Molly, Tilda and a kitchen makeover...

 Time is passing swiftly this September, but probably because there's been a lot going on at home, with family, designing, sewing, the garden - and a new companion for me.

MOLLY

In January Blossom and Ross became owners of two 6-week old pug puppies, Molly and Barnaby. In their huge house there was plenty of room for two dogs, three children, and two offices for both Ross and Blossom to work from home. We all adored those two mischievous pugs, but Molly especially took a great liking to me, almost beside herself with excitement each time I visited. 

Then their rental home of five years was to be put up for sale and the owner would not renew their lease, so, as you know, the prayers went up for a new home to be found quickly as rentals are very scarce in our town. Praise God, who at the eleventh hour provided a new dwelling for them last month, not far from where they already lived. The house was half the size of the one they currently rented, but it is lovely and cosy, in a good area, and the family love it. But...it was far too small for two indoor dogs. Living in the hot and humid tropics is not the best climate for pugs, so keeping them outside is not an option. 

We had rehomed Harry the dachshund back in March to a young woman training to be a vet (he hated being indoors, terrorised our old Sophie cat to the point her health went downhill, tore up more garden than you'd believe, created a lot of stress day and night with his endless barking, and quite simply was not the right puppy/dog for us at this stage of life) but the prayers were still going heavenward for a 'real' companion dog that would be my buddy each day while hubby was working.

And so, Molly came to live with us. This made everyone happy as she can see her brother Barnaby often, plus be loved on always by Blossom, Ross and the children when we visit them or when they visit here. 

She's exactly what I needed, and truly, she adores me. Her and I were already buddies, but now it's so much more. She's a curious little thing and follows me everywhere, rarely is she away from my side...in fact, the first day here she wanted to know exactly what I was doing in the sewing room so I popped her on the pink chair and she was completely mezmerised! Though eventually she curled up on the chair and fell asleep. 

Her first outing to Bunnings with hubby and I in his Ford Ranger was very exciting, and once again, she was mezmerised by all the activity, sights and sounds around her. Bunnings is a huge hardware store in Australia (for those overseas who haven't heard of it) and you're allowed to take your dogs in there.

I'm sure you'll see plenty of Miss Molly on the blog in future. 

Next thing which has taken up a lot of my time is a double project I designed from a bundle of fabrics soon to be released in shops this coming October. You may remember that I have often been gifted fabric from manufacturers or distributors over the years, but I did decline all the offers last year. However...

TILDA HIBERNATION

All those sleeping little creatures, and the warm autumnal tones, caught my eye so when I was offered a bundle of the new Tilda Hibernation fabrics to play with my answer was an easy 'yes'. 

For three weeks I've been sketching, erasing, sketching again, erasing again, and finally set my mind on an idea that stemmed from the The Two Towers by JRR Tolkein (second book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy). There's a scene in Fangorn Forest where the ancient Ent, Treebeard, in the cool autumnal air of early evening, settles two of the little hobbits down at the base of a huge tree and says very softly, "Sleep little Shirelings..." (for Hobbits were known as people of the Shire). Here's what I eventually made. 

A table topper which featured circles of little hibernating mice, birds and squirrels...

...and an embroidered hoop inspired by the words of Treebeard. I wrapped the outside of the hoop in more of the Hibernation fabric.

What do you think?

I'll have the patterns ready on October 1st when the Tilda Hibernation fabrics are in quilt shops. 

Funny thing about the leaves I used in the photos. In the tropics we don't have pretty autumn leaves, as everything is green...but in spring, yes, in spring, we have trees whose leaves turn vivid orange, red and brown! We have one such tree in our front yard, but to give you a better view of these trees in all their splendour my husband took a photo near a picnic spot we stopped at during a recent day trip away. 

KITCHEN MAKEOVER

If you've been here long enough you would know that when we bought this house, our very first, five years ago, in the midst of my joy was the disappointment of having a brown laminate kitchen. Brown is my most detested colour for home decore, and especially in a kitchen. 

This is the kitchen when we first bought the house...

On the right hand side I have already given it a makeover with pretty green floral curtains, hanging plants, potted plants, pictures...it looks lovely now, yet for some reason I can't find a photo so I'll just reshare one I took recently in that area when Rafaella and Charlie spent the day with me.

Now have a look at my makeover of the opposite side. First thing you'll notice is that I've removed two cupboard doors - and for the life of me I do not know why I haven't thought of this before! It has completely opened up the area and brought light and beauty to my eye. 

