Week 2 of the Stitchalong and a reveal...

 

I'm sharing part two of the Stitchalong a day early as its my birthday tomorrow and I shall be enjoying a morning tea with hubby and the family, and then a quiet rest of the day at home, possibly making tomato sauce, and possibly beginning a new project. I shall see how the day progresses, but you can be sure I'll be taking things easy. 

Have you stitched the first six hexie flowers? Or will you be using the little embroideries for a different project? I'd love to know what you're making. 

My final decision for displaying the twelve hexie flowers was a sewing machine cover. I had a few other ideas but kept coming back to that, so then it was just a case of measuring up the size I needed and playing around with my hexie flowers for a pretty arrangement. 

I liked the idea of filling empty spaces in and around the flowers with hexagon shapes in running stitch, and the overall effect was better than I'd hoped. 

I apologise for the quality of the photos, but it is threatening rain this afternoon and the overcast skies make the house very dark inside. 

My machine cover is 25" x 20" and the hexie flowers have been needleturned onto a linen background, the same linen I used for the embroideries, which also happens to be the very same recycled linen sheet I have used for a number of projects so far this year. 

I added medium weight fusible Pellon before hand quilting the running stitch hexies. The cover was completed with more reycled fabric for the lining, and some extra pieces of the Tilda Sunday Brunch fabric for the side ties. 

 

Use the link below to download the pattern sheet for the final six stitcheries...

DOWNLOAD part two of the Sunday Brunch Hexie Stitchalong

Next week, as requested by many, I'll have a recipe file for all those yummy things I made HERE in the previous post, and I also want to chat more about being a homemaker, and the various responsibilites that entails. Looking back in time, I have discovered some fascinating things to share with you.

In the meantime, I will be praying you each have a lovely weekend ahead, days of joy and delight, even if things are hard at the moment. A lesson this week for myself, has been to let go of what is no more, and see with new eyes what is still before me. 

You see, now that our huge poinciana tree is no more, I am sorely missing all the birds who visited every day and made their nests in the thick limbs and branches, because birds are my favourite creatures and living amidst abundant birdlife has been a source of inexpressible joy for me. Many of you already know that from all the bird photos I have shared over the years.

But today a kookaburra sat on the power pole out front, my favourite bird, and I felt the arms of God hugging me. Then cockatoos returned to our bird feeder, followed by the rainbow lorikeets. Just before I began writing this our old Black-faced Ibis friend was wandering through the garden with his long beak, digging for worms, and then a sweet song from the tiny honeyeater in our pretty Maraya bush serenaded me when I gathered washing off the line as tiny raindrops began to fall. 

Life will always have its losses, but the Lord also provides joys, often in unexpected times or ways. For me this time, you may think 'its just a tree', and you'd be right, but it was our tree, and it had a story behind it that we shall remember, just as we remember how we lost it. 

The Bible tells us in Ecclesiates 3:1, "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." I find many things in that verse - comfort, hope, acceptance, and even contentment. I pray you feel the loving arms of God hugging you today if things are hard, or you're feeling lonely or concerned. Fall into His Word, and let His love surround you, dear one. 

Until next week, 

Love and hugs 

You will find me on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my NEW IG account just for homemaking HERE @elefantzhome

Subscribe to my free Friday newsletter HERE and never miss a blog post, pattern or tutorial

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

Garden, home economy, and a Stitchalong!

After weeks of endless rain it has been wonderful to enjoy sunshine amidst the clouds these past two days. My favourite thing has been to once again hang our washing on the line! We have no choice but to use the dryer during the monsoon events, but when its dry outside I always hang our clothes on the old Hills Hoist that came with the house. 

When the Poinciana tree split for the first time on February 1st, it landed on that old Hills Hoist, and bent half of it, but they are strong clotheslines (and they do not make them like this anymore) and with a lot of grunt and muscle my beloved husband got it almost back in shape. Praise God!

As I was fairly sure there'd be no rain today, I got to work with garden chores that were delayed during the monsoon. 

