Finally...news!

The waiting is over.

Months of looking, the surprises, the disappointments, and then a fresh hope.

As I mentioned the other day, ten days ago we found 'the house'.

But it was today that the bank approved our loan!

Another month and we'll put the key into our OWN door for the very first time in our lives. 

I just couldn't wait to tell you, to thank you for all your prayers this year, all your kind words of encouragement, all the support which was felt from all corners of the globe. 

These two new designs were me putting my hopes into a sketch, then a stitchery...tangible hopes that I could see and pray over, hopes of what just may be if we did not lose heart.

Home will truly be a place of comfort for us, comfort for our weary souls, comfort given by God in a way which may take many years to fully comprehend. 

And the gardens all ready in place, the numerous and interesting ornaments, pots, plants, bird life, trees...something which mattered more than I can say. In fact I think there will be a fresh outpouring of creativity in the months and years to come because the garden is a place of bountiful inspiration and my heart and hands are ready to add our touches everywhere too. 

And even though life is a continuous series of valleys and mountains and plains, just knowing we 'are where we are', that we have somewhere to put down roots, that our children and grandchildren finally have an address where they can always find Mum/Dad/Nana/Poppy, is answer to a three-decade prayer.

Our God is good all the time, and in His time hidden goodness will always be revealed.

The wait may be long, but it is worth it. 

Don't forget that we start our 26 week Alphabet Pincushions stitch-a-long this Friday August 31st.

The patterns are free but you can only receive them by visiting my blog or signing up to my free  weekly newsletter - they won't be in my shop. 

Righto, much to do and only a few weeks to get ahead with design work, pack up a house, and move into our home. 

As my beloved always tells me, "Breathe, Jen", because he knows me well and his reminders to stop and just be still for a while will be welcomed in coming days.

In fact, I took time out the other day to get my hair trimmed, treat myself to a salad and chai lunch at a nearby cafe, and enjoy a favourite English magazine while I ate that meal alone in peaceful surroundings. 

I highly recommend this to anyone, but especially if you work from home like I do. To be away from work settled me on Monday (especially during the anxious wait for news from the bank) because I wasn't visually distracted with what needed to be done; instead I was right there in the moment, tasting the food, slowly sipping the chai, taking in pages of beauty displayed within my English country homes magazine. 

I shall be mindful to make future dates with myself away from work.

May your day be blessed, your laughter felt in the heart, and your cup of kindness overflow.

See you Friday...

hugs

PS: Those two new designs - do you like them? 

For information about the patterns head over here...

April designs and a tutorial...

When only a small amount of a particularly beautiful fabric remains my heart is tempted to fold it carefully, place it gently upon the fabric shelves around eye level, and leave it there to gaze at lovingly for the next however many years. 

But my head tells me something else. Use it. And the past year or two I have tended to listen to my head more often than not.

(hope you're not one of those people who hates it when someone begins a sentence with 'and' or 'but'...I used to be like that but now I write how I speak...so I'm forgiven, right?)

The floral fabric inside my new needle/thread/scissor keeper, or as I officially call it, a sewing supplies folder, is one that very much held my heart for quite a while, which is why it needed to be displayed in a forever home. So I made this folder with a 'home' on the cover! 

Inside there are roomy white-lace trimmed pockets which can hold larger things than the average needle-book. 

So I wonder, do you have a precious bit of fabric you really should take off the shelf and use?

Might this be the next project for you? Mmmm...??

The house design on the front cover is available HERE in my Etsy shop but the folder itself can be made with any embroidery or even fabric alone.

Gather these supplies...

·         One fat quarter floral fabric

·         9” x 14” rectangle of medium weight fusible Pellon

·         Two, 2 ½” x 40” lengths of red/white spot fabric

·         A completed stitchery measuring 7” wide x 8 ¼” (or fabric the same size)

·         24” x 1 ¼” length of white cotton lace

·         ¾” x 14” length white lace

From the floral fabric cut-

·         One, 7” x 8 ¼” rectangle

·         One, 8 ¼” x 13 ½” rectangle

·         One, 10” x 13 ½” rectangle

From the 24” x 1 ¼” length of white cotton lace, cut –

·         One, 9” length

·         One, 14” length

Let's Sew!

Making the outside of the sewing supplies folder –

Sew the 7” x 8 ¼” rectangle of floral fabric to the left side of the trimmed stitchery and press the seam open. Lay the 9” length of white cotton lace over the seam and sew it in place along the side edges of the lace. 

Make the inside of the sewing supplies folder –

Fuse the 8 ¼” x 13 ½” rectangle of floral fabric to the Pellon and machine or hand quilt. I did simple straight lines along the top half, leaving the bottom half un-quilted as that section will sit behind the pockets. Trim away the excess Pellon.

