Block 6 The Sewing Room, and a trip to Lucinda...

 

I'm sure you'll agree that you cannot have a sewing room without fabric, and whether that be a small amount, or a large stash, it's what we rely on to sew garments, quilts, gifts, useful things for the home, and also for mending. 

I chose to feature eight different fabrics (perfect for scraps!) and sew them together in two rows of four. The squares were cut to 1.5", and after sewing together with a 1/4" seam, and turning the outer border under by a 1/4" before appliqueing to the background fabric, I had myself a cute little 2" x 4" "quilt". 

When I completed the hand embroidery, I hand quilted the little appliqued quilt with small running stitches. I hope you enjoy making this block and using up your own scraps. :-) 

Use the link below to download the free pattern...

DOWNLOAD block 6 of The Sewing Room

If you missed the first five blocks in this nine-month BOM, you will find them HERE

Today we went for a drive north to Lucinda, a beautiful spot on the water, and with a great fish shop. The weather is glorious for the first day of winter, 27C (81F), which is what it will be most of winter. It's so nice not to need air conditioning for a few months, and also a blessing to be able to sit outside and not dissolve in a pool of perspiration. 

We had grilled coral trout (our favourite fish) and salad, overlooking the Lucinda Bulk Sugar Terminal. Kelly was at our feet, waiting for titbits of fish to come his way (and he did indeed enjoy our leftovers!). 

The Terminal is the longest in the southern hemisphere at 5.76 klm long (almost 3.5 miles) and has been called an engineering masterpiece because it follows the curvature of the earth. 

The terminal allows Lucinda to handle large bulk sugar ships of up to 50,000 tonnes, and around 20 ships every year export from here to markets all over the world. In case I've not mentioned it before, we live in the midst of the 'sugar cane capital' of Australia, and right now many fields of cane are ripe for harvest. The sugar crush begins in June and finishes in December. During the crush, when you drive north or south of our town, you will see cane trains moving across the highway, carrying cut cane from the farms to the sugar mills (of which there are many). The smell of molasses fills the air, and the steam rising from the mill looks like thick smoky tornadoes. It's an amazing sight and one we love to watch on our Sunday drives. When the crush begins I'll take some pics and show you. 

As lovely as the beach is at Lucinda, you cannot swim there due to crocodiles. One day we were there enjoying lunch and watched a crocodile enjoying the water, so we take the warning signs along the beach very seriously. We come here for a nice fish and salad lunch, not to be his lunch. ;-)

Now that its June many of the mango trees are in bloom, which means its only 4-5 months until mango season again - something we all love in our family. Christmas just wouldn't be the same without fresh mangoes. I plan to make lots of mango chutney and mango pickles in February as the season winds down.

Where we live there are also loads of strangler figs, and though the host tree beneath eventually rots and dies, these monstrous figs are incredibly beautiful, and can live for hundreds of years.

I hope you are having a relaxing weekend, wherever you are. We did some gardening when we arrived home in the early afternoon, and I roasted a chicken for meals during the week. I also tried something new - roast a sweet potato, then scoop out the flesh and mash it with coconut milk, salt and pepper. WOW!!! It's delicious...and I had to hold back from sampling the lot as its a side dish for dinner tonight. 

God bless you dear ones, and I shall be back during the week to chat about homemaking and gentle domesticity...

Bless you heaps,

Boro, and a new Promises block for you...

Hello lovely ones. It's nice to be back chatting with you again, though my time away from the blog this month was a bit longer than I had planned. In hindsight, there's a pattern which has emerged in my blogging life the past few years, of needing an unspecified break every six months or so, to step away, refresh my thoughts, pray, seek the Lord's direction, and decide whether to keep going, alter my course, or close the door on Elefantz. 

I won't go into everything that's happened this month, just know that our family was challenged almost daily, and the only way we got through it was to hang on to Jesus, and not let the circumstances dim our faith in His goodness. We remind each other "and if not, He is still good" whenever seasons of trial, especially those seasons that appear to have no end in sight, are being faced. Currently, the end is still not in view, and some big decisions must be made, but God is with us through it all, and we know He shall provide at a given time in the way that is best for HIS glory. 

You know, there is so much comfort in this truth! I love opening His Word and studying, exploring passages in context, uncovering the original meaning of each word, praying for revelation along the way (and by His grace receiving it). There is no greater book to read than the Bible, for it is life giving, hope filling, way leading, course corrective, food for the soul, and rich in truths eternal.

During my absence I sketched and stitched a fourth design in the Promises of God project, and I wanted to share it with you today, before our next The Sewing Room block is shared.

