A cushion for Dee...

My 5yo grandson Deegan hasn't been very well of late. Kezzie and Bert have had him to a round of different doctors in pursuit of answers and a diagnosis, but so far there have only been 'maybe's'. 

He's quite the green thumb these days, and loves being in the garden with Kezzie growing all kinds of flowers and vegetables. So when thinking of a gift to make him I decided a garden theme would be perfect. He's the only one in the family who hasn't yet had a cushion from me (though he's had more quilts than almost everyone else!), so a cushion was made!

It seemed right to take the photos in the garden. Mr Gnome agreed...

I used the little bee block from my blanket stitch tutorial in last month's e-zine...

...and a few little garden stitcheries that I drew freehand on the pieced cushion front before embroidering them...

 I finished the cushion with a row of buttons across the top to hold the pillow inside the cover.

This will be in today's post for my little fellow. 

Please pray his health issues will be revealed, and he can receive the correct treatment. 

{{thanks}}

hugs

Jenny

xx

Things I made for Christmas gifts....

As much as possible I gave this Christmas a hand-made-with-love theme. Below are some of the gifts I made for loved ones - and mostly all my own designs.

For 10yo Calab, a huge pillow of his own because he always uses the one's I've made Kezzie in the past...

 For 4yo Dee a dinosaur bag to carry all his toy dinosaurs around in (it matches the dinosaur quilt I made him last year)...

I also made Dee a dinosaur tail (from THIS tutorial) but Kezzie and Calab had fun with it too!

Using my 'Little Bird' stitcheries,  I designed a sewing companion and needlekeeper for Kezzie. She's just learning to embroider and wanted something special to keep all her bits in. I finally cut into my Denyse Schmidt stash for this present!

 For SIL Bert I made a sketch book cover because he's discovered how much he enjoys sketching. I also made a pencil case but forgot to take a photo, however, I also put pockets on the front of the sketchbook for pencils.

I made a very special mini pillow for Blossom, but it would be perfect as a large pin cushion if she wanted to use it that way. The beautiful stitchery design is by Candlelight Creations.

I also make sure that every year I make jars of my famous Plum & Cinnamon jam to give away, so Kezzie and Blossom both took one home with their gifts.

Remember my Shabby Bag from Issue 5 of Elefantz HOME? You can see the original HERE.

I made another one as a Christmas gift for my dear friend, Fee, and this time used a romantic colour scheme...

For my swap partner Dale, I chose a stitchery design by Tricia Owen and made it into a table runner with lovely Bliss fabric strips...

Now to something made FOR me. 

My sweet Blossom stitched this "Partridge in a Pear Tree" design ( by Julie Lembit) using prim colours and gifted me with it. Isn't it beautiful?

And Kezzie made me a whole bunch of coupons for facials and massages that she is happy to give when I have need...that could be very soon!

 ~~~~~

Because this was a fairly photo heavy blog post I'll wait until tomorrow to do some show & tell photos of what lovely bloggers have made from my designs. 

Right now, I'd best get back to stitching some more of my new free BOM for 2012. More about that soon...

Hugs

Jenny

xxx

A simple gift tutorial!

Today I'm sharing another very simple tutorial for Christmas gift giving. 

Did you find yourself a pretty saucer??

I bought mine for 10c at the op shop. It's blue and white spots, a perfect match for the blue and white pindot fabric scrap I've been saving!

 

Using your saucer as a guide, draw a circle onto the back of a piece of complimenting fabric, making sure you still have enough fabric around the circle for a 1/4 inch seam.

Fuse a piece of Whisperweft to the reverse of the circle, and add some applique or embroidery to the centre of the circle. Cut out the circle 1/4 inch outside the drawn line. 

I used a flower shape from another project I am making, then added some backstitch and cross-stitches. 

Cut another circle the same size from your fabric (or a piece of solid cream or white homespun), and hand sew a gathering stitch just inside the edge.

Fill the inside with polyester toy filling or something similar...

Draw the gather in tightly and secure the thread, but leave a bit of an opening as I have done.

Hand sew a gathering thread around the outer edge of your appliqued circle and place the stuffed circle inside...

Pull the gather in tightly, but again, leave an opening just slightly smaller than last time.

You will have a 'ball' like this...

Using a hot glue gun, position in place onto the centre of your saucer.

Take some red fabric and make a tie. Wrap this around the bottom of the pincushion.

Add some gorgeous pins (mine are from Pincess Pins HERE) and you have a beautifully simple gift!!

 

 The saucer keeps the pin cushion stable, whilst also allowing you room to rest your embroidery scissors and threads!

If you make one of your own be sure to send me a photo, or leave a comment with a link to your blog post! :-)

Enjoy your Sunday,

Hugs

Jenny

xxx

Simple vintage gifts to make...

I'm so glad you enjoyed my tutorial for making British Flag cushions! 

Kathleen was way ahead of me though - she's been making them for a while now, and here is one of her beauties. You will find another HERE on her blog. :-)

This morning I made up two more cushion fronts (from my slowly reducing stash of Rural Jardin) in just under an hour. 

 I'll finish them tomorrow, but tonight I'm going to add to my collection of quick, vintage themed gifts, and I thought I'd show you as you may be inspired to make something similar.

Most of my regular readers know that I love anything vintage - doilies, tablecloths, quilts, hankerchiefs, etc. I really enjoy giving new life to cast offs I find at the op shops. If you saw THIS blog post in June you'll already have an idea of how I use old doilies.

Last Thursday I found a recently donated box of doilies at the local Salvos store overflowing with precious hand-stitched delights and all for just 50c a piece. I came home with 5, two of them to keep whole for my own household use, and three to cut up and make new again.

With this pretty doily I was able to make two 2011 diary covers, and two bookmarks!

 

 

With a second doily I made another diary cover and bookmark (and I still have 1/2 the doily left to use in other projects!)...

The third doily had the sweetest little birds cross-stitched at both ends, so with one of the ends I made a scented soap sachet...

I still have the other end to play with tonight, but in the centre section of the doily were some sweet cross-stitched flowers so I used them to make two scented coathanger sachets - one with rose pot pourri, and the other with lavender.

Now that is a lot of lovely gifts (with still more to come!) at a cost of just $1.50 - everything else I had in my stash. 

