A special pincushion and some not so good news...

I'll begin with the good stuff, yeh?

When I was considering what sort of pincushion to make for Q and U it seemed fairly obvious.

Those two letters go together like butter and toast so why not use them to create a rather lovely pincushion for those who like to quilt?

I had a very small piece of elegant cream floral fabric leftover from my Robyn Pandolph phase many years ago and married with cream cotton lace it was only a matter of choosing thread colours to sew a very special pinnie for you this week...

To be honest, I've stitched a number of words using my alphabet pattern in the past but I do really love this one the most (so far).

I chose two Cosmo Seasons variegated threads to keep the overall appearance soft and simple.

Sooo, guess what!?

This week I'm giving you the Q, U and T as your free download!

I and L have already been shared and are now part of the $2 sets you'll find here in my shop.

Here's the diagram for my new pinnie but you'll also find it in the pattern for reference later.

Download the triple pattern for Q, U and T here or here until January 3rd as a free gift.

The link to download patterns for O and P can be found if you scroll through my blog for the previous two Fridays. They are also free until January 3rd.

The pattern sets for A-E, F-I and J-M are $2 each here in my shop.

Pincushion BREAK

I won't be sharing an alphabet letter or pincushion idea next week as you received a triple blessing this week, but the first Friday in January I'll have R and S ready for you.

Now the not so good news.

Craftsy have decided to close many of the online pattern shops they have hosted for a number of years.

Fortunately mine is not one of them, however, they will be taking control of my shop and making changes that I will have no say in.

From December 28th they will be removing many of my patterns, their choices and not my own, and I will no longer be able to upload any new patterns or freebies until much later in 2019 - Craftsty have not given any dates for this except to say 'later in 2019'.

This is happening to all remaining Craftsy shops after December 28th, but I feel rotten for those lovely craft designers who have just been told their shops will close at the end of the year.

So here's my advice.

If you have purchased a pattern from my shop or any other shop make sure it has been downloaded to your computer and saved.

If you have had your eye on a pattern go to the relevant shop and purchase it now for the shop or the pattern may not be there from December 29th.

If you're after some of my freebies or any of my other patterns, go HERE to my shop and grab them now as I do not know which ones will go or which ones will stay. I will find that out on December 29th when I check what Craftsy have left on my shop shelves.

What has made me angry is being given just ten days notice that this will occur and not being allowed to choose which of my patterns to keep there and which to remove. I do not even know how many patterns are allowed only that they will be removing a lot.

Two close designer friends have caught up with me this afternoon and sadly one of them has lost their shop and this has huge ramifications for her. Fee still has one other shop, a new one with just one pattern, but it's her main shop which she's had for years that Craftsy have chosen to remove. If you'd like to check her patterns before the shop vanishes hop over here.

My other friend is Allie and like me she has no idea what patterns Craftsy will remove so if you'd like to visit her shop it is here. 

We're praying for wisdom in choosing a new path forward as we all work hard as self employed designers. 

I had more lovely things to share today but this rattled the cage a lot and as there's only a very small window of time before these changes take place I needed to tell you now.

God bless you, and just as I am doing, may your own troubles or anxieties be handed over to the Lord for He knows exactly what to do and can bring calm to the storms which tend to blow through our lives when we least expect them. 

Trust Him.

And breathe.

hugs

P for Persephone Primrose and pumps...

Persephone Primrose? That's me.

A group of sewing friends and I chose pseudonyms for ourselves many years ago and Persephone Primrose was mine.

My maiden name begins with P so choosing a double P pseudonym was a bit of fun and even today, darling Joy (real name) still calls me Persef and I can't imagine calling her anything but Ethel. 

But you know, for the life of me I can't remember the pseudonyms of the rest of our group!

So what about "pumps", you ask? What's the story there?

Well for starters they are not shoes.

The pumps in my life are the kind that remove water from a very flooded yard.

May I present the Sea of Reynolds - this is the backyard version, and we have a front yard sea as well.

