Changes at home and Block 3 of The Sewing Room...

 

Once again, as appears to be my habit this year, you're receiving the next block in my 2025 BOM, The Sewing Room, a day early. But I do not think you're compalining about that. ;-)

I had a few things I wanted to chat about in blog posts this past week, plus the recipe file I promised many of you, but a lot has been happening here and time got away from me. The Lord has allotted us just so many hours in the day, and lately my days have been full with homemaking, food storage and family.

But first today, let me tell you about Block 3 of The Sewing Room. I chose my sewing machine as the theme in the March pattern, as what is a sewing room without a sewing machine? It has so many functions and can be used to make almost anything to do with fabric decor, clothing, patchwork, dolls, mending, alterations and useful items around the home - and I'm sure you can think of other ways your sewing machine earns its keep. 

MACHINE OPTIONS:

Now, you may not have a Janome like I do, and be disappointed that I've chosen 'my janome' to stitch above the applique machine - but do not be concerned, for I have eight different options on your pattern sheets! 

You can choose from Janome, Singer, Husqvarna, Brother, Juki, Elna, Pfaff, or 'my machine'. 

I wish my own machine was decorated with pretty roses like the fabric used in the applique. It looks so pretty. 

Use the link below to download the pattern-

DOWNLOAD Block 3 of The Sewing Room BOM

If you have missed either of the first two blocks they are HERE

Just out of curiosity, what make of sewing machine do you have? 

Back to what's been happening here at home (interspersed with photos of some homemaking things from this week...)

On Monday hubby went to work at the car yard as usual. On Tuesday he handed in his notice. On Tuesday afternoon he accepted another job offer. On Thursday he started working in real estate. 

You remember I wrote about the course he was doing to retrain in a different profession (risky when you're hitting 60)? Well the course ran for twelve months, but he completed it in two months. After all, the age clock is ticking and he's an intelligent bloke.

(lime and coconut tapioca pudding with fresh mango and lime zest)

With nudging from the Lord, he heard "Just do it now" instead of waiting to start a real estate position in May...so he rang the company again and asked if he could start now. They were excited and said YES! This firm has mostly older employees, and many of them have left the 'cut throat' RE businesses around town to build a firm of agents who encourage and support each other. Just one day in and my man told me how lovely it was to work with generous and hard working people all wanting each other to succeed. 

(one of the bulk pantry items I've been putting together from individual ingredients - this is spaghetti sauce seasoning)

There's also been Bible study, yard work, preserving, bulk pantry building, Blossom and the children, deep cleaning, sewing - and very importantly, a new budget to plan because hubby is on base wage traineeship for a few months before receiving his full registration from the government to sell real estate. Hence my increased desire for conscious thrift and building up the pantry with homemade products that reduce trips to the supermarket. I am loving it!

(some of the bulk items for cooking made on Wednesday, and more are in progress - I was able to make them all from supplies already in my pantry)

After three near misses with his life this year, God stepping in every time to save him (two times when the tree split and fell in the monsoon, and another time I never told you about when he drilled through electrical wires in January), God's voice is strong and clear in my man's heart and head, and he knows that this path forward in our future is the one with God's light shining ahead of him. 

(plum jam and tomato sauce, or you may call it ketchup, made this morning)

One thing I have often said to family and friends, is that if we're still here, God hasn't finished with us yet, and He still has a plan for our life and work to do, and hopefully we will live that life and work in that life for His glory. 

(watching Olesya's latest video while I prepare strawberries for the freezer, and stew peaches)

Around the home I am busy as usual because there's always something to do, new ways to build up our home economy with common sense frugality and careful planning, a desire to learn and try new things, and a willingness to put my hand to the plough so to speak. 

(yesterday's stewed plums with fresh yoghurt for lunch today)

Something I hadn't noticed until today is that the more work I do around home, on a daily basis, the easier it is on my body. There's a lot of pain in my hips (I have hip bursitis on both hips) every day and night, but I have found myself managing better a little more each day by working for a few hours, then sitting for one. Then more work for a few hours, and another hour of rest to follow. Every few days I take a breather, and rest for a whole morning or an entire afternoon, keeping my hands busy with sewing while I watch YouTube for homemaking ideas that tie in with running a home economy, preparing pantry staples in bulk, gardening or some solid biblical teaching for women. 

It's wonderful how the more I do, the stronger I feel and the better I manage the pain. Praise God. 

(A day before the monsoon began on February 1st, I hard pruned all my rose bushes...and that's what saved them. Two of them are already blooming again.)