Make the pocket –

Fold the 10” x 13 ½” rectangle of floral fabric in half to give you a 5” x 13 ½” pocket.

Sew the ¾” x 14” length of white lace along the fold (this will be the wrong side) so that most of it peeks out of the right side. Sew the 14” length of the wider lace about an inch below the fold on the right side.

Lay the pocket along the bottom of your quilted lining and pin in position. Score a line down the centre, and two more lines 3 ¼” to the left and right of the centre line. I use a Hera Marker which leaves an indent in the fabric and you sew along it.

Sew along those lines to create your smaller pockets, and sew the sides and bottom of the larger pocket to the lining with a scant 1/8 inch seam.

Assemble and finish…

Lay the front of the sewing supplies folder on to the pocketed lining, wrong sides together. Sew a line down the centre of the lace spine to join the front and lining together. The sewn line should cover/reinforce the centre pocket line we sewed earlier.

Make a length of quilt binding from the strips of red/white spot fabric and attach it around the edges of the sewing supplies folder as you would a quilt with a ¼” seam.

Press the binding away from the folder.

Turn the binding to the inside of the folder and slip stitch in place.

All done! Fill with your supplies and it’s ready to use.

You can see why I love that floral fabric, yes?

I also love the spotty binding and fortunately still have a fat eighth of that left for another project.

The floral is a print from Brenda Riddle's 'Windermere' range for Moda and honestly, I confess to loving all her fabrics. She's also the sweetest gal and she loves Jesus. 

10/10 all around for me.

Need another tutorial to empty your scraps bucket?

How about a fabric basket? Follow along here.

Well, I'd best get back to work and prepare some new designs for coming months, plus I have to pack for our mini holiday/road trip this weekend, give the house a general once-over with the dust cloth and prepare a nice meal to freeze that we can enjoy upon returning late at night. I'm hedging towards lasagne at the moment as we can have it for dinner tonight and have the leftovers when we come home.

 After time away I love to open our front door to a home that is clean and welcoming, with fresh sheets on the bed and soft towels in the bathroom, a meal that can be easily heated up and lots of ice in the freezer for iced de-caff coffees before bed.

As much as these short and rare times away are good for us, Mr E and I do enjoy coming home again.

What about you? 

have a blessed day,

hugs

Hexies, a trip and a free pattern...

On Saturday hubby and I drove west to Charters Towers. 

It's a beautiful small country town about 160 klm away and it's where we called home from 2009-2011, living in a lovely old cottage that captured my heart.

We go back to visit every couple of months and as the giant water tank on top of Towers Hill comes into view about 10 klm out of town my heart always skips a beat because it feels like coming home and I tend to become a wee bit emotional about that.

First stop is always, without exception, the local newsagent. They stock all my favourite English country magazines and many craft magazines from overseas that I cannot find in the big city. The week following our Charters Towers visit has me enjoying many long afternoon teas and I'm sure you understand why. 

We don't visit people while we're there, we come to visit the town itself. Quite simply the atmosphere, the peace of country life, the simplicity and 'slowing' that cloaks the town draws us in as we wander up and down Gill Street (for in all tiny towns there is but one main street, yes?) and scan the Houses For Sale ads displayed across the various estate agent windows. We dream, hope, pray. After all, you never know, a teaching position may open up there again one day for my darling man and we could set down deep roots at last in a town we love.

I slip into my favourite charity shops to see what treasures can be found and inevitably come out with at least a few vintage buttons and a book or two. There's also a gorgeous gift shop with so many pretty things under one roof that a number of birthday gifts are usually purchased in advance for shabby chic loving friends or family.

Coffee and cake (or a hearty breakfast if we've come early in the morning) is enjoyed at Henry's Restaurant next to the cinema before a final stroll back to the car, and then it's a slow drive around the streets, looking at the beautiful old homes, enjoying expansive views from the hill and ending with a drive past one particular home we've had our eye on since 2009 - always hopeful a 'for sale' sign will one day appear out front when the time is right.

We don't talk much during the 90 minute trip back home, each of us in our own thoughts...but that evening we share our dreams about life, the future, and perhaps that town. 

Have you lived somewhere that stole your heart and never gave it back?

During the three hour round trip to Charters Towers I sewed one inch hexies on my lap as Mr E drove. 

When we go away on long road trips I take embroidery, and next weekend we're off on one of those much longer trips which is why this shorter drive was a good test to see if sewing hexies would be more relaxing during the journey, and it is. 

In fact I enjoyed making them so much that I continued sewing hexies that night while we watched an old movie. Fortunately I'd prepared a lot of hexie fabrics whilst sorting through my scraps basket so I just kept going until I ran out.

