• Feb. 3, 2008 - ~Finding a Patchwork Heart in a Crazy Quilt~

Hi Friends,
This is a little different kind of blog today, it is a wee bit long, but please stick with me till the end, ok? There's a giveaway for those who persevere!
I have been collecting swatches of satin, brocade, velvet and other beautiful fabrics. Someday soon I hope to start on a real old-fashioned crazy quilt with them. I love the textures and the feathery fancy stitching. It's amazing to me how certain color combinations can come together so wonderfully and create a beautiful array to behold.
I have also been collecting experiences and relationships which somehow all come together in a different sort of tapestry. It's a quilt of the most wonderful kind, making new friends from all over; and finding new opportunities to write and create. Isn't it amazing how the Lord helps us use our talents? He helps us realize our gifts He has given us and shows us how to use them for the enrichment of ourselves and those around us!
I met this dear lady though another special friend of mine and something funny about it was her last name. Her last name (by marriage) is my maternal Grandmother's last name. It's pretty uncommon, and I am not sure yet how (or if) we are related, but I have my suspicions!
Just for something fun and different, I want to introduce you to her! Her name is Heather Wombacher, and she is the owner of a wonderful place called "The Patchwork Heart." She creates beautiful kits, gorgeous flower accents and well, her color selections are heavenly! I'm not even sure I can do them justice by talking about them. You must go look and see what I am talking about. (Hmmmm...I bet I can get some good ideas from her on those color combinations I want for my crazy quilt.)

(Aren't these lovely?)
Without further adieu,
please welcome my friend Heather!

Heather, tell us a bit about yourself~
Hello everyone! I just wanted to take a quick minute to thank Nancy for doing this with me. She is such a dear one who I have really enjoyed getting to know this year! I love sharing about my faith, family, and my home-internet business and this is a wonderful opportunity to do that!
So, about me, well… I have been married to my best pal David for 14 years in September. I’m a stay-at-home-Mother of four, three of which I love home schooling, our oldest is going to a private Christian college in Oregon. I started my home business over 10 years ago with very humble beginnings, up in our then attic with a 1940’s Singer that I bought at a garage sale. Now look where the Lord has brought me! In 2007, I started my website/blog www.thepatchworkheart.com/
Can you believe it? What a wonder our Lord is. It has been so exciting to see how God is working in me and through me. We attend First Presbyterian Church in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. We are city dwellers with hearts that long for a country mile. So, we have 8 hens and a garden where I grow lots of lavender.
Tell us about your homeschooling journey a bit.
Yes, we are a homeschooling family, another testimony to God’s grace in my life. It took about 7 years for the Lord to work that one out in me, I had no idea of what homeschooling was. None. But I did have a friend and through her life I saw possibility. The beautiful relationship that she had with her girls, I wanted that with my children! So the Lord brought several examples of other families that were doing this and doing it SUCCESSFULLY! He gathered them around me, they taught me and shared what they were doing (which is so great about home schoolers- we love telling others about what we are learning) So, we stepped out in faith.
We utilize the classical educational approach to learning and love our literature rich curriculum, Sonlight . We also belong to a co-op and go there once a week for science, music, art, and PE.
I love the name "The Patchwork Heart" ~ tell me, how did it come about?
I don’t know if this has happened to you or not but we were in a very different situation in the beginning from where we are at today. I am here to tell you that my life is a testimony to the Lord. In the early years (can anyone say honeymoon baby?) Jacob was born with 2 congenital heart defects. Boy, this was an unexpected twist and turn of events and the Lord did not share the details of this deviation from the plan with me *LOL* at that point in my life I am not sure that I would have listened to Him anyway!
In many ways we were not equipped to carry this load by ourselves. I was in the hospital with Jacob after his first surgery for three weeks. He was six days old. As new parents this was crushing. Unequipped! The first year of Jacob’s life was beyond exhausting, it was newborn stage times 10! Adjusting to a high needs child, medications, special feedings, all the while one more surgery looming within the year. This took its toll on me and depression clawed its way in. I felt as though I had been forgotten by my Maker. But, I was a mother I had to get it together and still function others were counting on me right? So out of desperation I started to create.
Somewhere deep inside me the Lord lit the pilot light of my heart and then turned on the gas. I had always been creative but some how I had forgotten. At a time when I was so lost, this some how allowed a new space for the real deep parts of who I was to blossom forth. And then desire ignited into the hot blue flame of creativity.
With new inspirations from the Lord, I cleared an area in the attic. I bought an old antique 1940’s Singer, with two stitches, front and back, at a garage sale. Then, as God patched Jacob’s heart with a miracle, He also patched mine with His merciful healing hand. With the guidance of God’s gentle hands I have been creating with my hands and heart ever since. That is why we are called The Patchwork Heart, Co. I love telling this story because this is the ending piece of my testimony, my own transformation! Isn’t God so amazing?
Yes, He truly is! Tell me about your creative ideas.
Sometimes ideas are divinely given and they pop into my head. Often these ideas have been my best, but they don’t happen that often. More often than not, I am inspired by the things around me and my ideas come by way of a feeling. I often like to play with color and grouping things together. This is an enjoyable part of creativity but the other side of that is transforming color, design, texture, imagery into something. This is the more time consuming step for me and I find that what started as one notion or design ends up in a whole other place, which is always such a treat for me, because usually it is then that the divine gifting of God takes over.
A couple of things I have learned when putting something together and making it my own-which by the way is compulsive, I can’t help myself, I use color for inspiration and often looking through artistic books and magazines, flea markets, and antique shops and out in nature in my garden. It is often a fun process to find something old and utilitarian and make it into something pretty and functional.
As far as products I have always had a passion for the mother /daughter relationship and the relationships that women have with one another. I finally feel like God has married my desire for an online business and my desire for a ministry. This gave birth to the idea for The Project Kits for Girls. Where mother and daughter, grandma and granddaughter even sisters could sit with one another in fellowship and learn something new all the while building their relationship with each other. Relationships take time and it needs to be time spent together.
I also wanted to focus on the lost skills of sewing and handwork AND be able to sow seeds (pun intended)of Godly character into the next generation. (See The Seed Sowers Soul Seeds below.)