It's really all about balance, and being reminded of those women who lived before us, the ones who never had an easy life, but worked hard and prepared season after season for the family from what they had grown or purchased in cheap abundance, and genuinely kept the home fires going, whether resources were abundant or scarce. 

That's what I remember about Nana. I never realised just how poor we were until I was an adult, because it wasn't obvious. Pop worked hard for a low wage, and Nana stretched that wage to create for me the most wonderful childhood abundant in LOVE and simplicity. The older I get, the more I appreciate her example and the values she taught me along the way. 

(Blossom saw this pattern in one of my Japanese embroidery books, so I stitched it for her and will complete it as a key holder over the weekend)

I shall definitely share the recipe file requested from last week, with some extras from this week's kitchen joys, in my next blog post. 

How are you all doing in your corner of the world? Today is the last day of summer in Australia, though for us living in the top end of the country, summer heat won't subside till the very end of April or early May. I can't wait. I literally dream about the slightly cooler months of May, June, July and August, when we finally get to enjoy soups and stews for a while, and luscious hot puddings with vanilla custard. Oh, and hot chocolate before bed! I think I need to put aside a few wintry books to enjoy in those months as well, and I shall definitely be re-reading The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder as its one of my all time favourites at that time of the year. 

May the Lord bless you day and night, keep watch over your dwelling place, and provide for every need. May His presence be felt in your coming and going, His ear attentive to your prayers, and His grace in a measure we cannot fathom. May your heart rejoice in His love for you, and in the faithful promise of eternity in His presence. Oh dear ones, bless you so much, and thank you for visiting with me here...you bless me. 

I shall leave you with this thought which I found on Pinterest. It made me stop and consider many things...

Until next time, love and prayers, 

You will find me on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my NEW IG account just for homemaking HERE @elefantzhome

Subscribe to my free Friday newsletter HERE and never miss a blog post, pattern or tutorial

Stitch my free 2025 block of the month 'The Sewing Room' HERE

Another miracle, journaling, hexies and a stitch-along...

 

If there's anything I have learned in my almost thirty-four years walking with Jesus, it's that He determines our ways, and He will only take us home in God's perfect timing. 

Last week I shared about the miracle of God that saved my husband from serious injury or death when just seconds before a huge tree limb came crashing down in the very spot he sat crouched over a submersible pump fixing it, the Lord called him to move. (if you missed that post it is here)

Well, it happened again. The first incident was on February 1st, and then one week later on February 8th, in the middle of the night, the Lord woke my exhausted husband and said "Go fix the pumps and the pool"...we were (and still are) in the middle of a flooding monsoon. In the darkness he went out and sure enough he needed to empty water from the overflowing pool, and then had to crouch down where the previous limb had fallen to clear debris from two submerisble pumps so they could continue pumping water from our ocean-like back yard. An hour later he crawled back into bed, relieved that the rising water around our house could recede again. 

At 6:30am we were having breakfast when we heard a tremendous crash and raced outside to see that a second major limb of the tree had come down, right where he had sat just hours earlier fixing the pumps. 

This time it was a bigger limb than the first one that came down (the tree had three major limbs with numerous large branches) and covered the entire front of the shed...

Hubby had to crawl under the tree and push the roller door up as far as possible before crawling inside to get the electric saw. He cut some away, but then had to go to work for the morning. Home from work at lunchtime, he began the work of very carefully (because the remainder of the tree is not stable) removing branches and smaller limbs. 

Sunday morning he realised he'd need to stabilse the remaining limb and trunk of the tree, so we prayed, and he climbed up on the ladder cutting off what he could, and then stacking smaller limbs over by the lime tree, and mulching all the branches and leaves to cover some of the sodden ground before the next lot of heavy rain arrived.

And now this is all that's left, apart from the smaller limbs which are too big for the mulcher. 

All that area used to be covered by the poinciana; it was our main source of shade through the hot and humid tropical seasons which last about eight months a year. The rest of the tree will need to be removed by professional tree loppers, and the trunk/root dug out of the ground. All that mulch has given us an extra six inches of cover over the worst affected areas of our flooded yard, which is a blessing as its all ankle deep in water still. 

I admit to shedding a few tears over the loss of that tree (we'd planted it in 2019, fulfilling a long held dream to plant a poinciana when we one day bought a home of our own), but I am far more grateful to have my husband safe and secure by the hand of God on his life. 