I have a few more ideas, but for now, this makes me so happy every time I walk through the kitchen! And the whole makeover cost me nothing more than $7 for the tin of fake flowers, and the next day I spent another $3 for a new coffee mug decorated with a garden scene (which is not pictured). 

There's going to be a few more budget makeovers in our home over time, but I shall not do any of them until inspiration strikes and I know exactly what will work. This small makeover took me five years to achieve, but once the idea was there, it took only a day to bring it all together. I wonder if you are inspired to create a budget makeover in your own home? If so, what room would it be? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Okay, that's enough for today. Next time I shall let you know about the new Stitchery Club, but it's not at all like it once was. I've decided to do a lot more things simpler, easier, less fuss...and to enjoy them more. 

I shall leave you with a sneak peek at one of the new designs I am working on right now...it's a house blessing. After all the autumnal colours of the Tilda designs, I decided to bring some spring colours to life in the home with a blessing to hang on our living room wall. 

God bless you my friends! May His favour be felt all around you, His presence fill each room, and His voice heard clearly as He directs you in the paths you should follow.

hugs

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Making another tea cosy and etiquette...

 I'm rather partial to tea cosies, are you? 

Today I started on a new one. In my stash was some lovely green linen which I'd originally purchased to make an apron, but then decided it was too dark for my style so popped it away until another idea came to mind. Which it did this week. 

Recently I received an advance gift bundle of the new Tilda line 'Gardenlife' from the Australian distributor to design with. Now, all the prints in this range are large so I've had a real brain freeze how to use them. As a stitchery designer I tend to choose small prints otherwise the fabric takes over and the stitchery is lost...so how do I feature these larger print fabrics, I asked myself? And then I was tidying up the sewing room and picked up the green linen I'd purchased a while back...yep, it would match perfectly with some of Gardenlife. Yay!

I made a template for the tea cosy after measuring the pot I'd use it on, fused Parlan behind the front and back pieces for insulation, then sewed that pretty teal and green floral print along the bottom.

Next I made some paper pieced hexagons to create flowers which I'd applique to both sides of the tea cosy.

Then I needed leaves so instead of my usual blanket stitch applique I chose to make these ones. After drawing the outline of a leaf onto a doubled piece of the green linen I machined over the drawn line before cutting out the leaf, leaving a tiny seam outside the sewing line. 

Then I cut a hole on one side of the leaf, pulled the leaf right side out and pressed the leaf flat.

Next, I stitched the leaves in position beside the hexie flowers using a blind stitch.

Can you see that I positioned the flowers and leaves differently on each side of the tea cosy?

That's as far as I got today, after all, there's more to my days than sewing - but I did thoroughly enjoy taking a few hours out for myself to make something new.

I'll complete it tomorrow, though how it will finally look I'm still not sure. There's a few ideas competing in my imagination! In Friday's post you'll see which idea came to pass.

A trip to the op shop after doing groceries on Monday yielded a bargain! The Ashdene tea pot, tea cup and saucer above are gorgeous and when Blossom and the children were over for the day on Tuesday we enjoyed numerous cups of Vanilla Tea from that pot.

This pink tea cup and saucer were also an op-shop find; in fact I deliberately drop in to op-shops when I'm out and about to look for pretty tea things.

Notice the tea cosy behind the pink cup? I shared a tutorial for this one in 2015 when I did my first Tea Week series, and it's still my favourite cosy. I used just one pretty Tilda print to make this one, adding vintage lace and ric rac as embellishments. 

To be honest, I miss the old style of Tilda fabric - they were unique and sublime. The fabrics of the past few years just haven't won my heart the way those beautiful older ones did. Have you found that too? Perhaps that's why I love this tea cosy so much. 

If you'd like to make this tea cosy just pop over HERE to the tutorial blog post from 2015 and it's all there for you. 

HIGH TEA

Blossom, Rosie, Rosie's daughter Barb, and I, enjoyed a sumptuous High Tea together at a cafe in town a number of years ago, and sometimes Blossom and I would go there for High Tea alone. The beautiful little shop who hosted these teas closed due to an illness in the family and never re-opened again, so we've never attended one since. One of the things I loved about that shop was choosing your own vintage tea cup as they had many to choose from and all of them so pretty, old and dainty. And of course there were the tiered displays of various cakes, desserts and sandwiches! Oh my, how incredibly delicious.  and I cherish the memories we all made.

So what exactly is a High Tea?

I found this information on the website of my local tea centre the other day and thought you might like to know the history of High Tea. Here's what I discovered...

