Block 9 Virtuous Wife free BOM...

 

Today I have the free pattern for block 9 of our Virtuous Wife quilt project to share with you. 

Proverbs 31:22

“She makes coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.”

This verse describes another aspect of the wifely duties of our Proverbs 31 woman, how she chooses to make clothing and coverings from the best materials she could afford. The further we get into Proverbs 31 through this study, the more we grasp just how many necessary skills our woman has gained and put into practice as she goes about her business, day by day caring for her home and family.

In a time when the ordinary family had only a few items of clothing, this wife put great thought and effort into what was made, for indeed, most clothing was made at home by women. Today we can drop into the store to buy a new dress, or a warm cardigan, and wear it that very day…but to hand sew items (and often weave the cloth as well) for every family member, well, that’s a commitment, and a skill, rarely seen anymore.

I do not make my own clothes, though I did sew and knit for all my children when they were young. I learned to sew on a machine when I was in high school, and enjoyed sewing dresses and nightgowns for my girls, and dungarees and overalls for my boys. Knitting was my real love though. As soon as I discovered my first child was on the way, it was to balls of yarn, pattern books and tortoiseshell needles that I turned. I did most of this out of delight rather than necessity, but I’m happy to have learned those skills because should a time arise when choice turns to true need, I can make essential items to cover us.

Making and creating for ourselves, our family and our home, is etched upon our hearts I do believe; it is a God-given desire to nurture, nourish and protect. Making isn’t just sewing and knitting though. Making a home is by far the greater skill, and when attended to with care your home becomes a different type of covering. It is -

·        a sanctuary where those within feel safe and secure in familiar surroundings;

·        the door where open arms are the first port of call for a loved one in need of comfort or a welcome home embrace;

·        the table where a lovingly prepared meal becomes another way to say I love you, for food can truly be the way to someone’s heart;

·        a place where the example of Christ is taught in how we speak, how we act, what we believe and what we turn away from.

·        an escape from the world’s chaos, where we can talk from the heart and be heard, and in turn we can be quiet and listen.

·        a place where we are loved for who we are.

Home is a God-gifted ‘covering’ for His people, and we should be mindful of just how precious a gift that is for ourselves, and all those in our care. 

At age 64 I'm still honing my homemaker heart in thought, attitude, humility and action, and I daresay shall continue in learning mode until my eyes close on this earthly life - but that's exactly what God wants of me, and of you...that the things of this world will increasingly grow strangely dim, the longer we set our desires to living our lives to His glory, in our hearts and in our homes. 

Use the link below to download this free pattern.

DOWNLOAD Block Nine

If you have missed any of the previous blocks (with accompanying studies) they are HERE

God bless you so very much!

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Virtuous Wife block 8 and an update...

Many of us are quilters so I thought a clothesline full of warm quilts would be a lovely theme for this month's stitchery block in The Virtuous Wife quilt project. This block is number eight, so we are now halfway through the making of our quilt! I was hoping to stitch all my blocks together last week but I have tendonitis in my right forearm and need to rest it from all sewing until it heals (can you imagine my sad face?) so I suppose reading books will become a temporary pastime.

Anyhow, let us have a look at verse 21, shall we?

She is not afraid…

Isn’t that beautiful?

What I take from this is our Proverbs 31 woman’s complete confidence in God, and in her faithful undertakings each day to use the skills she has acquired over a lifetime, the common sense and wisdom imparted to her by the women mentors who have been by her side as examples since childhood, and her vision of looking forward to provide what is needed in every season. She has no fear of not being able to provide clothing or warmth for her family in the winter because she prepares in advance.

In many bibles this verse reads “…clothed in scarlet”, whilst other translations (including a Jewish translation) give us the verse as reading “…doubly clothed”, which makes far more sense when you consider the full verse.

“She is not afraid of snow, because her household are doubly clothed.” Proverbs 31:21

I chose to use ‘doubly clothed’ in my stitchery, but have included both versions on your pattern sheets.

This small verse poses the question to all homemakers – are you prepared? Are you looking ahead and using your God-gifted wisdom to prepare for the different seasons of life which you and your household may face in the future? This won’t just be winter or summer preparation, but seasons of adversity,  illness, loneliness, poverty and other trials. Are we so prepared that, like this woman, we are not afraid? I hope so. But if not, we should assess our lives as they are today, and then take time to plan for what we are able to do tomorrow, next month or next year to ensure our families have what they need in times of trouble or trial.