Picking the huge limes from our overloaded tree was first. After weeks of rain the limes were as big as oranges and so heavy from all the juice within. I will make lime butter, slice and freeze some for adding to cold drinks, and freeze quite a few whole. I find every year that our surplus freezes very well whole, and all I need do to defrost one is to sit it in a bowl of tepid water for 30 minutes, then its ready to use just as if it came fresh off the tree. We still have a lot more that aren't ripe to pick yet...

On our finger lime tree, which is covered in tiny thorns, many of the finger limes were ready for harvesting. These are native to Australia, and begin growing in our winter months, but are not ready to pick until mid-February through March. If you have never tried them they are delicious! You cut the end off and squeeze out the tiny pearls that burst in your mouth...

I meant to pick a lot of sage before the monsoon hit, and wasn't sure if it would cope with the flooding rains over such a long period, but surprisingly it flourished! Today I picked quite a lot for hanging in the house to dry and the fragrance is delcious...

My trusty string dispenser comes in so handy! I shared this as a free pattern back in 2022. If you missed it go HERE...

I also picked a lot of rosemary to dry, and also to make rosemary salt for seasoning...

...and a handful of spring (green) onions. 

Though much of the garden struggled, or died, during the monsoon, some things coped better than expected, like lime balm and moroccan mint, both of which hate our tropical summers and yet had a resurgence of new growth! This is exciting because I use them in my herbal teas...

This year I am being far more aware of building our home economy, making use of anything I can grow (as there is so much we cannot in this climate), and making many other things we use a lot from store bought ingredients to save a good deal of money. 

We eat a lot of almond butter - on toast, as filling for medjool date snacks, or in gluten free biscuits. One very small jar of good almond butter is $9.50 at the supermarekt, but I spent $8 on a large bag of almonds and made more than two jars worth myself. I have a high speed Magimix food processor and it took about seven minutes to turn almonds into almond butter. 

(that little bowl to the right in the photo below is not almond butter, but mango chutney)

You just need to heat the almonds in the oven on a low heat for 10 minutes or so, as it released some of the oils in the nuts. Then pop them in the bowl of your food processor and away you go...you think it's not working, but persevere, because suddenly it all becomes creamy and so delicious.

I have made peanut butter before, just using the food processor and bit of salt, but we prefer almond butter. 

It is the end of mango season here now, so I was able to get a few more mangoes and try my hand at mango chutney. This is something we buy, and my husband loves it, but now I'll make it myself as he really enjoyed this recipe...

As this is stone fruit season in Australia I'm stewing peaches to freeze for winter porridge and desserts, as well as enjoying some right now with yoghurt as an afternoon snack...

I will buy more next week, a lot more, as well as plums for jam and for stewing. I don't know about you, but in winter I absolutely love stewed fruits like peaches and plums with my porridge, or with custard for desserts. 

Now to something not so good. My husband's study is at the back of the house, and we use it as a second pantry along one wall. But our climate is very hot and humid, and that room tends to take the brunt of the heat in the afternoons. Without realising it, some of our tinned pantry supplies have been 'cooking' in there and when I went to give it all a good clean and tidy last week, I found many tins like this...

...and this. 

So we had a lot to throw away, and needed to consider what to do with those tins that were still fine. The next day I moved all the remaining tins into the main pantry where it's much cooler (due to the air con in the kitchen), and placed some of our dry goods in the second pantry instead.

I then processed a number of tins of tomatoes for storing in the freezer - perfect for spaghetti sauces, soup etc, and now I don't have to worry about them.

I think the tinned fruits fermented in the heat, as did tinned sauerkraut and a few other things. And there's a lesson in this...it's great to store a good supply of food in these strange times (especially as we have floods and cyclones in our area), but we must work with our climate in future and consider what to store, and how to store, because we do not ever want to waste food $$ like this again.  

Just as I was writing this, everything went dark and I saw that the rain was returning. I quickly grabbed washing off the line, and thanked God that I got so much done outside today.

The ground is still so saturated that almost immediately the yard began to fill again and I could hear the pumps working...

Well, I guess this means I can do a bit more sewing tonight, and over the weekend. 

SO - the hexie stitchalong - Today I will be sharing the first six of the twelve little stitcheries for you to download. I was going to take more photos before publishing this post, as I've now completed ten of the hexie flowers, but it's just too dark inside. 

The centres are tiny little things, but so lovely to stitch...