Whilst stitching, I realised this was to be the final block in the project, as I have only a small amount of the vintage tablecloth fabric, and even smaller pieces of a few other vintage style prints I'd planned to use in borders...so, I sketched up a nine-patch quilt layout and will complete Promises of God that way. 

Perhaps you'd like to complete yours this way? Or do you have another idea you could share in the comments which others might prefer? I'll be sure to show you how my version comes together in another post, perhaps later in June.

Here are the four blocks in Promises of God. They are all free to download, and will stay free. Use the link below to download Block 4...

DOWNLOAD block 4 Promises of God

...and go HERE to download the previous blocks if you missed them.

The Boro Project...

Remember in April that I was repurposing an old white dress into a top using Japanese boro mending? In case you forgot, this is how it started, with white and grey patches along the bottom edge and some over the chest and neck area...

I did a lot more the first week of my blog absence, and when I was happy with it and felt no more patches or stitching were needed, I decided to dye the top blue. As we're having to be far more careful with our pennies these days, I thought it best if I gathered a number of old items from my wardrobe and dye them in the same batch, thus making the purchase of the dye viable and giving myself a new wardrobe in the process!

I ended up with two dresses, one pair of linen pants, one pair of garden shorts, one sleevless top, and that lovely Boro top.

The front...

The back...

I'm really happy with how it turned out, and have plans to do the same with a similar old white dress in the future, but next time in very deep purple because I suit the richer blue, purple and pink colour schemes.

While I've been away from the blog this month, I've been able to do loads in the garden, much of it clearing and replanting, but also adding new flowers for bees, and salad greens. I have a big sewing project underway, well plenty of small projects actually, but I'll share more about that in a few weeks, and I've also been studying a lot more about sour dough, especially how they managed it in the 1700-1800's - rather different to how I've done it over the past twenty years. 

Kelly-dog is wonderful, even when he's pulling the washing off the line, or the passionfruit off the vine. He adores us and we simply love him to bits. He especially loves sitting between us at morning Bible study, or in the evenings when we read or watch something interesting on YouTube. He tucks his head under hubby's arm in the mornings as though he's reading the Bible too - it's the cutest thing you can imagine. Of a day when hubby is at work, he's my constant companion and loves lots of cuddles. He also enjoys the occasional treat when I'm making lunch or my husband's work lunchbox for the next day...he especially loves the few raspberries I scatter outside the back door for him to find! :-)

I shall sign off today, though I have many photos and subjects to discuss that have been on my mind this month, they can easily wait for June. I am so grateful for each day that is given by God, and can tell you He has refreshed me enough to keep blogging the rest of the year. One day I think this door will close, but until that time arrives, my notebook is full of wonderful thoughts and ideas which I'd love to chat with you about. 

How have you been?? What's been happening in your life? 

Let me leave you with this passage, which has been light in my darkness this year, and excites me so much for what is yet ahead.

God bless, and big hugs,

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

Block 5 of The Sewing Room, and usefulness...

 

I think this is the first time I have shared this year's block of the month pattern on the first day of the month! Normally I share it a day early. ;-)

For May we're focusing on PINS, because what sewing room is without pins? How can we create from fabrics if we have no pins? I don't know what your favourite type of pins are but I mostly use tiny glass head ones that can be ironed over, and are so fine that they slide in and out of multiple layers with ease. 

Dp you remember this little rhyme...

I do not believe in luck, but always trust in the providence of God. However, the little rhyme in the photo above is not actually about luck at all. It is about thrift, and not overlooking the usefulness of small things. 

In fact there was saying back in the 17th century, with a smiliar meaning -

"He that will not stoop for a pin, will never be worth a pound." 

When I reflect on growing up with Nana and Pop, nothing was wasted, not even a pin. Not a button, and most certainly not food. They saved worn out clothing to use for patches, yarn to mend the hand knitted socks, balaclavas, beanies and scarves, and even things like broken shoe laces. I'm sure you have many other examples from your own childhood...the things is, they valued what they had, and were very savvy about how to make use of things which we today mostly throw away. 

So now you know my inspiration for choosing PINS as my theme for this month's free The Sewing Room block. I even stuck one of my old glass head pins in the pincushion, between the embroidered ones. 

Use the link below to download the free May block

DOWNLOAD Block 5 of The Sewing Room

I think that during the month of May I shall focus on mending, because learning about the story behind those little pin rhymes has inspired me to look at what I already have in my possession, the things that have broken or are worn out, and consider how to make use of them. I have ideas about using scraps of fabric or worn out clothes to create new items I can wear, and of course my new love for Japanese Boro stitching/mending will definitely impact that journey. 

