What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Another busy and crazy week is behind me, with meetings and presentations, pickleball to burn off some stress, and unfortunately, a memorial service for a dear friend who passed away last week after a hard battle with a terrible illness. Not covid this time but still a blow. So, once again little to no time to sew. I did get a quilt loaded on the longarm for a friend, but that will be the last one I do for others for a while. I do need to concentrate on some of my own projects, and finish up the two charity ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Ox Block Release Day (Final installment)

Happy New Year! Happy Lunar New Year that is, wished for you for this coming Friday – the 12th of February 2021. Holy cow, it’s goodbye Year of the Rat 2020 and heeeelloooo Year of the Ox!

Why all the ox-citement? Well, today marks the end of our epic 2020 Lunarcy quilt pattern journey. It is time to release of the Year of the Ox pattern, the last of our twelve collectible animal appliqués representing the Chinese zodiac. With all twelve appliqués now available to you, they can be ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Tiger Block Release Day

I was, for a very long time as a child and teen, fascinated with big cats; especially tigers. So beautiful, sleek, powerful, mysterious – I had tiger shirts, tiger jigsaws, tiger books, tiger toys….. I even had a real tiger whisker, given to me by a keeper at the Adelaide Zoo. I loved everything about tigers (except the smell!). I would have probably traded a kidney for a domestic orange cat with black stripes in the likeness of Jim Davis’ Garfield, just so I could pretend I owned a mini tiger.

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Rabbit Block Release Day

The Chameleon is a Rabbit. He argued his case last week to be a Dragon, but the prosecution asserts that he first popped into existence in 2011. That is, during the most recent Year of the Rabbit. And a birthday is a birthday – so a Rabbit he is, and a Rabbit he must stay.

Actually, the Chameleon seems to be taking the rebuttal quite well now, really. He says he likes being a Rabbit after all. Rabbits are dangerous and scary. Super scary. Take the specimen on our latest colour scheme ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Dragon Block Release Day

Should it be any surprise that the Chameleon thinks he is a Dragon?

A Chinese legend concerning the origin of the dragon tells of an Emperor who waged war with nine tribes. As he defeated each tribe he added features of their totems to his own. Thus the dragon ended up with a lion’s mane, bug eyes like a shrimp, a big mouth like a bull, a nose like a dog, whiskers like a catfish, antlers like a deer, scales like a fish, a long tail like a snake, and ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Snake Block Release Day

What do you call a python with no clothes on?

Snaked.

Hissssterical, right?! Well, my 10 year old lad thought so. Bahahaha.

Just dropping in with some Chameleon hiss-trionics to distract you from real life. 2020 might be hiss-tory but it seems that some of the dramas are taking a while to scale back. So while we patiently ant-hiss-ipate better times ahead, how about some more Lunarcy?

I ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Horse Block Release Day

Happy New Year! I hope that 2021 will hold many moments of friendship, colour and fun for you all. Rainbows all round.

Having said that, I’ve already had my first small 2021 “scare”….. New Year’s Day: the Chameleon dragged himself dejectedly out of bed, claiming that it was time he started acting his age and being responsible. No more silly internet posts for him! On closer inspection, I noticed he was off colour and a little bit hoarse.

Thankfully he was just pranking me and trying to stirrup trouble ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Goat Block Release Day

Welcome to a special edition of Colour & Inspiration….. yes, it’s a Thursday. One last curveball for you for 2020. Might as well finish the year in the manner to which we have become accustomed! read more

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Monkey Block Release Day

And bad Christmas-cracker joke day!

What carol do monkeys like to sing at Christmas time?
Jungle Bells, Jungle Bells!

read more

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Rooster Block Release Day

What a fowl year it’s been for many. With a bit of luck though, our collective year of rising roosters is coming to an end. And I’ve got a fitting appliqué to send it on it’s way. Today I am releasing the Year of the Rooster block for the Lunarcy quilt.

It’s been a few weeks since I managed to put out a blog post. Time flies (much more effectively than a rooster) at the best of times… and November/December always have us in an extra ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Dog Block Release Day

Dog Days: the hot, sultry, uncomfortable days of the Northern Hemisphere summer corresponding to the annual rise of Sirius (the Dog Star) over the horizon. Yuck.