The next morning I prepared more and before we go away I shall add to them, just in case.

A few ladies have asked me to show how I make a hexie.

Many blogs and designers have done tutorials on this so I won't go overboard with it, but here's a simple run through what I do.

You need hexagon shaped paper templates and these can be purchased in packs from your local quilt shop, online, printed from the internet to cut out yourself, or even as occasional freebies with craft magazines. 

As we live fairly remote in the big scheme of things around Australia, unsold magazines are not sent back to publishing houses from here for cost reasons, so the newsagents resell them after their month of issue has expired for just a dollar or two. This is how I purchase most of my craft magazines, and most of the time there's free fabric, plastic templates, kits or paper templates attached. One of those $2 magazines had 250 one inch hexies included when I bought it last week, just in time for my trip!

I have a plastic template for tracing the hexagon shape needed to make a 1" paper hexie (also from a $2 magazine) but I feel confident now to cut four at a time with scissors alone.

I cut four squares of fabric large enough to give me a border around the paper shape and holding the paper and fabric together with one hand I use my super dooper Klasse shears to cut through the fabrics.

The border is close to a 1/4" all around, but sometimes a little less when using smaller fabric scraps.

If you're not confident doing it my way use a proper hexie template sized to suit the hexie you want to make, or trace the hexie onto the wrong side of your fabric and draw a line 1/4" outside it for your cutting line. 

Cut along the line with scissors or a rotary cutter.

There's two ways to fold the fabric around the paper hexie - hand stitching or glue.

I hand baste because for me this is sooooo very relaxing.

Folding one edge at a time around the paper you sew large basting stitches (running stitches) through the fabric and paper until you have done all six sides.

No need to knot the thread, it will be removed later when you take out the papers.

(papers can be re-used)

This is quick and easy, perfect for doing on your lap in the car or anywhere you're out and about.

To use the glue method a glue pen is best. You only need enough to secure the fabric to the paper because you'll need to lift up the edges later and remove the papers.

Press the fabric borders over onto the hexie paper with your fingers, one at a time.

I'm a hand baster because it's very calming and I don't much like peeling glued fabric borders away from the paper later, but I have friends who love glue basting so do what makes you happy.

My camera was whisked away to the camera shop this morning to be cleaned so I don't have photos of sewing the hexies together, but it's not hard. Press the hexies flat with a warm dry iron as this will give you a nice crisp edge, then hold two hexies right side together (still basted, still with paper inside) and sew along one side with a blind stitch. 

Sew as many together as you need and when you're done remove the basting stitches and the papers. 

I think these will become the first of many hexie flowers...

Here's one of my old designs (The Summer House) which has embroidered and fabric hexies as a feature...

The embroidery is traced onto the hexie fabric shape first, then after the hexie is made it is sewn onto the design and embroidered.

I've done the same thing with hexies in a new pattern for April (see it here)...

Hopefully this has helped those of you who haven't yet ventured into paper piecing, but remember, I'm no expert, just a girl who likes to make them as simply and calmly as possible with minimum effort for maximum effect. 

A few years ago I shared a free pattern and tutorial, The Hexie Flower Show". Perhaps you may like to practice with it?

You'll find the tutorial here

and...

Download the free pattern here from my shop.

I wonder whether you prefer stitch basting or glue basting?

Bless you heaps!

What you do while waiting, and the gift I never expected...

Delve into your box of completed stitcheries and begin making pincushions!

That's what you do.

Life is on hold at the moment as we wait for the phone call which will have us driving into town to pick up Cully May and bring her home to stay with us while Blossom heads to hospital with Ross for the birth of their second child.

It's all rather exciting for this Nana who waits patiently in her sewing room and busies herself with fabric and thread, whiling away the hours and days.

But it's all rather uncomfortable for Blossom who is measuring 41 weeks and not her documented 39 weeks...who would most probably burst should we drop a pin on her tummy...who has weathered the threat of a very prem labour ten weeks ago and carefully taken each extra week as it was given...who's feet have swollen and don't want to go walking...who's baby is now head engaged and in the posterior position which is a always a tad more painful but especially as Blossom has scoliosis.

Yes, it's all rather wearying for my girl, yet her laughter as Cully May smothers her with kisses and hugs fills the room, and her smile continues to sparkle. Between the groans.

I remember that feeling, when you're so close to the end of your pregnancy but it seems like time is standing still and an hour becomes a day becomes a week.

You know it won't be long until that precious bundle of love is placed in your arms, but still you long for the labour to begin 'now'.

This wee baby decided not to share my birthday (Wednesday) and in all probability will arrive before her paternal grandad's birthday in early March.