Look at Proverbs 6:6-8…

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!
 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

During May let us pray and listen for the Holy Spirit’s leading, then plan for, and put into practice, everything we can to become homemakers who are not afraid, but filled with wisdom, enthusiasm, and a ‘roll up our sleeves’ attitude, that we may bless our families and bless the Lord. 

Download the pattern using the link below..

DOWNLOAD Block Eight

If you've missed any of the previous blocks they are all HERE

Thank you for all the prayers and kind thoughts offered over my husband's fall. It turns out he broke his ankle, though this was not discovered until five days after his fall due to public holidays and not being able to see his doctor any earlier for the X-ray results.

At the moment he is waiting for an appointment at the Fracture Clinic to have his ankle set and a walking boot fitted. Locally we call it a 'moonboot'. If you do not know what that is here's a picture...

His appointment is on Wednesday, thirteen days after the fall. Up till now he's had his ankle strapped and was getting around with a walking stick until dear Rosie heard and loaned him some excellent crutches to use. He is on light duties at work, which he finds far better for his mental health than sitting at home unable to do all his beloved garden chores and plant more trees. We do appreciate your prayers for a swift recovery. xxx

I have taken some photos of the garden with all it's changes and new plantings, so will share them later this coming week. I think I hurt my tendon from the extra garden chores (and an obsession with stitching lots of needle-turn applique blocks) but they needed to be done and it will all be worth it once the seedlings begin to bloom and fruit. I'm rather excited about what it will all look like four or five weeks from now!

That's it for today...bless you all. 

Don't miss out on any Elefantz news or free patterns. 

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Rallying each other and 2023...

 Lately I've thought daily about the need for women to rally behind each other, encouraging one another in our homemaker journey, whether that be full-time homemaking or a balancing act between outside employment/commitments and home life. 

In a world where there appears to be less and less enthusiasm for women to nurture their homes in the old ways, the tried and true ways, the roll up your sleeves and get to work ways, many of us are pushing back in order to assert our deep desire for the delight of creating a beautiful, welcoming sanctuary within our own walls. Many of us are choosing to live fulfilling lives of gentle domesticity once again.

So just as I did back in 2015 when I first launched A Year of Gentle Domesticity, I am once more going to rally behind each of you precious home-hearted women, and embark on a new year of living the gentle domestic life in 2023...

And just because the calendar has not yet turned a page into the coming new year, doesn't mean we can't dust ourselves off right now, reflect on what has been missing in our homes, and plan for bringing renewed and refreshing life into our living spaces right now. 

In my last post I wrote about sharing with you my plans for 2023, and the first and most important desire is to lift high the role of homemaker, to extol the blessings of what it means to be the woman of the house, and to look for as many ways as possible to encourage all of you who are journeying this path, whether it has been for many decades, or just a few months. 

I have two brand new block of the month quilts, one of them a paid membership program, and the other a month-by-month free pattern which will also include a bible study (shared here on the blog). 

Today I shall give you a peek at The Virtuous Wife, as this will be the free BOM, and the very first block will start on November 1st this year. Each block will be free for the entire 14-months of the project. x

Here's a peek...

If you do not want to miss any of the free blocks as they are released, pop over HERE to sign up for my free newsletter, which arrives via email every second week.

OR, sigh up HERE to receive every blog post as it is posted. 

Do you think you'll be joining in with The Virtuous Wife BOM? There's a lot of blocks so it will run either 14 or 16 months, and I encourage you to gather your favourite fabric scraps to sew along. I chose four fabrics for the entire quilt. Each bordered block measures 10.5" square, and I've used the Bright Hopes patchwork pattern for them. I'll have more instructions, photos, and the 1st block for you to download, on Tuesday November 1st.

NOTE: My other new Block of the Month, which is a paid membership running for 9 months, will begin later in November and I'll have a full blog post about that next week. 

Now, let's catch up on what happened this week around home, shall we?

I tend to make a few salads every Sunday afternoon, the kind that will serve me well for lunches when hubby's at work, or can be served on the side of a main meal in the evenings. This week I made a Burgul salad with roasted carrots and tomatoes, cranberries, pine nuts, and various other salad vegetables. 

Burgul is very easy to make, as you simply soak the grains in boiling water for ten minutes, then drain, cool and use.

I find with slowing down our lives that meals especially need to be simplified, and that's why we use the same salad dressing for most things...besides, it is delicious! I shake together 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1/3 cup maple syrup, and 1/3 cup olive oil in a jar and store it in the fridge, only mixing it into a salad when I'm ready to serve it. This amount will do us all week long, often longer, as we don't like too much dressing on our salads, but as long as you keep equal measures of the three ingredients you can make as much or as little as you need.

Our washing machine died a painful death this week so my husband quickly sourced another of the same brand we've always used (LG) and within 48 hours I was reading through the paperwork while waiting for the delivery man to install it. 

And of course, as I now have a new washing machine, one which we're praying will last the rest of our life here on earth, it was time to finally sew a new peg apron as my old one was beginning to perish from multiple everyday use. This pretty pink tulip fabric is linen, and I bought it about eight or nine years ago on sale, knowing that one day it had the potential to become something lovely and useful...and now it is.

Truth be told, I do not use these wooden pegs when hanging up the washing each day as I'm gradually moving on to stainless steel ones from the plastic type I've used for many years. I am just buying a pack every so often in my grocery order and soon I'll be able to ditch the plastic pegs, which constantly crumble in out extremely hot tropical climate anyhow - but the old wooden pegs, such as nana always used, really did look lovely photographed with my apron. 

 

Two new books arrived. This one is a reference for using my garden produce and herbs to make  medicines and salves, a needful skill indeed.

The other book is simply a delight. Dorcas Smucker was raised Amish, and then married a Mennonite minister. She has written a number of books, taken mostly from her blog posts over many, many years, and they are thoughtful, hilarious, and very down to earth. This book is a trilogy of her first three books...and I love it!

My book budget is emptied now, so no more buying for quite a while, and that's fine because every book I have purchased this year has been purposefully considered, and not once have I regretted any of them. 

The rains came, two afternoons in a row, with thunder and lightning, and joy for my part as it meant God was watering the parched gardens for me. 

Harry-dog and Sophie-cat did what many pets do in thunderstorms, running inside to whine and meow and declare their protests. Sophie went and hid under our bed, whilst Harry had a cuddle and then escaped to his bed for a nice long nap. 

Whilst the rain brought relief to the garden, I had time to begin work on the pattern instructions and graphs for my other new block of the month. As I said earlier, there'll be a whole blog post with photos of this project next week, and you may enjoy the story behind it...

The roses love the rain, far more than water from the tap, and my vases are always full to bring beauty and colour to our home...

As I was taking these photos during the week, my heart really bubbled over with thankfulness to God for all we have, for all He has provided, whether in valleys or upon the mountain tops of life - and He does all this because of love, even when sometimes our own attitudes aren't as loving as they should be. 

Just near my desk, perched above the quilt stand, is this little pillow I designed years ago, with the gentle and true words of Mother Teresa...

It reminded once again that this is what homemaking is all about. The small things, the often overlooked and insignificant-to-others tasks, the quiet day to day rhythms we follow within our homes that don't seem, even to us, to be significantly important, and yet they are...when done with love. 

Precious woman, dear friend, even when nobody can see you tending, washing, baking, scrubbing...your Father watches, and His heart is overjoyed when you go about your day doing what needs to be done with a loving and willing heart. God is our 'audience of One', our constant companion, our help in times of trouble, the lifter of our weary heads, the provider of all our needs, and the ear which hears every prayer and answers in the way He alone knows is best. 

If you'd like to stitch your own little "Great Love" pillow, the pattern is my free gift to you. Use the link below to download it.

DOWNLOAD the "Great Love" pillow pattern

Until next week, be blessed, and perhaps pray and ponder the things you would like to pursue in the next year of Gentle Domesticity. If you have some thoughts or ideas to share, I'd love to read them...pop them in the comments below. You never know how your own thoughts may resonate with, or help someone else. Just like Terri did for me, writing this in the comments of my previous post...

"I too am thinking of 2023 already. I do this about this time each year. I always wondered why I felt compelled to think of the New Year ahead so early. It's because the Jewish calendar New Year occurs around this time! I am in sync with my Christian roots is all. You must be as well."  

We'd only just been celebrating the Jewish new year (hubby and I), and her comment made me realise that's exactly why I was already preparing for a new year ahead! Thank for that Terri. x

hugs

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