My Appreciation of Knitting

Don’t get me wrong, I love cutting up gorgeous fabrics and re-working them together in different ways. But as of last night – knitting has jumped to the top of my list as my favorite craft and here is why…

1.       The Needles Don’t Hate You - That’s right, they don’t. I may not get the gauge just so, or I may accidently miss a stitch because I’m paying more attention to the TV (Army Wives is currently on Netflix…) but! When I catch my mistake, there is plenty of ways to fix it quickly.

2.       The Yarn Loves You - As a beginner knitter I have issues with gauge, missing stitches, forgetting which row I left off at, etc. But my yarn is still my friend. I can frog a whole row or a whole project, start over again and you can’t tell that there ever was a mistake. Thank you so much for that yarn!

3.       Expensive vs. Inexpensive - As of now, the most expensive yarn I have bought is an Acrylic/Alpaca blend for $3 (40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby) and while I know it may not be Heirloom quality, it will last a while. And at the end of the day (or end of the month), I can complete a whole project for less than $20 bucks. I’m sure I will want to use better quality materials, but I do have the choice and a wide variety.

4.       Portability - I can be in the living room, the bedroom, the Smoky Mountains, in the car, at the park, etc. with my projects at any time and not have a big mess to handle. And I have hardly, if any, weight to carry around.

5.       Materials Needed - Some projects may require place holders, but for the most part – all I need are my knitting needles and yarn. That’s it!!!

6.       Busy Work - Sometimes I don’t want to clean the house. But nor do I want to do nothing! It helps to always have something to do with my hands. So if I do choose to plop down and watch a few episodes of a show (again, Army Wives is now on Netflix), I don’t feel lazy. Sounds silly I know. But it’s true. When I finally do get up, I get to say “WOW! I’m half way finished already?!?” vs. “Well, that was a waste of a perfectly good weekend.” (I love multitasking)

I could go on, but I think you get my point. So in short I guess what I am trying to say is, thank you knitting. You are a wonderful craft.

Do you see smoke?

Well! This month has just flown by for me.  My man and I went on our first EVER vacation as a married couple this month. We went to The Great Smoky Mountains for 7 days and had a marvelous time. Our camera was filled with a plethora of pictures taken of unruly forests, swift moving rivers, old abandoned homes, heart stopping sunsets, smoke draped mountains, and the one or two photos of us…hardly any really. The best part of all – when we got home we realized that we had at some point last the USB cord to hook the camera up to the computer (Queue the crickets). Not quite sure how we will tackle this problem….,but we will! