I'm Moving My Blog

Effective today, June 27th 2012, I am moving my blog to a new location and host.

If you are a follower, please click on my link below to slide on over to my new blog location.  You will no longer receive notification from Blogger that a new post is available.  I hope you'll continue to follow me on the new "channel" by subscribing.

If you have any difficulty with this link or subscribing to the new blog location, feel free to email me at:  info@patchabilities.com

http://patchabilities.wordpress.com

Thanks for peeking in on me here at Blogger.  Please sneak on over to WordPress to keep peeking.
                                                     ~Julie

Where Have I Been Hiding?

Oh my, so I see many many months have passed since my last blog and I promised you I'd get better at updating this.  My deepest apologies.  My excuse?  Uh, let's go with "mommy brain".  Yeah, that's it.

Well, as you may imagine, being a new Mom (yes, I still consider myself new even after 15 months of intense practice) has me trying to figure out how to squeeze 30 hours of tasks into a 24 hour day.  And I have to schedule in sleep somewhere in there, because this Mommy needs her sleep.  You know how it happens, we women have far too many jobs on our list to accomplish each day and inevitably a few of them slip off the radar.  Hence the lack of blog updates.

Enough of my too-much-to-do-too-little-time mumbo jumbo, how about some picture of Lewie and an update of what I'm doing.

Lewie loves baths, but this was becoming a common occurance in the sink, so he's graduated to the bath tub since this.

I have grand ambitions of providing my kids a pluthera of creative activities to nurture the imagination.  Here's my first project with him - I made playdough from scratch and gave it to him - he wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but liked the squishy feel.  I was so tickled that I correctly made playdough!  Oh, by the way this is from just about 2 months ago - he's @ 13 months in this picture.

Okay, this is what happens when winter hangs on with a death grip in Iowa . . . . in May!  We had 3 inches of snow on May 2nd/3rd.  We were the lucky ones - just north they received 18 inches of snow!  Last year, all the trees were leafed out and spring was in full swing.  Lewie and I had to go out and pose for a picture of this late snow with our sweet girl Harper, she's our golden retriever who is as adorable as she appears here.

 And so that you can see what takes up most of my time (who can blame me) you can understand why I let other tasks slip by, when I can spend my time snuggling and playing with Lewie and Harper.  That, and I still have this huge misconception that I can keep a clean house with a toddler, dog, full time job and hubby.  Oh you can laugh at me, I do. I may give up that idea one day, but for now it drives me crazy to have my house looking like a tornado just swept thru and left dog hair and food all over the kitchen floor.  

As always, I promise to blog more often.  I really do try and I have to say I enjoy sharing my happenings with everyone who's interested in reading it, now I just have to pencil in the time to get it done.  

Thanks for peeking in on me.  

~Julie

How is Lewie?

Well folks . . . . . I'm sure I deserve a 'shame on you' for not posting new photos of my little babe.  And rightly so, because he is so stinkin' cute, that no one should miss out on him.  Boy, can you tell I'm one very proud Momma or what? 

 

Believe it or not, Lewie is now 8 months old - boy has time flown!

He's been standing up next to furniture for a couple weeks now. I took this pic nearly 2 weeks ago now.  He is fascinated with the bookcase - crawls right up to it, climbs up and paws at the books.

He doesn't stay in one spot for long though, because he has developed the confidence to take side steps and walk along furniture.  Gramma Merry tells me my days of plopping him in one room and staying put are lah-hong gone.

 

 

Yep, he is a cutie! 

 

So if you've wondered what I've been doing with my time lately, you're looking at it.

He loves riding in this little stroller with Gramma Merry.  And he always looks like he's just chillin with one leg flopped over the side like this.  I think he'd ride in this stroller all day with Gramma.

 

I have to thank my cell phone's handy cameral for all these photos - I don't think I'd have nearly this many pictures if I were left to my own devices to grab the camera all the time.  I've fallen in love with taking the pics in black and white - so much that I have grand plans of getting pic frames for many of them.

 

So - this is little Lewie.  Happy, giggly, growing, movin' and groovin' Lewie!  My Babe.

 

I'll post pictures of my projects in progress soon . . . I promise!  HA!

Thanks for peeking in on me, heh, hem, I mean us!

~Julie

 

Oooh wheee! Lewie!

I'm nearly sqweeling as I write this!  Knowing very well that this is long overdue, but I am finally making myself sit down and update my blog.

