Show & Tell and the extras I've been working on....

I'm head down and bottom up today fine tuning the patterns in Friday's issue of Elefantz HOME e-zine, plus stitching and photographing the blanket-stitch-3-ways tutorial project. Isn't it cute?

 I've also made some notepapers for this issue, using the 'Pot Me Pretty' project for decoration. The notepapers come in two sizes - a full page, and a double page. I'm printing more for myself right now...

To see all the projects and extras inside this next issue just visit the magazine page HERE, and don't worry there is still time to subscribe! In fact, subscribe by August 1st and receive a free Elefantz pattern!

Would you like to see some show & tell photos?

I really get excited when you send me photos of Elefantz designs you have stitched, and I think all my readers enjoy them too!

ANNA is stitching both Shabby Roses 'Beauty', and 'Daisy Days'. She has little ones at home so I'm really blown away by her commitment to stitch these blocks - and I *love* her fabric choices!

 

ANNEKE has finished stitching my original "Shabby Roses" quilt. LOVELY!!!

KIM has finished the first two Shabby Roses "Beauty" blocks, *and* she's stitched my "Lord Bless You" design. Kim, wow....

Girls, you are amazing, and I really truly appreciate you sending me these photos. You inspire me to keep creating for you.

Do you have photos of any Elefantz designs you have made? Please email them to me so I can share them here on the blog. 

I'd best get back to the magazine otherwise I'll miss my deadline! 

Have a sweet and sunshiny day everyone...

hugs

Jenny

xx

PS: All the Show & Tell patterns are HERE in my shop - one is even free!

Four new Elefantz designs - and time that fills too quickly...

With my four days away earlier this month, and some sewing days with friends, and a day spent with Blossom, I'm afraid I have fallen behind on my own work for the next issue of Elefantz Home.

It's actually not easy to have 'business hours' when you work from home.

Still, I will live and learn.

As much as I enjoy the company of friends as we sit and stitch, I pay later with rushing my work and choosing a take-out meal instead of a 'nourished home-cooked-from-love dinner' with my husband. 

Do you struggle with the balance of work and play too?

Due to this 'chasing my tail' month, it will be another day or two before I show you all 4 projects featured in the August 2nd issue of my e-zine, however, I can show you three that are ready!

"Pot Me Pretty"...

The cover fits an A5 binder...

The embroidery and specific pattern for this design and matching bookmark will be in the e-zine...

NOTE: I'm going to use my finished binder as a family heirloom recipe book, and next week on the blog I'll do a short tutorial on a (different) simple binder cover with dividers so you can make one yourself. All you need is a binder, some fabric, and scrapbook paper. 

Of course, if you'd like to make one the same as Pot Me Pretty with the embroidered block, you'll need to subscribe to Elefantz HOME e-zine HERE.

"Colour Your Heart" stitchery...

 Lots of cute little daisies and snails...

Block 4 of Shabby Roses Beauty, "Butterfly Blush"...

And the fourth project will be...

 "Create & Dream"...

...but I'm still finishing it. 

I think you can see how sweet it will be, though?

Now if you'd like to make all of these projects and you've not yet subscribed to Elefantz HOME e-zine, you can easily do so HERE. This issue will be published on August 2nd.

Subscribe before August 1st and I will email you the pattern for my Shabby Roses Cushion as a welcome gift!

Last bit of news for today!

My friend Dawn has just begun a Block of the Week for a pieced quilt!

This is her first block, with a sweet little stitchery inside...

You can read all about it HERE on her blog!

This will be quick to stitch and you'll have a quilt in time for Christmas. How lovely would that be!?

I'm going to chill out with my beloved this evening, and share a simple home cooked meal of rissoles and mash - his very favourite.

What will be on your dinner table tonight?

hugs

Jenny

xx

Cal made the cover, and some blanket stitch sweetnesss...

Last year in my e-zine I shared the pattern for a block I'd made using an enlarged drawing of a cow my grandson Cal had given me back in 2008.

He was just seven at the time and had drawn his sweet cow at my request (as well as pears, I really like cows!). I knew one day I'd make a design from it, but it took 4 years to get it from his coloured sketch to my piece of fabric.