Seems bub would prefer a birthday all his/her own right between the two of us.

Fair enough, I say.

So while all this is going on I have prepared the spare room for Cully May, stocked up on little girl necessities - toothbrush, hair brush, natural soap, a dolly (she'll be so surprised!) and a pretty pillow.

I'll bunk in with her while she is here as Cully's never had a sleepover at Nana and Pop's house without her mummy before, and I'm sure Bob-the-dog will snuggle up on the bed too.

She's missed Bob since he's been staying with us so I'm sure having him to play with again will keep her occupied when I need to collapse in a chair and catch my breath every so often.

So, back to the pincushion...I am trying to keep the house as ordered and toddler friendly as possible right now so my sewing room has most everything in it's place and out of reach of tiny hands. But I really needed to 'make' something today and decided to go through my box of completed stitcheries for a few which could be made into pocket pincushions.

These were perfect for my plan...

Pink and green together are a marriage made in heaven, but then add the subtle pop of blue and what a pretty picture...

One pincushion made and three more to follow...

...all dependent on what happens over the weekend.

I have everything I need for the next three pincushions in one place which makes it easy to pack away should Cully May be here before they're finished. 

If you like this style of pocket pincushion I have a tutorial HERE that you can follow.

Just adjust the pocket size to suit the width of height of your stitchery, or fussy cut fabric for the pocket as I did...

For the new pincushion I added 1" of pink check fabric down both sides of the stitchery as I like a bit of contrast...and I love pink. 

I've added the set of four pink and green stitcheries to my shop in case you like them.

(They were also in the December 2016 issue of The Stitchery Club, just in case you have it)

visit the pattern shop over here

Do you like making pincushions?

What do you do when you're marking time until something wonderful happens?

I had a lovely quiet birthday, just ducked out for a late morning coffee and cake at Rosie's.

The day before I was caught in the middle of a very severe storm out on the highway and it rattled me a little, so with the forecast of more such storms throughout the rest of the week I stayed close to home. Rosie's is just up the road so it was lovely to catch up for a little bit, but as soon as the black clouds began to gather I returned home.

Mr E was taking me out for dinner but we postponed it until Thursday evening, and this works for us as in our family we celebrate a birthday for three days.

We have an un-birthday, a birthday, and another un-birthday!

On Tuesday (the first un-birthday) my beloved brought me flowers and on my birthday a pair of beautiful silver and turquoise earrings plus a very special kitchen gift. Dinner at our favourite Indian restaurant on Thursday rounded the low key celebrations off wonderfully.

I was spoiled with gifts from my husband, but also from Blossom and my dear friends Rosie, Wendy and Margaret.

Some of the blessings...

So that's my birthday over with for another year.

I was 59 and have decided these next 12 months should be lived to the full as life is a gift from God and to be honest I don't think I've treasured this most amazing gift enough. 

It was Blossom who made me appreciate this life with a new clarity the other day as we huddled together with Cully May wedged between us on the couch, watching through her window the remnant of a storm passing over.

You see, my mum died when I was three and I have just two dim memories of her from the weeks just before a car accident took her life, but Blossom being so close to giving birth has been thinking a lot about my mother as this birthday drew near and talked to me about how the excitement and love she feels is just what my own mummy would have felt as her day of giving birth approached. Blossom's eyes filled with tears of joy speaking of this and then my own tears fell...from a deep happiness I'd never considered.

Isn't that beautiful? To suddenly realise at age 59 that you were once that child in the womb, eagerly awaited, loved and cherished...that the love your mother felt for you was very, very real, and even though you barely remember her it doesn't change the depth of her love and the joy she had with you for those precious first three years.

The gifts received for my 59th birthday were so beautiful, but the gift of Blossom's insight was the icing on the cake.

You know, precious one, you also have life and that is something to treasure.

I've had some shocking things happen to me over the years, but those events have not dominated my thoughts or my heart for many a year. Jesus tells us to put our hand to the plough and not look back...and that has been the one thing which kept me moving forward these 27 years as a Christian. 

It was so very clear to me that a field ploughed when looking back will never be a good field, will never achieve it's purpose. In fact it would make no sense. If I allow the past to hold my attention I will forever be immobilised from sowing the seeds of a healthy life crop and reaping the good fruits of my labour. 

This choice, because it is a choice, was not easy at first, and sometimes I slip up and endure a short season of wallowing and self pity, but it does me no good and robs my loved ones of precious memories we could be making in the 'now'.

So I choose to look ahead, right at Jesus, and to walk each day with eyes forward, letting go of the past and reaching ahead to what comes tomorrow - and in light of Blossom's words life is even more precious than I once believed.

Love