In case you haven't heard the news of the century, I had my baby boy back in February.  And, of course there's no question about it, he is the cutest baby boy I've every smooched.  Lots and lots of smooching!  So here's a recent shot of him in Grandma Merry's new quilt shop.  He's just 4 months so Gramma propped him in the shopping cart with (what else?) fabric.
Yeah - so this is the reason I've been such a slacker on updating my blog - great excuse eh?  I think so.
I did not personally attend quilt market in Kansas City since I opted to stay at home and snuggle with him.  Uh yeah, I'm that Mommy - our day consists of me singing "good morning" to him, when he wakes up smiling.  I snuggle him to the kitchen where we make breakfast. Then snuggle back into the livingroom to eat breakfast.  Then snuggle before I shower and get ready.  Then we head out the door to work or the sitter - snuggling all the way obviously.  I sneak in belly kisses whenever I get the chance - what makes a baby's belly so irresistible to a Mommy's lips?  I've no idea, but there's no holding back.  HA!

Oh - and Gramma Merry was so excited to feed Lewie his first bit of cereal.  Yes, he's already more photogenic than I could ever hope to be. 

 Well, I hope these make up for my slacking - though something tells me you understand that becoming a Mom means some of my pre-mommy obligations are falling off my radar.  Oh, I'm so so completely happy to have it happen!

Til next time - thanks for peeking in on me.
~Julie

Hitched!

Thought I would update you with the awesome news that I married my best friend back on October 10th of this year (2011).  This is me with the handsome Chad Wurzer, commonly known as Mr. Patch Abilities!  HA! 

We chose a very very simple wedding with the JP and a couple of witnesses.  Since every wedding deserves to be photographed, we drove up to Dunning's Spring, just outside Decorah, Iowa where this gorgeous cold spring gushes out from the side of a bluff and cascades down the hill as a waterfall.  Thus creating the perfect backdrop for a most gorgeous couple, if I do say so myself.  Hee Hee!

Would you believe I chose my outfit just 15 minutes before leaving for the courthouse?  And in this next picture you'll see why I didn't, or couldn't take much time to choose my clothes . . . . because at this point, the items of clothing that still fit were becoming more scarce!

And here's why.  At the time, I was going on 7 months pregnant.  All planned of course (smile). 

I love this picture of us. Some people wouldn't dream of having a wedding day photo showing their pregnancy.  I, on the other hand, am so grateful to be well into this chapter of my life, that I want these great pictures to look back at one day and tell my kids how we met, fell in love and couldn't wait to start our brood.  

I'm 39 in this photo, so I'm not getting any younger to be wasting any moments on waiting to have munchkins.  Hence, the baby bump on my wedding day.  I'm even smiling as I write this. =)

So, as you can see I've been a very busy girl this year.  And I'll be starting 2012 with an even bigger baby bump!  I'll keep ya posted.  In the meantime, my creative juices just keep flowing with new Patch Abilities design ideas.  This has been quite the update to my blog, wouldn't you agree??


Till next time . . . . . 

I'll keep blogging, as long as you keep peeking in on me. =)
~Julie

Embellishments on the Monthly Mini #5 series

 So, I mentioned in the last blog posting that I'd touch on the embellishing that I did on this set of designs.  

I'll start with the January pattern shown here to the right.  The huge snowflake is appliqued of course, but what about all those little snowflakes suspended on silver threads?  Are those buttons?  Are they appliqued?  Oh Holy crap NO!  Can you even begin to picture me tediously snipping out intricate snowflakes from fabric?  There's not enough home-brew in the state that would cause me to tackle that nonsense.  "Okay then, what did I do" you ask?  I took a piece of freezer paper, folded it up 2-3 times (just like I did when I made snowflakes at the ripe 'ole age of 5) grabbed my Exacto blade (I didn't have this deathly tool at 5, hmm?) and made tiny little cuts in the folded paper.  Then, with high anticipation, I unfolded the paper to see what brilliant little snowflake cutout I'd just made.  Fun!  Took me several tries to get the desired snowflakes I wanted. 