Over the past week I pulled out a cheap white cotton dress which has not been worn for about four years, and looked at it with new eyes. There was a frill along the bottom edge, which I did not like at all, but the fabric itself is sturdy and soft...so...I cut off the frill, pressed it, and along with some scraps of light grey linen, I began to re-create the dress as a Boro inspired, patched top. 

It's a work in progress because I still need to sew lines of running stitch across the patches, but so far I am loving it! 

In the book I borrowed from the library, the author takes you through her process of bringing old alive with boro, and she does things like sewing patches longer than the hem line, and using different shapes. So I did similar...

The more patches I added, the more I thought of adding running stitch leaves, which gave the top my own signature stamp. 

This will keep me busy for a while, as I am still deciding 'what next' for patch placement, and considering dying the top a denim blue so that the different fabrics and the running stitch threads take on different hues. I also need to work on the back of the top. But it is so pleasing to try a new technique and see the value it will have long term...and I do admit that I LOVE running stitch, and always have, which is why it features on many of my designs, and hand quilting. Probably another reason I enjoy sashiko so much. 

The Yumiko Higuchi embroidery design I am currently working on from a new book I was gifted, is coming along nicely, and yesterday I stitched the lizard - the main reason I wanted to embroider this particular pattern from the book first. 

Blossom asked me what I wanted for Mothers Day, as these days we always ask family members to be specific with what they'd like to receive, especially those of us on a budget. :-) My choice was sashiko threads in variants of blue. Up until now I've used Perle 12 threads for sashiko, and its been great while I learn and practice, but I am excited to use the proper threads for a larger project (using squares of recycled linen from the scraps box).

My current read from the library is Moonflower Murders, the sequel to Magpie Murders. I admit to really enjoying these books, and find that my 3pm cuppa on the cosy couch by the window is the perfect place to sip tea, nibble on cake, and read a chapter before taking the washing off the line, folding and putting it away, and then watering the garden. As a creature of habit, this relatively new afternoon tea ritual, has quickly become my new normal. 

At night I read something different, and currently that is On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Now it doesn't bother me one bit that this is a children's book, because it has so much goodness and life lessons from the 1800's that I am always learning new things, and many of them lead me back into my Bible. I find that I learn more from those who went before us than I learn from those who are around us now. Perseverance, faith, ingenuity, thriftiness, humility, hard work, contentment, grief, joy and enthusiasm, being just a few life traits from LIW's books which inspire me in my own life as a Christian wife, mother, grandmother and homemaker - though I am still, and always will be, learning to live this way.

This is Kelly, on our cosy couch under the window. He watches my husband drive off to work in the morning like this, and then he is right back there when he hears the car return in the evening, though in the evening his tail wags like crazy because he's so excited that 'dad' is home again. :-)

We had a surprise today, just an hour after hubby left for work. He called to say that he had lost his job. I do not think we were really surprised. This late in life career change to real estate wasn't all that it was thought to be (or hoped to be), and as he had chosen to stay true to God and just be himself, he was let go. 

But God, eh? He is faithful always. Just two hours later, my beloved man was employed by a different company, back selling cars (his previous occupation). He has always had a wonderful reputation as an honest car salesman, and those in the business did not forget that, so were quick to open their door to him. 

The moral of all this? Be who God called you to be. Trust God to teach you through life experiences, and grow from them. A good reputation is worth gold. Never lose hope. xx

May God bless you always, and bring His Word alive in your heart each and every day, so that you grow in His ways, lean on Him in times of trouble, and praise Him no matter what you're facing. 

Love and prayers, 

You will find my design account on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my other Instagram 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

Let's stitch a pear, and Q & A...

We are well into autumn, and yet the monsoonal rains keep coming and the heat and humidity are stifling. Last night we had an exceptional lightning and thunder storm as the heavens opend with more heavy rain. One lightning strike hit close by, plummeting much of our suburb into darkness with a power outage around midnight. 

Whilst I knew the power would return eventually, our main concern was that all four submersible pumps run on power, and without it, we had waves in the front and back yard, and water lapping at the door for four hours. In situations like this there's not a lot you can do, and with so much lightning around it was safer to stay inside (though hubby did climb up on the ladder to empty more leaves from the gutters). 

The power was back on around 3.30am and though the rain was still hard, our four pumps got to work with gusto! By dawn there was still a lot of water around, but the pumps had done a wonderful job of keeping the water out of the house. As I write this it is early evening on Friday, we've had more rain, and are still ankle deep with water in the yards, but what a difference those pumps make. 

Anyhow...all this rain has the lime tree in full bloom again, and we can tell that next summer's crop may be even bigger than this summer's one (and it was huge!). Other plants that have weathered this extreme wet season well are the passionfruit vine, which once more is heavy with fruit, the herb gardens, the green onions and chives, the blackberry bush (though it has never given fruit), and the Barbados Cherry tree (though hubby had to prune it away by two-thirds because it kept falling flat to the ground with so much water). I am patiently waiting for the 'big dry' and cooler days to get into the gardens and clean them up - what a sad and sorry lot they are at the moment. I shall try NOT to mention the wet weather again... xx

Autumn brings with it an abundance of apples and pears, both being delicious additions to the fruit basket and exceptional for preserving. We cannot grow them here in the Australian tropics, so they are shipped up from the southern parts of our country. This week I have stewed many kilos of apples to freeze so I can enjoy them with raisins and porridge over winter, and plan to do the same with pears next week. Fortunately, they are relatively cheap, especially if you buy the 'odd bunch' bags. Woolworths have a seasonal variety of Odd Bunch produce for lower cost purchases - the fruit or vegetables are either too large or too small, or misshapen, for the supermarket's regular fruit and veg displays. It's really quite sad, don't you think? I mean, a pear is a pear, and I don't care what size it is, or whether all the pears in the crate look the same. But farmers miss out on fair prices because a supermarket will only pay full price for perfect size produce. 

The pears below were in the odd bunch bag, and I can't see anything wrong with them, or is that vibrant red just too much to the buyers eye? They will be delicious when ripe and sliced up next to some cheese!

If you've never known (it has been mentioned a few times over the seventeen years I've been blogging), I love pears. Not just to eat, but as decoration. You'll find a few here and there throughout our home, and I received another on my birthday this year from Rosie, a beautiful cream ceramic one. 

I've been thinking a lot about pears this week, and looked over the four pear designs I have made over the years in order to choose one you might like to stitch. The Pear Hive won...

I chose this particular pattern because even though we in the southern hemisphere are now in autumn, most of my readers live in the far more populated northern hemisphere, where spring is being welcomed. I think my pear is 'pearfect' for both autumn or spring, with it's flourish of blooms and busy bees. 

If you'd like to stitch it, use the link below to download the free pattern. And let me know how you would display it? I have not used this in a project yet (and the completed stitchery is almost nine years old and still languishing in my box of designs) so I'd love to hear your suggestions. Perhaps it will be a UFO finish for me next week...mmm.

DOWNLOAD The Pear Hive pattern

Over a couple of days I made the change of having my DMC threads sorted by numbers, to having them sorted by colour families. In my Monday blog post I shared the link to download a 4-page chart that is invaluable for such a project.

It didn't have quite a few of the colours in my collection but I just slotted them in where they seemed to blend well. 

Many cups of tea were consumed over those days and evenings, and for a task which I'd imagined would take all week, the excitement of seeing those beautiful shades all coming together kept me going until all the solids were done. 

I don't own all the DMC colours, just a lot of them. ;-) The storage tray below is the first one completed, and all the browns and greys are in a second tray, which will also house the variegated threads I'm yet to organise. As I've had a barometric migraine off and on this week, and my hip acting up due to the weather as well, much of my time has been spent quietly sitting with these threads...

...and steadily stitching a bit more sashiko. 

I may sew the four maroon sashiko blocks that I recently finished, together over the weekend, and make the placemat for my husband. This one is the first of four green blocks, and though I love the design, I'm not sure the green stands out enough, so I'll sew another one in a deeper colour and then choose which looks best before sewing three more of the same colour (though different sashiko designs).

None of my sashiko blocks are perfect, but I do see improvement with each new block I sew. This one was the hardest to graph so far, as I am wanting to sew particular sizes and most patterns are in mm, but I prefer to graph them in inches. I required a lot of patience graphing the Asanoha block above and needed to start over three times before I got it right. 

I've had a few questions asked about the sashiko, and The Sewing Room BOM, so I'll answer them here today.

One common question has been where do I find these sashiko patterns? 

A few places. The first few blocks I made were from a book by Susan Briscoe, called The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook. I have a monthly subscription to Everand, which is marvellous - you can listen to as many audio books as you like, or read any book you want, without having to buy them as you do with Audible or Kindle. They have a HUGE library in the app (or you can read from your desktop), and I find this very cost effective because I rarely re-listen to an audio book, and love that I can actually see a book without having to buy it first. There are a few Susan Briscoe books on Everand.

I am not an affiliate or anything like that, I just love Everand and have never had a problem with it. 