Sirius (and its doggy constellation Canis Major) is a feature of the summer sky here in the Southern Hemisphere too. And since this past week was hot, sultry and super uncomfortable here… I’m proclaiming that our own Dog Days are upon us.

This was Arkaroola on Sunday. What you can’t see is the stinking-hot gales of wind to go with the humidity. It ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Pig Block Release Day

Another day, another dose of Lunarcy!

Ha! Ain’t that the truth?! Just for something different though, it’s the good kind of Lunarcy scheduled today – we are moving on to the next block of the Lunarcy quilt. Since we are working backwards through the Chinese zodiac (to arrive at the Ox on Chinese New Year 2021), our new block is the Pig. In the zodiac legend, the Pig finished last in the Emperor’s race. There are various versions, but one common story is that the Pig got hungry, had ...

2020 – Year of the Rat

In the beginning there was the Rat. And the Rat jumped the queue.

According to Chinese legend, it was the Rat who (somewhat dodgily) won the Emperor’s race that decided the identity and order of the Zodiac animals. And so it is the Rat who is the first animal of the 12-year Lunar Calendar cycle. As one version of the story goes, the Rat caught a ride in the amiable Ox’s ear to cross a river during the race, but then abused the favour by dashing across the finish line first, claiming the ...

The Lunarcy Quilt continues today

Wasn’t the “It’s A Garden Party” row along this past month fun? I hope you were left with lots of resources and ideas. Now that that intermission is over though, we should return to our regular programming to see what the Chameleon’s been working on.

The big event in the main ring at Clever Chameleon’s circus at the moment is the Lunarcy Quilt, and it’s definitely time to get on with it! So, Part Two of the Lunarcy Quilt pattern is available for you to download today. This new pdf ...

I was going to pass. No blogging this week….

The Chameleon was just not in the mood. Grumpy. Not enough sewing, for one. My laptop ate my homework for another (no joke, literally corrupted my assignment during the last save, between proofread and submit….(&*$%@!!!) and we are all suffering varying degrees of end-of-school-term-itis here, etc etc. Nothing serious. Just pecked to death by the gloom duck, even after hubby helped me retrieve *most* of my assignment from wherever it is that corrupted files go to die.

But then I read through the link ups at last week’s Colour & Inspiration ...

The Chameleon thinks he’s vindicated!

Annoying!

That’s what it is… annoying…. when someone unashamedly thinks that they are the centre of the Universe, and then it turns out that they actually are. Or close enough to. Can you imagine how big the Chameleon’s head is this week since he found out the entire galaxy revolves around him?!

Okay, he is still exaggerating. But he did find a constellation named in his honour this week, thanks to some stargazing adventures in one of the local observatories.

And consequently, the Chameleon’s head?…… it is Huge!

My progress on ...

As luck would have it…..

As I was trying to work out where I should draw colour inspiration for today’s post from, nature volunteered. This was tonight’s sunset, as seen from our back patio. The colours were brief, but some of the very best we’ve had since we moved here.

Good timing, Mother Nature. Just glorious, thank you!

Pinks, yellows and oranges and last minutes on the Lunarcy too

Progress continues on the Lunarcy quilt this week. I now have a Pig block to go with the Rat block from last week. I only finished the pig ...

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 ...

Is it a plane? Is it a chameleon? No, it’s a Superb Katydid!

Confession time. Staying at home absolutely all the time messes with my head a little. Paul and I are, (in theory at least), two grown adults with: lots of hobbies, study and work to do; a couple of kids to nurture; and plenty of internet friends in different circles. But things are degenerating here regardless. Bug Spotters Anonymous is likely launching its inaugural Chapter in our lounge room….. read on for reasons if you dare!

In my saner moments though, I have been doing some more ...

Hoping to be past the dramas and back to sewing soon

Sorry that I missed you last Tuesday. We were on the road and it all got too hard in the end….. as you will find out shortly(!). It’s taken three attempts since School Induction week for us to make it back to Arkaroola, but third time’s the charm! We have been here for a week now, and almost settled into a routine. Not the routine that I think is sustainable for the year, but a routine nonetheless. Regular food, laundry, ablutions, schooling and sleep. Now to sneak ...