After long consideration, I have now decided that I'll use all twelve hexie flowers in a new cover for my sewing machine. I gave my old cover to our granddaughters for the small Janome I bought them second-hand before Christmas, as it was too small for my machine anyhow, but mostly because the stitchery on that cover is one that Blossom drew up and stitched for me. She even had her pattern published in one of our Australian craft magazines (now no longer in publication) about 14 years ago. Now it has been passed on to her daughters, and maybe to theirs one day if Jesus hasn't returned. :-)

I'll share the other six stitcheries next Friday 21st February, my birthday. A little gift for you. :-)

Use the link below to download Part One of the Stitchalong -

DOWNLOAD Part One Sunday Brunch Hexie Stitchalong

God bless you all, and may your weekend overflow with opportunities to do things around home, visit with loved ones, and focus on gratitude to the Lord for all He has blessed you with. I cannot thank Him enough for all He does for me, and for my family...it truly leaves me speechless sometimes. 

Till next week, 

Hugs

You will find me on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my NEW IG account just for homemaking HERE @elefantzhome

Subscribe to my free Friday newsletter HERE and never miss a blog post, pattern or tutorial

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

Another miracle, journaling, hexies and a stitch-along...

 

If there's anything I have learned in my almost thirty-four years walking with Jesus, it's that He determines our ways, and He will only take us home in God's perfect timing. 

Last week I shared about the miracle of God that saved my husband from serious injury or death when just seconds before a huge tree limb came crashing down in the very spot he sat crouched over a submersible pump fixing it, the Lord called him to move. (if you missed that post it is here)

Well, it happened again. The first incident was on February 1st, and then one week later on February 8th, in the middle of the night, the Lord woke my exhausted husband and said "Go fix the pumps and the pool"...we were (and still are) in the middle of a flooding monsoon. In the darkness he went out and sure enough he needed to empty water from the overflowing pool, and then had to crouch down where the previous limb had fallen to clear debris from two submerisble pumps so they could continue pumping water from our ocean-like back yard. An hour later he crawled back into bed, relieved that the rising water around our house could recede again. 

At 6:30am we were having breakfast when we heard a tremendous crash and raced outside to see that a second major limb of the tree had come down, right where he had sat just hours earlier fixing the pumps. 

This time it was a bigger limb than the first one that came down (the tree had three major limbs with numerous large branches) and covered the entire front of the shed...

Hubby had to crawl under the tree and push the roller door up as far as possible before crawling inside to get the electric saw. He cut some away, but then had to go to work for the morning. Home from work at lunchtime, he began the work of very carefully (because the remainder of the tree is not stable) removing branches and smaller limbs. 

Sunday morning he realised he'd need to stabilse the remaining limb and trunk of the tree, so we prayed, and he climbed up on the ladder cutting off what he could, and then stacking smaller limbs over by the lime tree, and mulching all the branches and leaves to cover some of the sodden ground before the next lot of heavy rain arrived.

And now this is all that's left, apart from the smaller limbs which are too big for the mulcher. 

All that area used to be covered by the poinciana; it was our main source of shade through the hot and humid tropical seasons which last about eight months a year. The rest of the tree will need to be removed by professional tree loppers, and the trunk/root dug out of the ground. All that mulch has given us an extra six inches of cover over the worst affected areas of our flooded yard, which is a blessing as its all ankle deep in water still. 

I admit to shedding a few tears over the loss of that tree (we'd planted it in 2019, fulfilling a long held dream to plant a poinciana when we one day bought a home of our own), but I am far more grateful to have my husband safe and secure by the hand of God on his life. 

The monsoon is still here, the nights especially bringing the heaviest rain, but we are far better off than those in communities nearby who were cut off for a week before the army built a temporary bridge over the highway for emergency services and supplies to get through. I pray the monsoon moves out to sea very soon, and that people can get out and about to repair damage and start the process of returning to normality. Lord help them. xx

In the midst of all this I have continued to make time each evening to sit quietly and stitch. The second little Japanese pattern I began last week is now complete and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The tone on tone fabric and thread choice was a new one for me, and I think now that I may do it again in the future. This little finish is only 3" edge to edge, and very detailed, using mostly three and four strands of Cosmo Seasons thread. I have it sitting inside a 5" hoop and will probably stitch down the excess fabric tonight. 