~~~~~

I have another simple tutorial for you tomorrow. (You'll need a very pretty saucer for it, though. I bought mine for 10c at the op shop)...

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs

Jenny

xxx

Making gifts, and why I need to sew...

The last week has been a very productive time with gift making for Christmas, birthdays, weddings, babies, swaps...so many wonderful occasions to make things for!

The best news is that I haven't bought any fabric at all - everything is coming from my stash. Yay!

I've used a few tutorials along the way, like this tissue cover pattern from Polka Dot Pineapple. It's incredibly easy!

Lisa's retractable tape measure cover was a wee bit fiddly, but the end result is lovely!

 I also intend making felt covered ones from a different tutorial. I'll show you when I'm done.

Do you have Anni Down's book, "In The Life of a Bag"? It has some fabulous small projects inside! So far I have made these notebook covers...

...and a different style of tissue cover.

I downloaded a cute free stitchery from Bird Brain Designs and so far have used it for applique, and for a redwork stitchery...

...plus I'm busy finishing a Janelle Wind design...

...and a gorgeous bird applique hanging by Natalie Ross, 'Flowers In Flight', that I found in an old copy of Country Threads (vol 7 no 8).

My husband is most supportive of me needing time to make all our gifts, as our family goal is to spend less but give more 'beauty' this Christmas/birthday season.

I'm working smart, though! There is a bit of a production line happening, with 4 or 6 of the same item being made all at once. This way I'll have extras left over in the New Year for unexpected gift giving. 

~~~~~

In my own design work I'm just grabbing an hour here or there, as I know once all the gifts are made I will have the time I need to work on my own projects. :-)

But here are some sneak peeks...

 

 

 

~~~~~

Some of you have mentioned that I seem to be sewing non-stop. Actually, I do set aside 4 hours each afternoon to work on projects - and if I have time at night I do some hand stitching while my husband does his paperwork from school. My mornings, though, are always spent on housework and running errands. 

Since Mr E was assaulted by two school students in September he has been suffering badly with whiplash and the discovery that he has scoliosis of the neck - this means he cannot ride his motorbike. He has twice weekly visits to the physiotherapist and has acupuncture to help with pain relief. 

The run on effect is that I spend a lot of time each day driving him and Slicer to work (at different times), picking up Slicer at lunch then dropping him back to work, then picking up Mr E after school, and back to Slicer for the end of his work day. In between I have Blossom working most days and I try to make time to have at least a cuppa with her every couple of days during her lunch break. Next week she begins her distance education and I will be supervising that each afternoon (while I sew).

My family are my life, and I consider it a very real gift from God that I am able to be home-based, thereby being available to taxi them around, feed them, lend an ear in the middle of a long day, help with teaching, and to generally 'care' for them all in the best way I know how. 

One of those ways is with the income I make from selling my designs.

I share this because I'd like you to understand that whilst designing is fun, it is also a small, much-needed income for our family, so I must make that time to stitch each day - it's like giving myself work hours.

My fingers have good days and bad - but most days I can stitch easily. The thing that hurts my two triggered fingers and causes them to swell is typing. This is why I'm not blogging as much, and why many of you have noticed I'm not replying as often to emails or comments anymore. 

I also cannot take very much weight on my hands and rely on the family to carry things for me.

But isn't God WONDERFUL!!??

Through all this upheaval with my fingers, I can STILL sew!! \o/

And sewing blesses my family. :-)

~~~~~

Have a wonderful evening. Mr E and I are about to have a lovely iced tea and chat a bit before bedtime. 

How are you going with making gifts?

Hugs

Jenny

xxx