And . . .. how . . . . does my child-like snowflake cutout mumbo jumbo help to create the little snowflakes shown on this design, you may ask?  Well, I certainly didn't glue paper snowflakes to my fabric!  What I had created was a snowflake stencil from freezer paper - you see.  Then I laid each snowflake stencil on my background fabric, picked up my STENCIL BRUSH, TITANIUM WHITE PAINTSTIK and I applied this fabric paint on the stencil.  Obviously, the paint is only going to go on the fabric where the stencil has open areas and the result is a painted snowflake.  This is fabric painting and it's so so so easy.  Put it this way, in the time it's taken me to explain it here, I had all the snowflakes stenciled/painted on my fabric. 
You, my fabric-loving friends, do not need to create your own snowflake stencil from freezer paper . . .. . cuz I've created one for you out of plastic.  And, it's included in the pattern, which you will receive when you join this series at a participating shop.

I also used fabric painting to create the little shamrocks, stems and whispies that are seen here on my March pattern in this MM#5 series.  As with the snowflakes, I find it much simpler, faster and just plain more practical to fabric paint these details using a stencil, rather than fart around cutting out detailed, skinny, and dainty pieces of fabric.

So, fabric painting has become my friend.  I used this technique on 8 out of the 12 designs in this series.  Yeah, I like it that much!  And, as I said above, I've designed a plastic stencil for all these shapes, for you to effortlessly fabric paint these embellishments.

You may be asking yourself "but, what if I don't know how to use the fabric paints and how to brush on the paint, or even how to dry the paint, what about stenciling/fabric painting instructions?"  Never fear quilter dear! I include a full set of step by step instructions with the stencil. 

Quick!  Here's a pop quiz.  Where do you get the stencil?  With the first pattern, of course, when you sign up to do the series.  Ahh - you were paying attention.


That's the story of my secret embellishments on this newest series of Monthly Minis.  I hope I've enlightened you on a neat, practical technique you've not seen before now.  I know that when I used "painting on fabric" for the first time, my eyes lit up as I imagined all the possibilities.


So - that's my gab for today folks.  As always, I welcome your comments and feedback, and until next time . . . thanks for peeking in on me.


~Julie

Monthly Minis #5 have arrived!

After a very very busy fall, the newest series of Monthly Minis are ready to greet the quilting world!
These were just released at Fall Market in Houston, TX on Halloween weekend.

That's pretty darn brand-spankin' new folks.  In fact only the shops that currently participate in series #4 had seen the new series prior to me unveiling them at market.  
By the way, if anyone knows where the term "spankin'" ever came to be associated with "new", I'd love to know.  Perhaps it has to do with the birth of a baby.  Hmmm . . . makes me wonder.  Oops, now I'm off track again - it's a common occurence in this whirlwind imagination I possess.  HA!

So - now back to the new Monthly Minis.  They really are squeeky fresh and I'm sure you'd rather see them, than continue reading my ramblings . . . so here they are shown beginning with the month of January.  I'll talk about my embellishments in my next blog posting . . . . which will be oh so soon, I'm sure.

Their finished sizes are all 12" x 14" just like in series #4.  In fact, they fit on the same stand as series 4 - so if you already have a 12x14 base stand you are in luck.  There are eleven new headers that go with this series.  The Canada flag is for those warm kids North of the border who need something other than the stars and stripes to celebrate their July. =) 


Participating shops will have the entire series available beginning with January.  To find a list of shops, check my website where the list will, no doubt, be updated often as we are in the "shop sign-up" phase at the moment.

Can any of these be purchased individually?  That's the question most often asked.  The answer is no they can't.  Not for now anyway.  The reason, is they are designed as an entire series which are available only thru shops that have chosen to "participate".  These shops are required to purchase the entire set.  The other reason they aren't available separately is there is one large stencil that comes with the first pattern which contains all the shapes needed to complete the entire series.  Instead of making you buy 8 separate stencils (more $) for the series, I put them all in one convenient stencil to save you moolah.  See, I'm thinkin' of ya. =)

So, These 12 patterns will be available for individual purchase after June, 2013. If you find yourself, for some odd reason, not wishing to purchase the entire series, you'll have to be patient and wait until June 2013.  Oh, what am I thinking?  If there's a design or two you don't want, give it away as a gift.  That's a terrific idea.

There you have it.  The newest series of Monthly Minis.  As I eluded to above, I'd like to share with you, what I did for embellishments on this series.  But, I'll save that for another blog posting.  This one's getting lengthy and I'm getting hungry for lunch.  HA.  Hey, I'm 7 months pregnant, what can I say - -a girl's gotta munch.  =)

As always, I'd love your feedback & thanks for peeking in on me! 

~Julie~