Let's stitch a pear, and Q & A...

We are well into autumn, and yet the monsoonal rains keep coming and the heat and humidity are stifling. Last night we had an exceptional lightning and thunder storm as the heavens opend with more heavy rain. One lightning strike hit close by, plummeting much of our suburb into darkness with a power outage around midnight. 

Whilst I knew the power would return eventually, our main concern was that all four submersible pumps run on power, and without it, we had waves in the front and back yard, and water lapping at the door for four hours. In situations like this there's not a lot you can do, and with so much lightning around it was safer to stay inside (though hubby did climb up on the ladder to empty more leaves from the gutters). 

The power was back on around 3.30am and though the rain was still hard, our four pumps got to work with gusto! By dawn there was still a lot of water around, but the pumps had done a wonderful job of keeping the water out of the house. As I write this it is early evening on Friday, we've had more rain, and are still ankle deep with water in the yards, but what a difference those pumps make. 

Anyhow...all this rain has the lime tree in full bloom again, and we can tell that next summer's crop may be even bigger than this summer's one (and it was huge!). Other plants that have weathered this extreme wet season well are the passionfruit vine, which once more is heavy with fruit, the herb gardens, the green onions and chives, the blackberry bush (though it has never given fruit), and the Barbados Cherry tree (though hubby had to prune it away by two-thirds because it kept falling flat to the ground with so much water). I am patiently waiting for the 'big dry' and cooler days to get into the gardens and clean them up - what a sad and sorry lot they are at the moment. I shall try NOT to mention the wet weather again... xx

Autumn brings with it an abundance of apples and pears, both being delicious additions to the fruit basket and exceptional for preserving. We cannot grow them here in the Australian tropics, so they are shipped up from the southern parts of our country. This week I have stewed many kilos of apples to freeze so I can enjoy them with raisins and porridge over winter, and plan to do the same with pears next week. Fortunately, they are relatively cheap, especially if you buy the 'odd bunch' bags. Woolworths have a seasonal variety of Odd Bunch produce for lower cost purchases - the fruit or vegetables are either too large or too small, or misshapen, for the supermarket's regular fruit and veg displays. It's really quite sad, don't you think? I mean, a pear is a pear, and I don't care what size it is, or whether all the pears in the crate look the same. But farmers miss out on fair prices because a supermarket will only pay full price for perfect size produce. 

The pears below were in the odd bunch bag, and I can't see anything wrong with them, or is that vibrant red just too much to the buyers eye? They will be delicious when ripe and sliced up next to some cheese!

If you've never known (it has been mentioned a few times over the seventeen years I've been blogging), I love pears. Not just to eat, but as decoration. You'll find a few here and there throughout our home, and I received another on my birthday this year from Rosie, a beautiful cream ceramic one. 

I've been thinking a lot about pears this week, and looked over the four pear designs I have made over the years in order to choose one you might like to stitch. The Pear Hive won...

I chose this particular pattern because even though we in the southern hemisphere are now in autumn, most of my readers live in the far more populated northern hemisphere, where spring is being welcomed. I think my pear is 'pearfect' for both autumn or spring, with it's flourish of blooms and busy bees. 

If you'd like to stitch it, use the link below to download the free pattern. And let me know how you would display it? I have not used this in a project yet (and the completed stitchery is almost nine years old and still languishing in my box of designs) so I'd love to hear your suggestions. Perhaps it will be a UFO finish for me next week...mmm.

DOWNLOAD The Pear Hive pattern

Over a couple of days I made the change of having my DMC threads sorted by numbers, to having them sorted by colour families. In my Monday blog post I shared the link to download a 4-page chart that is invaluable for such a project.

It didn't have quite a few of the colours in my collection but I just slotted them in where they seemed to blend well. 

Many cups of tea were consumed over those days and evenings, and for a task which I'd imagined would take all week, the excitement of seeing those beautiful shades all coming together kept me going until all the solids were done. 

I don't own all the DMC colours, just a lot of them. ;-) The storage tray below is the first one completed, and all the browns and greys are in a second tray, which will also house the variegated threads I'm yet to organise. As I've had a barometric migraine off and on this week, and my hip acting up due to the weather as well, much of my time has been spent quietly sitting with these threads...

...and steadily stitching a bit more sashiko. 

I may sew the four maroon sashiko blocks that I recently finished, together over the weekend, and make the placemat for my husband. This one is the first of four green blocks, and though I love the design, I'm not sure the green stands out enough, so I'll sew another one in a deeper colour and then choose which looks best before sewing three more of the same colour (though different sashiko designs).

None of my sashiko blocks are perfect, but I do see improvement with each new block I sew. This one was the hardest to graph so far, as I am wanting to sew particular sizes and most patterns are in mm, but I prefer to graph them in inches. I required a lot of patience graphing the Asanoha block above and needed to start over three times before I got it right. 

I've had a few questions asked about the sashiko, and The Sewing Room BOM, so I'll answer them here today.

One common question has been where do I find these sashiko patterns? 

A few places. The first few blocks I made were from a book by Susan Briscoe, called The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook. I have a monthly subscription to Everand, which is marvellous - you can listen to as many audio books as you like, or read any book you want, without having to buy them as you do with Audible or Kindle. They have a HUGE library in the app (or you can read from your desktop), and I find this very cost effective because I rarely re-listen to an audio book, and love that I can actually see a book without having to buy it first. There are a few Susan Briscoe books on Everand.

I am not an affiliate or anything like that, I just love Everand and have never had a problem with it. 

I also borrowed some books from the library, thought they weren't really what I was after so I returned them, but your library may have a much larger selection. 

Last weekend I began watching videos on YouTube, and came across an Aussie lady who shares quite a bit about sashiko, and also a few free patterns. She also uses Patreon, and publishes one free pattern a month there. It cost me $8 (Australian) for a month, and I was able to download five great ones (she keeps four/five free patterns on there at a time) that I shall be using, and before my month runs out she'll have another one to download. THIS is her YouTube channel - The Green Wrapper

Another question about The Sewing Room BOM - can you use 1/4 yard cuts, and how many should you buy?

The Sewing Room is a scrappy BOM, and every border is 1.5" wide. You will find all the instructions in THIS free download  There's no amount to buy, because I am just using what is on my shelf. The largest cut of fabric is 4.5" x 6.5", so it won't matter if you use fat quarters or 1/4 yard cuts. 

Thank you to everyone who is praying for Blossom. She was so touched by your kindness, and wanted me to send you her love and thanks. 

I also prayed for each of you who asked for prayer, and as we know, the Lord hears every prayer. How blessed we are!

I'll sign off now, as this post may be so long you're starting to nod off, or is that me? With barely any sleep last night I am looking forward to bed tonight, and another chapter of The Long Winter before lights out. The other things on my mind, such as the recipe additions to the Pantry ebook, can wait for next week...and my, how quickly the weeks are flying by in 2025. 

God bless you, right where you are, no matter the circumstance. Our Father is near to us who draw near to him, and I cannot imagine any place I'd rather be than near Him, at His feet, safe and loved. May you be filled with His assurance of love and care today, and you heart overflowing with Hope. Never lose hope. 

Love and prayers, 

You will find my design account on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my other Instagram account, just for homemaking, HERE @elefantzhome

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Stitch my free 2025 block of the month 'The Sewing Room' HERE