Isn't this a lovely thing? "Soul Seeds~Encouragement for the Heart"
Go read the description ~ just click the link above, it is wonderful!
Heather is going to give one of these away to a lucky commentor!
Don't forget to leave a comment at the end!!
Now, back to Heather:
If I was going to invest in an online business it needed to have eternal value. After 10 years God decided I was ready. Yippee! And here we are.
I’m grateful for the gift of creativity and I think life is so much sweeter because of it! I am a firm believer that everyone has been given a portion of creativity because we were formed by a creative God in His Image. So celebrate it and explore it, never stop learning. I am still learning new things, trying new mediums and techniques, reading how-to books and taking classes. Recently, I was working on a fabric collage and I learned that you CAN decoupage on fabric-who knew they were meant for each other? I was so joyfully surprised that it has made its way into my bag of tricks.
Do your kids help with the development of your products?
Not yet, mine are a bit more involved because most my products are either handmade or self-published. But, they do help out their dad which is much more curtail to our livelihood. David also owns an online business selling camera accessories. The children help him in the shipping department, inventory sorting, postage and general office maintenance cleaning, vacuuming, mopping etc.
God has blessed us with an amazing lifestyle and we are so grateful for it. Remember where my story started? Hopefully you can see God’s hand, we sure didn’t get here by accident, as my husband would say, boy that’s the truth! Oh, I was and still am such a sinner but I get to approach the throne of the Almighty because of Jesus. I really have no words for such a gift so instead… I create. Such a small token for such a big God.

www.ThePatchworkHeart.com
Thank you so much Heather! I am so happy to be getting to know you even better this year! I hope that through this introductions you make many new friends. And I need to get busy on my crazy quilt AND finding out about our possible family connection~although we are already sisters in the Lord!
Blessings!
Nancy
P.S. You can also find Heather's creations in the Girlhood Home Companion!
P.S.S! If you go check out The Patchwork Heart, then come back and leave me a comment on it, you will be entered into a contest to win a free copy of my haircutting e-book! (And a copy of Heather's "Soul Seeds!")
Just remember, I can't contact you if you post anonymously. Please be sure to give me a blog or email address. Thanks and Good Luck! I will keep the contest up for a week or two.
N.
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• Feb. 4, 2008 - The PatchworkHeart.Com