The pumps we currently have in the ground to remove the excess rain water (remember, we live in the tropics and have wet seasons) simply cannot pump fast enough and so these seas continue to swell. In fact the backyard looked like this at 5.30 this morning, eight hours after the rain stopped.

We had a cracker of a storm last night but that was nothing compared to what is on it's way this weekend and early next week. Cyclone Owen is about to be upgraded to Category 4 and is swirling north of here in the Gulf where it will cross to land early Saturday morning and begin a rather nasty journey south east and by Sunday reach our town with more water than we've seen in years and crazy winds. It should have downgraded to a severe tropical low by then but nothing is certain, we just know to batten down the hatches and stay indoors. 

(bottom right - Townsville - that's us)

(you can track the cyclone's path here)

I'm praying for those who will cop the category 4 when it hits land tomorrow morning. They are small communities and need our prayers for safety, peace and shelter.

Having only ever rented before we bought this home in September, things like upgrading pumps and getting the house and outdoor areas cyclone-ready are new to us. In fact Mr E was out in the storm last night digging ditches to stem the flow of rain which threatened to breach our entrance doors front and back. The water got so high out back that it ran up over the step to flood the pool area and in the process many frogs and small lizards drowned. I never knew frogs could drown but when they get exhausted they do just that. Very sad seeing them belly up in our pool this morning.

I should explain to my readers in the northern hemisphere that a cyclone is the same as a hurricane but it rotates in the opposite direction and the most dangerous place to catch the brunt of a cyclone is directly in it's path or below it (due to the wind and rain)...I'm thinking in the US it's more dangerous to be north of a hurricane than south of it?

So please, pray.

There will be major flooding which will eventually affect the entire east coast of the state, landslides, roads destroyed and property loss. Pray that people are wise, choose safety first, and are kept safe.

Back to this week's pincushion...

I fussy cut a cute little house motif to sit beside the P and bordered the block in a red print with green stem stitch sewn in the ditch.

Remember, you can scroll through all the pincushion ideas shared so far and mix and match with alphabet initials that suit your purpose.

Do you have some pretty motifs in your stash?

Dig them out and have some fun with this pincushion!

You can download the P pattern here and here as a free gift until January 3rd, 2019.

Check last Friday's blog post for the free links to O as it's also free until January 3rd.

The pattern sets for A-E, F-I and J-N are a $2 purchase here in my shop.

Early this week I finally finished a project that meant a great deal to my heart.

For the Stitchery Club this December we're celebrating the vintage style of years past and the lovely linens many of us have collected, inherited and treasured, and we are doing this by sewing our own 'new' embroidered linens which can then be handed down and loved by the next generation.

There are six individual patterns in the December issue and I used five to make this beautiful supper cloth which is dedicated to my Nana, Phyllis May.

It was difficult to get a good photo on the table due to the clouds and rain, but mostly because I'm rather petite in height and was unable to tower over the supper cloth for a nice straight pic (and Mr E was off at work so no help there either...)!

So I thought to hang it in our front entrance as there was better light coming through, and you know what? I love it there! 

It never occurred to me that I could hang a supper cloth as a wall quilt but for the time being that's exactly where it shall stay - until I have a friend over for morning tea and need to dress the table!  

The stitcheries in each corner are different, but the wider stitchery along the sides is the same all the way around.

(you can see all four corner stitcheries here)

Originally I was going to use all the same lace around the centre fabric but silly me started sewing it in place without measuring to see if I had enough...and I did not.

I dragged Mr E to Spotlight and then to Lincraft looking for (praying for) another 1/2 metre but alas it could not be found. So I bought lace in the same colour and width, unpicked the third side, and completed the centre with one style of lace across the top and bottom and the other style down both sides. My lack-of-forward-thinking crisis was overcome with a second best plan.

"Necessity in the mother of invention" Nana would say in my situation and indeed she'd be right. 

She'd also suggest "use what you have" or "make do and mend" but I love what she'd say afterwards - "Good girl, Jennifer, that's using your noggin!" 