I won't use the Sticky Sulky-Solvi ever again though. Stitching mostly with four strands of thread through the SSS and the linen was so hard on my hands that I had to take many rests between sections. In future for tracing onto dark fabrics I am going to try graph paper with a Sublime Stitching Iron Transfer Pen. 

But still, I love this little design by Yula and will be stitching more of her patterns in future.

I've done a lot of Bible journaling this month, with a number of word studies because I simply love to delve deeper into context and the original languages and their meaning from the time they were written. 

Late last year I made an intention to put together a Bible study basket, and found this nappy bag (diaper bag) to be the perfect answer as it has divided sections inside and pockets around all four sides. Made of grey felt it only cost $17 Australian (about $10 USD) and is serving it's purpose wonderfully.

I got these Paper Mate Flair felt tip pens as well, because they do not bleed through my Bible pages. I highly recommend them!

Inside I have a prayer journal, a personal journal, a new journaling Bible (NKJV), daily home and business planner, a large book to write down all my word studies, some good devotionals that I have used for quite a while, pens and washi tape. 

I haven't journaled daily for a few many years, and I was really struck by the need to do this in 2025, thanks to prompting from the Lord and a very inspiring video I watched about being intentional each day with the many aspects of our Christian walk. Doing some of this was a financial investment, at a time when we need to be very careful about expenditure, but as with all things I try to follow Christ's advice to "Count the cost" before making financial decisions, and decided this was worthy of the financial outlay...and six weeks along I am so glad to have made that choice. 

...STITCHING HEXIES...

I had a lot of fabric scraps left over from the bundle of Tilda Sunday Brunch I was gifted with last year to design with, and thought it would be fun to use them in some EPP. As the scraps are tiny I chose to use 3/4" hexagons, and to stitch hexie flowers with an embrodiery centre. At first I used bits of all the colours, but decided they just weren't suitable for the project/s I had in mind (because there are a few, but a single favourite is still waiting to be chosen), so then I unpicked the few flowers I'd already made and started over with just three colours. 

The flower centres are tiny stitcheries I drew up, and the thread colours were chosen to blend with the hexie fabrics. So far I have completed eight of the twelve I plan to make...

If you'd like to stitch along with me to make the little embroidered centre hexie flowers, let me know in the comments. If enough people are interested I'll make up a download of the stitcheries for you all, and make a proper decision about how I shall display them. 

If you have any ideas for a project using the twelve hexie flowers let me know...I only have three ideas currently, as I want to make sure the project will be useful as well as pretty.

Well, I'd best sign off as I have peaches to stew, plums to preserve, necatrines to make into a relish, and focaccia to start. Nothing like an afternoon in the kitchen, especially wearing the beautiful apron that Pat sent me, along with her intricately knitted hand towels (in yellow to match my cookware), which Blossom and I love! 

Thank you Pat xxx

My heart is aching to get stuck into a deep clean of every room once this monsoon passes and I can hang things to dry in the sun and beat the rugs the way Nana did, and to stock the pantry with things I've never made before (nectarine relish is a start, along with tomato sauce once I find a good recipe), and to reorganise our small spaces so that the sewing room doubles as another pantry and apothecary. I have many plans afoot, and perhaps March will see them come to fruition, but what I know today is that God must be in the centre of all my plans, hopes and dreams for this gentle domestic life that I live and love.

Blossom feels the same way, and as she edges closer to her 31st birthday, I see a deeper maturity within her for the Word of God, an incredibly gentle yet fierce love for her family and home, and her unashamed surrender to all the Father has for her life in the years ahead.

God bless YOU dear one, and I pray that His protective hand is evident always in your life.

And THANK YOU for al your prayers, and your loving comments and emails - I apologise for not replying lately, but we've had so much going on the past few weeks that I needed to allow myself the luxury of stepping away from a few things. Life is heading back to normal now though...xxx

Love and hugs

You will find me on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my NEW IG account just for homemaking HERE @elefantzhome

Subscribe to my free Friday newsletter HERE and never miss a blog post, pattern or tutorial

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