Jenny of ELEFANTZ: Elefantz Patterns 2017

Showing posts with label Elefantz Patterns 2017. Show all posts

Friday, December 8, 2017

Five new projects...

I promised my Stitchery Club members this month that we'd not only have the five new patterns to embroider but I'd include five lovely projects as well.

And this is what has kept me extra busy the past few weeks.

But you know, I enjoyed every minute.

I design embroideries for a living, and that's pretty time consuming because each one is a long process starting with a vague idea and a sketch pad.

One design can take between an hour or a week to fine tune on paper, then I need to choose background fabric, feature fabric and thread colours.

Next, the hand drawn design is scanned, cropped and cleaned before being printed out to check the size and quality for preparing later as a PDF pattern. Then I trace it onto fabric, applique pieces may be added and stabiliser is fused behind the block in preparation for hand embroidery.

Finally the the stitching begins.

Depending on the size and intricacy of the design, and also how much free time I have during the daylight hours, this can take two days or a week. A large design I'm working on at the moment has already taken a week and needs another before it will be ready.

When the design is completed I press it, check for errors or missed stitches, and set up the photographs.

I can take 50-70 photos in different settings per project and from there I choose about three or four I like which will then be formatted and made ready for the webpage.

Final step is to bring my notes together with the stitchery, write the pattern and format everything into a PDF file ready for customers to download.

Adding in five projects this month kept me on my toes more than usual, but I truly enjoyed creating each one because most of my stitcheries live in large containers waiting for a one-day project to house them...my intention to do so is real, but the time rarely eventuates.

Anyhow, let me show you what I've been making from the December stitcheries. I'll take you through each stitchery design and show you how it's come to life as a project...

"Sweet Dreams" became a lavender sachet.

I love the idea of this hanging by a ribbon over the bed head, the scent of lavender wafting around my head as I drift off to sleep...

"Dream House" was bordered to create the house effect and then bound in lace as a mini quilt before being sewn to the front of a simply made cushion.

This will be wrapped and waiting for Cully May under the Christmas tree...

"Buttons" is such a cute design when displayed as a wrapper for a large jar of, you guessed it, buttons...

"Hope" is a beautiful quote by Lady Bird Johnson and needed only a lovely ornate frame...

"Flourish" transformed into one of my most useful projects for the next year. I think many of us have unfinished projects so you may find this notebook cover with a reminder message stitched along the spine just what you need too...

Which one was your favourite design or project?

All of these stitchery patterns PLUS the project patterns will be inside the December 17 issue of The Stitchery Club.

And there's more.

If you join before the 16th I'll send you one of my older issues from November 2015 (which has 7 Christmas patterns inside) within 12 hours of receiving your membership notification.

Go HERE to join today or to find out more.

Well, I'd best be off from here and attend to the lasagne I'm making for dinner tonight.

Mr E loves his pasta, especially ravioli and lasagne! Today was his final day of the 2017 school year and we're celebrating him having the next six weeks of summer break so a special dinner was most important.

There's a bit more work for him to do on the Jeep but it won't prevent us from heading off on a few overnight trips here and there...which means I need to prepare some new stitcheries to work on in the car so back to the sketch pad for me.

God bless you all, and may the weekend ahead bring you laughter, peace and rest.

hugs

Friday, October 27, 2017

My new 'homemade' design (and a recipe)...

This heartfelt design, which speaks of the love put into everything I make for others, has taken a while to finish.

I designed "Homemade from the Heart" back in late August when I received the Tilda "Cottage" fabrics. The centre applique block was stitched the first weekend of September but then we decided to move house so it was packed away for a while and to be honest once we'd settled in here I just wasn't sure how to finish it.

So it has sat waiting in open view on my sewing room table, neglected (even avoided) for over four weeks now, because not a glimmer of an idea passed through my thoughts.

I'm pretty good with the business of designing embroideries, but ideas for displaying them in a project requires far more creative thought than I can usually muster in a given time frame.

But you know, when you leave something for a while and go about your life doing other things, one day an idea just falls upon your heart...and that's what happened yesterday.

My beloved was quite unwell and in a lot of pain when he woke in the early morn so he took the day off work to heal up.

I decided there'd be no Elefantz work for me either, that I'd do a little baking instead, maybe some hand sewing and perhaps paint my wooden serving tray now that the rain is gone.

Around mid-morning I was preparing that Tomato Tart recipe I showed you the other day, reflecting on how simple it was with just a handful of ingredients and needing only a few minutes preparation before baking in the oven.

And that's when the 'penny dropped' as my dear Pop would say.

SIMPLE.

Just keep it simple.

Back in the sewing room I cut fabric for three simple borders and binding while the Tomato Tart baked.

After lunch the sewing machine came to life and so did this mini quilt.

With a cup of tea at my side and an old episode of Downton Abbey on the telly, I hand quilted in the ditch between the borders and also a line inside the white border.

All that was left was to attach the binding around the outside edge, add a hanging sleeve and sew the binding to the back.

Simple, sweet, heartfelt and handmade.

Exactly what this pattern was designed to express.

I've hung it above my desk where I can be reminded daily to simplify life and designs and ideas and even relationships, to focus on what's important and not the superfluous stuff, to make daily moments count more than 'dreamy' long term plans.