I also borrowed some books from the library, thought they weren't really what I was after so I returned them, but your library may have a much larger selection. 

Last weekend I began watching videos on YouTube, and came across an Aussie lady who shares quite a bit about sashiko, and also a few free patterns. She also uses Patreon, and publishes one free pattern a month there. It cost me $8 (Australian) for a month, and I was able to download five great ones (she keeps four/five free patterns on there at a time) that I shall be using, and before my month runs out she'll have another one to download. THIS is her YouTube channel - The Green Wrapper

Another question about The Sewing Room BOM - can you use 1/4 yard cuts, and how many should you buy?

The Sewing Room is a scrappy BOM, and every border is 1.5" wide. You will find all the instructions in THIS free download  There's no amount to buy, because I am just using what is on my shelf. The largest cut of fabric is 4.5" x 6.5", so it won't matter if you use fat quarters or 1/4 yard cuts. 

Thank you to everyone who is praying for Blossom. She was so touched by your kindness, and wanted me to send you her love and thanks. 

I also prayed for each of you who asked for prayer, and as we know, the Lord hears every prayer. How blessed we are!

I'll sign off now, as this post may be so long you're starting to nod off, or is that me? With barely any sleep last night I am looking forward to bed tonight, and another chapter of The Long Winter before lights out. The other things on my mind, such as the recipe additions to the Pantry ebook, can wait for next week...and my, how quickly the weeks are flying by in 2025. 

God bless you, right where you are, no matter the circumstance. Our Father is near to us who draw near to him, and I cannot imagine any place I'd rather be than near Him, at His feet, safe and loved. May you be filled with His assurance of love and care today, and you heart overflowing with Hope. Never lose hope. 

Love and prayers, 

You will find my design account on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my other Instagram 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

Block 4, sashiko, and kitchen prep...

 

It will be the Ist of April tomorrow, but I do like to share the new Sewing Room block a day early. 

The theme this month is 'threads', something we who stitch, quilt and sew, cannot do without. Threads are an integral addition to any sewing room, and can be displayed in many ways. I have large glass jars filled with small balls of Perle 8 and 12, which I use mostly for hand quilting, and I have four large organisers with stranded embroidery threads, such as DMC and Cosmo. In the wire drawers under my makeshift ironing bench, my machine threads are stored in repurposed shoe boxes, and in some cute little wooden drawers you will find vintage cotton spools. Lastly, in a stacked plastic tub I store all my duplicate embroidery threads (the colours I use the most). No wonder I was inspired to create the 'threads' block this month!

My embroidery threads all need reorganising, as I'm keen to store them in colour families, rather than their number sequence. Hopefully I can begin that transition in the next month or so. If you'd like to do something like this I found a downloadable chart HERE. How do you store your embroidery threads? In colour families or in numbered sequence?

Use the link below to download block 4 -

DOWNLOAD Block 4 of The Sewing Room

I have finished four sashiko blocks now, and I'll soon sew them together as a placement for my husband. I chose maroon thread on recycled linen (an old linen sheet) for his placemat, but I am trialing two shades of green for mine. 

I am absolutely loving the calmness of sashiko and think that the more I do it, the better I shall be. Like anything, it takes practice. The green so far does not stand out as much as the maroon did, so I may use this particular block for something else, and choose a deeper colour for my own placement. We shall see what happens when I complete the stitching and iron the graph lines away. 

Mondays are usually spent giving the house a good clean, but my husband had to work yesterday so I did it then. Today I was able to do a bit of meal prep, mostly sides, plus a cake. 

Things I prepared - a delicious salad dressing, marinated carrot salad, two jars of tomato pesto, a new batch of pickled peaches, a lemon sour cream cake, stewed plums, and last of all I used my grinder to make vanilla powder from some old vanilla beans that had dried out too much. 

I'll make a file for you later in the week of these recipes (you already have the pickled peaches HERE) to add to the free Pantry Staples ebook I shared a few weeks ago. My plan is once a month to create another page or two of recipes that you can print up and add to the Pantry Staples book you have already. 

A short blog post today, but before I sign off, may I ask you to pray for Blossom's health please? Her doctor has sent her off for a long list of tests, and I am afraid that's all I can tell you - but God knows all about it, and we have total trust in Him. As sisters-in-Christ, I've always found it a privilege to pray for any of you who need it, and I also feel that same privilege when you pray for our family - so I truly do appreciate you taking the time to lift our precious daughter's health concerns to the Lord. God bless YOU.

Till later in the week, may the Father's hand and heart be upon you in all you do, and in every situation you may be facing right now. 

Love and prayers, 

You will find my design account on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my other Instagram 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