If you're not a Club member (over here) but would like to make Phyllis May's Supper Cloth yourself, I'll have the pattern in the shop on Monday morning.

Righto, my beloved is on his way home from school to begin the summer break so I have him all to myself for five whole weeks! But first, we'd better continue with preparing the property for the storm ahead.

Have a BLESSED weekend!

hugs

EMMANUEL - free pattern...

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..."

John 1:14a

This verse has been drifting in and out of my thoughts all week and I found myself constantly in awe as I pondered over and over again the Christmas message it declares.

For love, God left heaven and came to us as a child, born of a virgin, to dwell among us, to walk with us, to teach us, to heal us, to guide us back to truth...and eventually to die for us. 

Isaiah 7:14 prophesies the coming Messiah - "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call Him Emmanuel."

Emmanuel means "God with us" and indeed that is what happened when Christ was born of Mary and made a life here on earth. Dwelling among us for 33 years Jesus lived and walked and breathed and died as a man yet He loved, healed, forgave, humbled, taught, and rose from the grave as only Emmanuel our Messiah could.

One of my very favourite songs from the past few decades is His Kingdom and as I pondered these thoughts on Friday I stood in the kitchen with arms raised and sang it with tears streaming down my face...the enormity of Who He Is and what He did overwhelming my heart. Nothing, nothing at all compares to Jesus and what He has done for me.

(listen or watch here)

I think those precious moments in God's presence, singing from my heart to His, inspired this simple design. Only words...but what marvelous words, powerful words, truth filled hope-fulfilled words!

May Jesus bless you as we move closer to the celebration of a Gift no other can equal, and though December 25th is not truly the day of Christ's birth it has become a day when we can choose to turn our thoughts from the way of the world and look up to Him who came down to walk with us. 

If there's one thing I could ask of you this Christmas and indeed every Christmas, it is this -

Keep CHRIST in Christmas.

Too many have forgotten, turned away from or discarded our Lord, but that baby in the manger was real and He truly is the Son of God, Emmanuel, the Saviour of the World.

Love came down to save us and Love's name is Jesus.

Celebrate and give glory to Him this Christmas season and teach the little ones how much He loves them and how blessed they are to have a friend in Jesus.

Download the free pattern here

(choose 'sort by newest' from the drop down menu)

In Christ alone,

OH - a pincushion and the rains came!

These past couple of nights we have celebrated the arrival of rain. 

After two weeks of out of control fires burning across our state I pray the rains have brought relief and a respite from fear and distress for those in affected areas. But my heart sorrows for the precious ones who lost all they had during the intense heatwave and fire conditions which late November and early December delivered.

The wet season rain here in the tropics has set me on a course of what feels like endless migraines, the barometric kind which cannot be avoided - but I rejoice that's all I'm contending with, after all, my home still stands unaffected by fire. When we compare our situation with that which others face it often dims in comparison. 

Our garden is certainly glad of a respite from the harsh 45c (115f) conditions of late, with rain producing new life very quickly, so I thought I'd take some new photos. They're a bit dark but the skies are cloudy and will be for a while with more needed rain coming over the next week and probably (hopefully) throughout the new wet season.

I planted this Mock Orange tree just days before the heat wave and have been hand watering a few times each day to keep it going. We had one of these trees at a previous house and I knew if we ever bought a home of our own I'd plant one. So I did. 

Mr E had to dig up and around the garden bed which sits outside the back undercover area as it was riddled with termites. After treatment and disposal of the wood chip and affected soil (the previous owners had wood chip everywhere, a termites menu) he added our own compost and good soil around all the plants and covered the garden with sugar cane mulch which our pest control friend suggested because termites hate it. 

I asked hubby to remove a few plants from that garden bed because quite frankly I did not like them, and by doing so we were able to plant the mock orange in their now vacant space. The fragrance is simply beautiful as it's a type of Jasmine. You can see it just behind the terracotta pot where it will grow lush and tall over time.

