognise the quote above? It is from the Golden Book Classic “The Color Kittens” by Margaret Wise Brown. Oh, how I was obsessed with that book as a small child. I had the audio version, on mini vinyl with the read-along booklet. I can still hear it in my head, nearly 40 years on….. perhaps it is no small wonder I have ended up here with a blog like this! Anyways…..

Let’s have a look at the complexities of purple and some of the meanings it can convey as a lead up to the next Monthly Color Challenge. And do I need mention …… the release of the Purple Beary Colourful Bear pattern is nearly here? – Friday! Yay! 🙂

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“Illusions of Christmas” – A New Mini Quilt

It’s the last day of the Spring 2018 Art with Fabric blog hop, and my turn to show you my quilt interpretation of the hop theme “1+1=3”.

What does “1+1=3” mean to you and how would you quilt it? My first thoughts were to produce a set of quirky critters that captured the essence of a young family. But May has been seriously crazy and I had neither the time nor energy in the end to whip up such a pattern from scratch.

The other connotation I was strongly drawn to was the mathematical impossibility of the “1+1=3” statement. And this led me down the path of optical illusions and the deliberate act of placing shapes and colours such that the brain sees things that don’t exist. So that is what I have explored.

I ended up with this mini quilt, which I have called Illusions of Christmas.

Illusions of Christmas

Let me tell you more about this little quilt, the inspiration source and how it came about. 

Psst…… If the green pieces in this quilt look square and straight to you then the  illusion isn’t evident. If this is the case and you want to see the illusion right now, get out of your seat and stand back from your screen. When you are too close to the quilt your eyes are not fooled into seeing what is not there.

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away…
(
Hughes Mearns, public domain)

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Tulips Go Supernova – Colour Inspiration Tuesday and Link Party

Tulips Go Supernova color scheme by Clever Chameleon

Welcome to another Tuesday! Thanks for being here…. It means a lot to me, as there is a lot of quality quilting activity on the internet this week!

(Click here if you are looking for my Wish Upon A Star blog hop post from Monday). Of course, stay here if you are looking for your weekly dose of Chameleon colour and quilt inspiration. 🙂 Better yet, do both…..

Do you remember these tulips I showed you last week?

Mother's Day tulips

I received these on Mother’s Day. So they are now over a week old and they look like this:

ageing red tulips

Spectacular and artistic, just as I promised. And very hard to photograph as a group, I might add. Too many divas and not enough limelight.

Anyway, each tulip has opened up to reveal a striking and beautiful 6-pointed star in the centre. What can I say? Mother Nature still has my vote as the greatest designer of all time!

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Three Wishes Monkey Quilt

Welcome to the first day of the “Wish Upon A Star” Blog Hop

Carol at Just Let Me Quilt has organised for you a HUGE treat this week! A supernova of a blog hop, and it all kicks off today. Carol has rounded up 44 quilt bloggers to show you their star-studded sewing projects. Pieced stars, appliqué stars, star-shaped projects, big stars, little stars…. who knows what you are going to find on the Wish Upon A Star blog hop today? And, for that matter, every day this week until Friday! All sorts of fantastic creations, that’s what… and all of them with a star on them somewhere!

Three Wishes Monkey quilt by Clever Chameleon

I get to help kick off this fun week of sparkly goodness today. And since you’re here, that makes it my turn to help you see stars. So, I am showing you a quilt I made for a very special toddler in my life. I made this quilt a while ago, but when Carol announced this blog hop, I knew it was time to share it on the blog. Designed especially for a little boy named Lucas,  it is called “Three Wishes Monkey”.     

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Fairy Owl Playful Pillow – An Island Batik Challenge

Did you know that owls have a penchant for dressing-up after dark? No?! Well, check out Whoo’s Whoo at Clever Chameleon this month!

For May the Island Batik Ambassador challenge is to create a “Playful Pillow” with some of the fabric they gave us back in February. And for me, today had “sewing day” written all over it…. the weather has turned…. it is cold, and finally (thank goodness) raining. Time to come up with something playfully pillowesque for Island Batik. 

So, how about…… a Fairy Owl? A playmate for the Pirate Owl pillow. Is that playful enough? I think so!

Fairy Owl cushion pillow by Clever Chameleon

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