Fabric/Thread Craft Archives - Clever Chameleon Quilting

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? 😀

November 26, 2019January 19, 2024

Peekaboo Penguin! Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Peek a boo penguin colour board at Clever Chameleon Quilting

This is the Last Penguin Tease!

I promise! December is just around the corner, so I can show you all of my penguin project very soon. But I am very pleased to be able to tell you that the penguins are done and are ready for their photo shoot.

In other news, I have finished my octopus label for the Safe Harbour Seahorses, and we have a winner for the Blue Sea fabrics offered on the “A Piece Of….” blog hop.

And of course, there’s our weekly party to attend. Happy Tuesday!

July 13, 2019January 19, 2024

Christmas For Two: Anytime, Anywhere.

Christmas for Two Drawstring Bag, Christmas crackers, Christmas coasters and morning tea at Clever Chameleon. Free Tutorials included!

The Chameleon’s got Christmas in the Bag!

It’s Christmas in July season, and that means it’s time to re-visit and perhaps even re-invent some Christmas-y projects either for fun or future expediency (or both). 😀 Christmas time is often so hectic, that it’s always nice to be able to pull gifts and decorations out of the cupboard with a relieved sigh of “And here’s one we prepared earlier!”.

Recently my friend Joy mentioned that she was collecting her Christmas in July thoughts. That was my prompt to remember that I still haven’t found time to try out the projects from the Sew Early 4 Christmas hop that Joy ran with Pam, Susan and myself last year. Yeah, a whole year ago! As you may remember, my response to that nudge was to promptly start Susan’s wreath pillow, which I will finish soon.

But, there’s no point in being creative if you can’t get distracted. So Susan’s wreath project got set aside to thread paint the Chameleon. And then I thought I would just quickly make up Pam’s gift bag and Joy’s Christmas crackers….

And the Chameleon and I got totally got carried away. *Surprise!*

We mused: if we add a couple of Christmas present-themed mug rugs (coasters) to the bag and crackers, it would make the collection into a cute, coordinated Christmas for Two gift set. So we made some. And then we worked up a quick tutorial for the coasters for you, so you can make your own Christmas for Two set too.

So this is Sew Early 4 Christmas, revisited and upsized. Happy Christmas in July!

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……

June 14, 2019January 19, 2024

Forest Fairy Crafts ebook giveaway

Forest Fairy creations by Clever Chameleon, inspired by the Forest Fairy Crafts book.

Welcome to our Forest Fairy Crafts book giveaway day!

Hiya! As promised last Sunday, I am back today to show you all the things my daughter and I made from Lenka Vodicka-Paredes and Asia Currie’s latest book, “Forest Fairy Crafts through the Seasons”. It is the sequel to Forest Fairy Crafts published in 2013.

Forest Fairy Crafts book, affiliate link

Forest Fairy Crafts through the Seasons is a cute book that leads you far enough down the garden path to complete any of the projects as shown – but also leaves you plenty of scope to adapt them to your own crafting style. BYO personal tastes, substituted supplies and imaginations are highly encouraged. However, if you have misplaced your crafting mojo, there is also plenty to get started with in the book by simply following the instructions. And I reckon, that once you get started, your imagination will invite itself on over anyways! 😀

Today I’ll tell you how you can enter to win an e-copy of this book for yourself or your favourite fairy-lover. There are opportunities in this post, as well as on the rest of the blogs on the Forest Fairy Tour.