Early yesterday morning after a night of wind and rain I went up to check the pool as after windy weather there's often leaves across the surface which need to be scooped out. Instead of green leaves a third of the surface was covered in a red blanket of poinciana flowers!

It was beautiful!  But they still needed to be removed so before Mr E awoke, in the cooling silence of dawn, I scooped them all out and piled their wet soggy petals nearby for him to see later. It never occurred to me to grab my camera to take a photo, but believe me that red carpet across blue water was gorgeous.

The poinciana tree belongs to our neighbour but it flows over the side fence beside the pool and as I find such joy in the vivid red/orange flowers and lime green buds and leaves Mr E has not trimmed it back...though he has suggested it a few times whilst scooping red petals from the pool. 

As I scour the various garden beds I'm finding many plants offering up 'babies' that I can propagate and plant out front when Mr E completes his garden preparations over the summer school holidays.

Our potted aloe vera plants are showing themselves to be quite prolific breeders too!

A trip to Bunnings this weekend for more pots has been scheduled...

Two green 'bulbous' plants literally popped up near the side front fence overnight and the following day opened into beautiful orange globes. 

We've no idea what they are but we welcome them.

I showed one of these recently but more blooms are now in play so I must ask if you know what the plant is? Is it some form of lily?

Most of the potted herbs are doing very well indeed, especially the oregano and parsley... 

...but the basil which is planted in the garden is doing better than the potted one. In fact, the potted basil bolted quickly but the garden bed basil has not. 

This time next year we'll have created more garden beds just for herbs and vegetables, but for now we use what we have with delight.

Our first pineapple is thriving still...

...and the pink kalanchoe has decided to bring forth a second flush of  blooms.

Last May dear Blossom gave me a purple tin planter and lavender seeds. I did not plant them at the time as I wanted to wait until we had a home of our own.

Just after we moved here I unpacked her gift and following the instructions planted the seeds in their tin. Now I am fairly patient with gardening but did think 20-40 days for a lavender seed to germinate was a long time to wait, however, my heart decided to hope on the 20 day option.

Not so.

It has now been 60 days and guess what I saw on Tuesday morning?

Blossom was here with the girls so it was doubly special to find her lavender gift making it's way out of the soil and into the world above.

We still get a LOT of birds at the feeder and generally all around the yard so the Australian Field Guide for Birds lives permanently on the outside table where we have breakfast each day...

It's such a lovely spot to sit and watch feathered visitors come and go, though Bob the dog would rather sleep now the weather has cooled a little...

...whereas Sophie follows me all around the gardens each morning.

Hubby is busy each afternoon when he comes home from school, digging up more of the road-based front yard, composting, cleaning the pool, cleaning leaves from the guttering and moving down pipes away from the house slab. 

There's so much to do here and many gardens yet to build (along with a rock wall garden out front) but what joy we have planning it all.

The four cuttings of frangipani I took continue to flourish and will be planted out once the front yard has been cleared of road base and soil put down. Probably two out front and two in the back yard...

As I look around at the unexpected blooms and those that simply last and last, the gratitude in my heart expands. God has blessed us, beyond what we had dared hope.

AND NOW...I'm sure you're waiting for this week's Alphabet Pincushion?

I had my friend Ondrea in mind with this one. The O is featured inside a little window...

You can follow how I make a cameo window to sit over a stitchery in these two tutorials.

This one is for a pincushion and this one is for displaying a stitchery in a frame.

'O' has been embroidered onto a white cotton/linen blend background fabric and the beautiful window fabric is a Lecien linen print from 2013 which I use sparingly for special projects.

Download the pattern for 'O' here or here

This pattern will be free to download until January 3rd.

The pattern sets for A-E, F-I and J-N are now a $2 purchase here in my shop. 

Next week I shall remove the veil of secrecy and tell you what's happening in Elefantz for 2019.

There are changes, and I'm excited about them.

God bless you and keep you close to His heart. 

May He fill your mind with His peace, your sleep with His rest, your attitude with His kindness and your needs with His provision - for every good gift is from God above.

hugs