The monsoon is still here, the nights especially bringing the heaviest rain, but we are far better off than those in communities nearby who were cut off for a week before the army built a temporary bridge over the highway for emergency services and supplies to get through. I pray the monsoon moves out to sea very soon, and that people can get out and about to repair damage and start the process of returning to normality. Lord help them. xx

In the midst of all this I have continued to make time each evening to sit quietly and stitch. The second little Japanese pattern I began last week is now complete and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The tone on tone fabric and thread choice was a new one for me, and I think now that I may do it again in the future. This little finish is only 3" edge to edge, and very detailed, using mostly three and four strands of Cosmo Seasons thread. I have it sitting inside a 5" hoop and will probably stitch down the excess fabric tonight. 

I won't use the Sticky Sulky-Solvi ever again though. Stitching mostly with four strands of thread through the SSS and the linen was so hard on my hands that I had to take many rests between sections. In future for tracing onto dark fabrics I am going to try graph paper with a Sublime Stitching Iron Transfer Pen. 

But still, I love this little design by Yula and will be stitching more of her patterns in future.

I've done a lot of Bible journaling this month, with a number of word studies because I simply love to delve deeper into context and the original languages and their meaning from the time they were written. 

Late last year I made an intention to put together a Bible study basket, and found this nappy bag (diaper bag) to be the perfect answer as it has divided sections inside and pockets around all four sides. Made of grey felt it only cost $17 Australian (about $10 USD) and is serving it's purpose wonderfully.

I got these Paper Mate Flair felt tip pens as well, because they do not bleed through my Bible pages. I highly recommend them!

Inside I have a prayer journal, a personal journal, a new journaling Bible (NKJV), daily home and business planner, a large book to write down all my word studies, some good devotionals that I have used for quite a while, pens and washi tape. 

I haven't journaled daily for a few many years, and I was really struck by the need to do this in 2025, thanks to prompting from the Lord and a very inspiring video I watched about being intentional each day with the many aspects of our Christian walk. Doing some of this was a financial investment, at a time when we need to be very careful about expenditure, but as with all things I try to follow Christ's advice to "Count the cost" before making financial decisions, and decided this was worthy of the financial outlay...and six weeks along I am so glad to have made that choice. 

...STITCHING HEXIES...

I had a lot of fabric scraps left over from the bundle of Tilda Sunday Brunch I was gifted with last year to design with, and thought it would be fun to use them in some EPP. As the scraps are tiny I chose to use 3/4" hexagons, and to stitch hexie flowers with an embrodiery centre. At first I used bits of all the colours, but decided they just weren't suitable for the project/s I had in mind (because there are a few, but a single favourite is still waiting to be chosen), so then I unpicked the few flowers I'd already made and started over with just three colours. 

The flower centres are tiny stitcheries I drew up, and the thread colours were chosen to blend with the hexie fabrics. So far I have completed eight of the twelve I plan to make...

If you'd like to stitch along with me to make the little embroidered centre hexie flowers, let me know in the comments. If enough people are interested I'll make up a download of the stitcheries for you all, and make a proper decision about how I shall display them. 

If you have any ideas for a project using the twelve hexie flowers let me know...I only have three ideas currently, as I want to make sure the project will be useful as well as pretty.

Well, I'd best sign off as I have peaches to stew, plums to preserve, necatrines to make into a relish, and focaccia to start. Nothing like an afternoon in the kitchen, especially wearing the beautiful apron that Pat sent me, along with her intricately knitted hand towels (in yellow to match my cookware), which Blossom and I love! 

Thank you Pat xxx

My heart is aching to get stuck into a deep clean of every room once this monsoon passes and I can hang things to dry in the sun and beat the rugs the way Nana did, and to stock the pantry with things I've never made before (nectarine relish is a start, along with tomato sauce once I find a good recipe), and to reorganise our small spaces so that the sewing room doubles as another pantry and apothecary. I have many plans afoot, and perhaps March will see them come to fruition, but what I know today is that God must be in the centre of all my plans, hopes and dreams for this gentle domestic life that I live and love.

Blossom feels the same way, and as she edges closer to her 31st birthday, I see a deeper maturity within her for the Word of God, an incredibly gentle yet fierce love for her family and home, and her unashamed surrender to all the Father has for her life in the years ahead.

God bless YOU dear one, and I pray that His protective hand is evident always in your life.

And THANK YOU for al your prayers, and your loving comments and emails - I apologise for not replying lately, but we've had so much going on the past few weeks that I needed to allow myself the luxury of stepping away from a few things. Life is heading back to normal now though...xxx

Love and hugs

You will find me on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my NEW IG account just for homemaking HERE @elefantzhome

Subscribe to my free Friday newsletter HERE and never miss a blog post, pattern or tutorial

Stitch my free 2025 block of the month 'The Sewing Room' HERE