Have you ever wondered why high tea is never referred to as high tea in cities like London and Dublin? That’s because Australia is one of the few countries in the world that refer to afternoon tea in this way!

One of the biggest misconceptions is that the ‘high’ in high tea is a reference to the upper classes, and in extension, fancier tea affairs. However, it’s actually a historical reference to the height of the table that afternoon tea was originally served from. 

Back in eighteenth-century Britain when afternoon tea was synonymous with dinnertime, the term ‘high tea’ was used to describe formal meals served on high tables (think a dinner table) as opposed to more casual morning tea served on low tables (like coffee tables). 

While contemporary afternoon tea is now understood as a light repast enjoyed around 4:00 pm (coming from a twentieth-century shift in cultural norms), this historical connotation plays a lot into why Australia and other former British colonies like New Zealand and South Africa still call this meal ‘high tea’.

Perhaps I need to make one of those tiered cake stands and host my own High Tea? I surely miss attending them...but that's what was so lovely too. I was being served the tea and treats, not making them. You know, it's nice at times to be the one at the table rather than the baker and hostess. So maybe it would be wiser to find another cafe which hosts High Tea in my area...hmm...??

Now on to something new I learned this week!

How to hold a tea cup correctly (etiquette lesson)...

All these years I have been holding my tea cup incorrectly, so after I watched Myka Meier demonstrate correct etiquette for drinking tea from a tea cup on Monday, I taught Blossom, and together we sat and laughed as we drank our tea like Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge. We felt so posh, and rather proud of ourselves too. 

Here's Myka's video on the correct etiquette for taking tea. She's such a fun lady and knows her stuff so I hope you enjoy learning along with me. 

That's it for today my lovelies. It's taken me hours on and off to finally finish this post and we had dinner half way through, but now there's apricot pies cooling on the kitchen bench for dessert and I might just make a pot of Vanilla tea so I can show hubby how to hold the cup. Oh wait, that won't work. He only drinks tea from a coffee mug! Sigh.  

Have a blessed day or evening, wherever you heart resides around the globe. May the Lord bless you and keep you close to His heart and be all the assurance you'll ever need...

hugs

Shabby Old Roses - a new pattern...

Back in June I received a bundle of fabrics from Tilda Australia with which to 'play'.

Over July and August I designed and stitched this new quilt pattern, and I'm not really known for quilt patterns, which challenged me to step outside of my own embroidery box.

It's no secret that I love the older Tilda prints, those soft romantic florals which have been missing from her fabric lines these past couple of years...but this return to softness and roses captured my attention big time.

And so I played.

The quilt measures 20" x 30" and can be hung wide or long...either way, it's beautiful against our cream living room wall, right beside my desk.

The pattern is available from today HERE in my Etsy shop as an instant pdf download, and the Old Rose fabrics by Tilda are available from many quilt stores world wide. 

I'd love to know what you think of my 'out of the comfort box' design.

Maybe I'll do more quilts one day...

Hugs

This n that...

Winding down from last week's 'squeeze two years into five days' family time didn't happen as I'd hoped. Life just keeps rolling along, you know? Design work piles up, groceries need to be done, meals to be prepared, an unexpected termite issue in the front yard to be attended to, emails to answer and then one of the worst migraines all year on Monday.

My fault on the migraine though. By Sunday night I was so exhausted I could barely put one foot in front of the other so Mr E said don't worry, we'll go buy some dinner. I suggested this Thai place near where we used to live a couple of years back. It has the most delicious Chili and Basil Fried Rice ever and I had been dreaming about going back there for months. I'd just forgotten why we stopped going there.

Well Mr E said no, that's not a good idea, you always get a bad migraine after we eat their food. I reply (taste buds talking) that it may have been a coincidence. He warns me again, and again...and I  keep pushing. So off we go and the food was as delicious as ever. 

Shame about the subsequent migraine. That was one of the worst ever.

Lesson learned, listen to my husband and not my taste buds.

But let me backtrack to Saturday.

I had some gorgeous fabric to play with and in between sporadic bursts of housework I made this gorgeous churn dash block from the next Tilda range, Apple Butter, due in stores next January.

I am so blessed to receive pre-release fabrics to design with, it's definitely a designer perk and I don't take it for granted.

Being a stitchery designer with a monthly schedule that requires at least five new patterns every month I lose the opportunity to partake of much patchwork but I have to tell you I love the precision of piecing fabric and as I was making this block that desire to indulge more often came flooding back.