This month 'Cal's Cow' made the cover of Creating Country Threads!

What a very clever grandson I have, and how much fun I had bringing his picture to life with applique and thread!

 This is a close-up of the cushion...

Also inside this issue you'll find a profile article about my stitching journey...

 What a blessed woman I am!

In the August 2nd issue of Elefantz Home e-zine our monthly tutorial will be to look at different uses for blanket stitch. 

The special project I've made for that tutorial is almost finished. It uses blanket stitch three ways...

"Pot Me Pretty" will be a binder cover with matching bookmark when it's finished...

Later this week I will show you photos of all the projects inside this coming issue. Everything is so pretty that you won't be able to stop smiling at them...well, that's how they make me feel. 

Have you downloaded your first two blocks of "Shabby Roses Home" yet?

I made a little boo boo in the pattern, which a lovely subscriber emailed to tell me about. (thank you!)

I forgot to add the measurements for the green strip of grassy section across the bottom of the large house block....

A revised pattern was uploaded just hours after the first incomplete one, but if you did upload the pattern as soon as I released it you might have gotten the original version.

Just go HERE and download it again if you're not sure.

This week will be busy, busy, busy, with pattern writing for the Elefantz HOME ezine, but I will be taking time out for an hour or so each day to work on a project I'm making with Wendy.

She came by last week and we spent hours and hours cutting all the pieces for our "Mrs Beasley's Sampler" quilts.

By the time Wendy (below)  went home we were still only a quarter of the way through because we had talked so much!

We agreed we'd not go to bed that night until we had both finished all the cutting of our Tilda fabrics. I finished at 10.30pm, but Wendy was up till after midnight.

She already has her first block pieced and is working on the applique. Hopefully I'll get mine done before Leanne releases the second block!

Drop over HERE to Wendy's blog and see how she is going with the assembly of the gorgeous Christmas quilt she has made from the Homespun Stitch-a-Long last year...

Homespun Magazine still have the blocks free HERE on their website - all except the first one which was in their magazine. It's just lovely!

Have a mellow and magical Monday my friends,

hugs

Jenny

xx

Tea Cake, show and tell, and the new free BOM...

A couple of weeks ago I shared some wonderful ideas and projects I'd found online, and one of them was Stacey of Bakercourt's  'Irish Tea Cake'. It was on my 'must make very soon' menu plan, but with Mr E away a lot the last few weeks, and then he came down this week with another head cold, it just didn't get made.

Until today.

I followed Stacey's instructions (actually, it's her Granny's recipe so that makes it extra special for me, cause you know how much I loved my Nana) and soaked the fruit overnight in cold tea and brown sugar. I used Twinings Prince of Wales tea because it's Blossom's favourite at the moment.

This morning I added the two other ingredients - flour and egg...

...poured it in my new loaf pan...

...and baked it!

Now to let it cool, and then slice some for our afternoon tea. Can't wait!

If you missed the recipe last time, you can visit Stacey HERE.

Hang around for a bit because it's the sweetest blog. Makes me want to go visit so she can spoil me with her culinary delights. Shame there's a jolly large Pond between us.

The new issue of Elefantz HOME was emailed out about 12 hours ago. If you're a subscriber and missed it, let me know. 

If you're not, but would like a copy, it's up in the Shop today as an instant download!

Go HERE to purchase it.

Block 3 of Shabby Roses "Beauty" is also in the shop HERE as single purchase instant download.

 

A few very clever ladies have finished some of my free Elefantz projects, so let's have some Show & Tell!

 Carmen in Alaska's "Shabby Roses Monogram Sampler"....

Edith's 'Vase Wrapper' embellishes her gorgeous roses...

Silvia made 20 of my 'autumn' blocks in a friendship swap...

Janice used three of the Wonky Houses blocks in a wedding gift for young friends...

...and Gunn has finished the first two blocks of Shabby Roses "Beauty"!

Ladies, you're amazing. Thank you for making my designs your very own!

Have a relaxing weekend, everyone. Mr E and I will be enjoying the V8 Supercars racing from our armchairs while I do some stitching on the new *free* Elefantz BOM for later in July.

Got your interest did I?

hugs

Jenny

xx