The pattern for "Homemade from the Heart" (embroidery/applique and mini-quilt in one) is in my shop now if you'd like to make it for yourself or as gift for someone you care about.

Visit my Craftsy Shop here to browse all my patterns

go directly to this particular pattern.

That Tomato Tart was indeed delicious and will appear again on our dining table.

The recipe suggested using Roma tomatoes as they have less juice and we love them anyhow so I had plenty in the fridge.

A puff pastry base is spread with mustard ( I used Dijon) and the tomatoes are layered over it.

Salt and pepper, a sprinkling of fresh oregano leaves and cheese...

...and into the oven at 180C for 35 minutes.

Served with a scattering of fresh basil, more oregano and a green salad, and our lunch was ready.

Honestly, it was delicious.

Next time I'll bake this in a long tray and perhaps at a slightly higher temperature as the base wasn't quite as crisp as we like, but really we had no complaints tucking in. Simple, rustic even. Like us.

I think this recipe would be a good one to play around with, using the main idea as a recipe base and then altering it with other simple ingredients (what you have on hand). Perhaps throw on some roasted peppers and olives, use pesto as your base and replace the grated cheese with feta.

Mmm...I'm getting ideas for Sunday lunch!

It's Friday lunchtime in my part of the world now and my tummy is rumbling after writing about yesterday's fare so I'll sign off with a hug and a smile, praying the weekend ahead is a peaceful one for you, overflowing with love, laughter, good food and Jesus.

Be blessed always!

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

TUTORIAL - a simple book cover...

I think it was close to a month ago you first saw this stitchery design and I mentioned a plan to feature it on a fabric cover for my very old Readers Digest gardening book.

With a house move between then and now that plan was pushed to the back burner for a while, but yesterday I set some time aside to play in my 'new' sewing room.

The steps I'm about to share can be followed to make a fabric cover for any size book. As long as you have the measurements of your book it's relatively easy to adjust the cover to fit.

My old hardcover measured almost 15½" around the middle, from the edge of the back cover to the edge of the front cover...

...and the book is 9½" high.

To complete my measurements I opened the front cover to decide how much sleeve I would need to add and chose 4" from the seven inches available as that would still allow me room to slip the cover on after it was made.

So here's what I had on paper:

Height - 9½"

Wraparound Length, with sleeves - 23½" (15½" + 4" + 4")

Allowing an additional 1" for the seams my final measurements became 10½" x 24½".

Use these same steps to ascertain the measurements you will need for your own book.

Now it's up to you how you make your cover. It may be one single length of a pretty fabric, a set of small patchwork blocks or scraps of different fabrics sewn together - just as long as it is the same size as your final measurements.

This is what mine looked like (pinned to a bit of quilt wadding)...

Once you have the outside of your book cover made, cut a piece of thin fusible wadding and fuse it to the centre of the wrong side of the fabric. I've used some Parlan because that's what I had on hand.

The fusible wadding needs to be the exact size of the book (mine was 15½" x 9½")...

Place the book onto the wadding side of the fabric and carefully wrap the cover around it, adjusting until the sleeves inside the front and back cover have the same size fold.

This allowed me to confidently position and pin the stitchery block onto what would become the front cover.

The stitchery was then blanket stitched in place.

To line the cover I lay the fabric face down on a piece of cotton homespun and pinned the two pieces of fabric together.

You can cut the lining the same size as the outer cover, but I used scrap fabric almost the same size so chose to trim the excess later.

Personally I don't like using good quilting fabric for areas of a project which won't be seen and find that homespun is an inexpensive option for backing table runners, wall hangings or hidden linings such as this.

Sew around all four sides with a 1/4" seam, leaving a 4" opening along one narrow end for turning out later.

Trim any excess fabric if you used a larger piece of lining fabric as I did...

Turn the cover right side out and press flat.

Ladder stitch (or slip stitch) the opening closed.

If you'd like to hand or machine quilt the cover now is the time to do it.

I chose a touch of hand quilting with running stitch and Perle #12 thread.

Place the book inside the cover and hold the ends up to position it right in the centre.

Fold the sleeves inside the covers and with a single strand of strong thread sew a securing stitch between the outer cover and each of the four sleeves.

Carefully remove the book from the cover...

...and slip stitch the cover and sleeve edges together.

Press the cover and slip the book in.

You're done!

My 50 year old gardening book has a new lease of life, and now I'm planning more book covers because they are easy to make and look so lovely on the shelf.

In fact I have a huge atlas my father gave me when I was very young that could do with a makeover too.

If you'd like to stitch "The Garden" you'll find the pattern HERE in my shop.

hugs

Friday, July 28, 2017

Harvest Flight...

In early June I shared a photo of the newest Tilda range, Harvest, which I was kindly sent by 2 Green Zebras....

If you've known me for long enough it's no surprise the little bird prints stole my heart.

And there in lies the inspiration for my Tilda Blog Hop design.

It's not often I create a project without a signature Elefantz stitchery but this time I wanted the fabric to shine, so here's my "Harvest Flight" mini quilt, complete with borders of small flying geese blocks...

I tried to capture as many little birds in each section as I could from the fat quarters I'd be given, carefully saving four different birds to feature on a hexie in each corner.