And something else happened, I was inspired to use my Apple Butter fat quarter bundle to make a quilt. And not just any quilt. It's vintage inspired applique and patchwork blocks and if all goes to plan I'll release it early next year as a Block of the Month.

But let's take a deep breath and not run away with ourselves, okay? Pacing myself  is not a strong character trait but I'm working on changing that so for now the sketches are drawn and Fiona at 2 Green Zebras (our Australian Tilda distributor) is sending me the background fabric for the applique  blocks so I have no choice but to wait. Or draw the quilt layout, something I find challenging.

In the meantime, back to the sewing room I went and put together a sweet door hanger using one of my new November patterns, Welcome Friends...

I love door hangers and always have a number of them displayed around my home on door handles or cupboard knobs, but when my daughter Anita was here last week I remembered just how much she loves them too (especially ones I've made and used) so into her suitcase went a special one and I'll be sending her some others in the future.

This of course meant that I needed more for our home so I began with the welcome design.

For those who are new to sewing, let me assure you that a nice gathered frill across the bottom isn't as difficult as it looks. In fact a number of years ago I made a tutorial to show how it can be done using leftover quilt binding so if you'd like to try this technique you'll find it here.

The frill on this door hanger is longer than the quilt binding one shown in my tutorial and I think it works well to balance the bold aqua applique on the stitchery.

I left an opening along the side for filling. 

I wish I'd remembered to add some dried lavender to the filling but I can do that with the next one. You don't need to over stuff a door hanger so just a bit of poly toy filling works well. 

This will hang near our front entrance as soon as Mr E attaches a lovely shelf to the wall. I bought it at a garage sale years ago for our 'one day' home and it has four hooks under the shelf for hanging keys, charms or a pretty door hanger. 

Should I have called it a shelf hanger, do you think??

I don't often design 'friend' patterns but focus mostly on home and family. Next year however I'll be writing a series of posts on friendships - nurturing them, investing wisely into them, and learning when to step away or draw closer. My introvert personality is such that I have just a handful of close friends and only one lives in my town, but I sense the Lord is going to teach me about making more friends in the months to come -  just a few more. Close by. 

I've started attending a small craft group on Tuesday mornings and am loving it. The girls are gorgeous, so friendly and kind, and as it's only a small group I'm not overwhelmed. My attendance has been sporadic during this season of looking for/buying/settling in to a new home but now that life has begun to find a nice rhythm again I can enjoy those morning more often.

I still had to add my favourite word. HOME. As I read this back to myself my hand went straight to my heart...yes, home holds my heart for always.

The pattern for this stitchery and the door hanger is in my November Stitchery Club issue but membership for this month closes on Friday 16th at midnight so if you'd like to know more you can read about it here and see the other designs everyone will receive.

Other things at home are the beautiful flowers I find in the garden, like this little stunner which bloomed by the front door and caught me quite by surprise. I'd almost ripped it out weeks earlier but was distracted with the back garden and the building of Mr E's noise/privacy screen.

And the purple-grey-pink in these flowers is simply breathtaking...

My hot pink Kalanchoe has decided to burst forth in a second flush of flowers just as I'd thought it was done for this season...

...and the first of our eight pineapple plants is fruiting!

On the table we're indulging in fresh mangoes every morning at breakfast, a perk of living in the tropics. We can buy buckets full of fresh mangoes on the side of the road for around $9, but some of the teachers at Mr E's school have mango trees and bring bags into the staff room for others to take home. Until March we shall be enjoying them daily...

Still eating a 90 - 95% plant based diet has definitely been good for us and I'm finding it much easier than planning meals with meat. With so much vegetable variety to choose from, and wonderful recipe books and bloggers who share their recipes freely, I am finding this style of life a delight.

Of course I'm still baking. How can I not?

As the postmistress Dorcas Lane (from Lark Rise to Candleford) would say, "It's my one weakness!"

Blossom and the girls have come down with a nasty head cold this week so tomorrow I will head over there and take some love, some baking, and more vitamin C.

Ghastly things those summer head colds. You just want to wallow in your favourite flannie pjs and wrap a snuggly quilt around your shoulders while you drink hot lemon and honey tea and watch Pride and Prejudice...but it's so darn hot this time of year so you just yearn for a winter cold and curse the summer one.

Bloss would appreciate your prayers.

And really, you must be quite ready to close your web browser about now. 

What a chat we've had! Thanks for listening, looking, leaving a comment, being my sounding board on life. I am very grateful that you visit me here and hope you know that.

((hugs))

Now to go trace Friday's alphabet letter and make a pincushion...I'm so behind.

Bless you heaps,