Embellishment Archives - Clever Chameleon Quilting

April 28, 2020January 19, 2024

Cherry Blossom & Mulla Mulla: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Mulla Mulla flower colour board at Clever Chameleon

Flowers this week. Lots of flowers. No more creepy crawlies…

The Chameleon objects, naturally. But I am more sympathetic to the bug-not-lovers out there…… I’ve just realised that the size of the local insects dictates the size of the local spiders. I’m a bit off bugs this week.

So, luckily for me there is a new interesting array of flowers out to show you instead. We’ve been having yoyo weather…. it was up to the mid thirties (degrees C) the other day and now we are heading into the mid-teens, tops. And we’ve had a little rain. The plants seem to like the funny weather though, another wave of blooms has appeared.

A big wave of blooms has appeared on the Lunarcy New Year Zodiac quilt too. I believe I am ready to sew the appliqués down now…… The quilt is decidedly living up to its name, there are approximately 600 cherry blossoms on this thing….. Pure lunacy really!

Lunarcy quilt in progress at Clever Chameleon

December 10, 2019January 19, 2024

Texture & Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Scarlet Macaw colour board at Clever Chameleon Quilting

Have you ever played with texture on a quilt?

You know me, I often like to experiment with texture and embellishments in my quilt projects. Quilting is for me where “art meets sewing”. Two itches, one colossal scratching!

So when Island Batik announced that December was 3D month for the 2019 Ambassadors, I was in both ecstasy and agony. Right up my alley…. but, oh! Which alley to choose!?!? Thing is, I just about need a street directory for all my alleys. I didn’t even have to make up any new projects for this challenge, and I still had three to choose from.

So, I’ve done the responsible thing, and decided to progress them all……. 3x 3D! Did I mention, I quite like texture? 😀

July 16, 2019January 19, 2024

Always Choose Tropical: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Always Choose Tropical

I am slowly working through a huge backlog of blog-relevant news and quilty happenings! I can’t believe July has been such a huge month, it certainly wasn’t forecast that way. Or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention! Anyway, we’re halfway in, and I still need to post two Love with a Twist patterns (aiming for one on Friday), an unboxing post for Island Batik (next week), and a number of other smaller things I’m messing around with.

But before all that, I really want to give you the lowdown on the Chameleon challenge quilt that I made for our recent Festival of Quilts, “Always Choose Tropical”. It was so much fun to make and show, so let’s do that now.

July 9, 2019January 19, 2024

Artsy Fartsy Self-Portrait: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Clever Chameleon Threads color board at Clever Chameleon

Another 15 seconds of Fame for the Chameleon

Last Tuesday I was battling to find Artsy Fartsy inspiration for July. I was tired from neighbourly construction noise, end of term-itis, and from madly preparing quilts for showing. Tiredness is definitely not good for creativity. Thank you to all the lovely people who reached out with sentiments of empathy.

The good news is that the kids are now on hols, the quilt show was a resounding success and the demolishing is finished. I can cope with construction noise on just one side of our house! But before any of these resolutions occurred, on Wednesday last I went back to bed after I sent the kids to school for some catch-up sleep. I even snoozed though trucks being dump loaded with bricks! And of course, when I awoke, my head was full of new ideas. Bing!

Something I wrote last Tuesday stuck in my head and specifically resurfaced after sleep…. “the Chameleon is off colour”….. Oh! We should fix that. Game On!!!

So, what happened next was that my Artsy Fartsy Christmas wreath took a dive in the priority queue. Specifically yielding to some new threads for the Chameleon. And more specifically, Aurifil threads, in partnership with Island Batik. Read on to see my new Artsy Fartsy project; it’s finished and not changing again, I promise. Although, with a challenge name like Artsy Fartsy, I hope Aurifil aren’t hoping for output that is too highbrow. ‘Cause the Chameleon is in a silly mooooood……

July 8, 2019January 19, 2024

Success at Festival of Quilts 2019

"Always Choose Tropical" chameleon quilt at the SA Festival of Quilts. By Dione Gardner-Stephen of Clever Chameleon

The Chameleon gets his 15 seconds of Fame!

The Chameleon will have to forgive me for taking so long to get around to making a chameleon quilt now, don’t you think? Not only did I make him a quilt FULL of cheeky chameleons, but I showed it in our local Festival of Quilts, and it won its category’s blue ribbon. That ought to keep him off my case for a while!

The weekend just gone was the annual Quilters’ Guild of South Australia’s Festival of Quilts. After judging, entrants who are successful get a specific invitation to the awards and opening ceremony, but no indication of the flavour of their award. Happily, happily, happily I got one of those calls. So I toddled off into the city centre on Friday morning to accept my prize.

Turned out, it was four prizes, one for each quilt I entered. I had dared hope that the chameleon quilt would place, because I put my all into that one. Anything that wasn’t perfect on that project met Mr Ripper, pronto. But two of the other ribbons were pleasant surprises, and the third was more of a very pleasant shock.

If you will indulge my excitement for one post, I will show you what I entered in our annual quilt show and what I was awarded. Two of the awarded quilts were made primarily for this blog in the past year, so I hope you will also accept my thanks for reading and giving me a reason to make more quirky quilts. 🙂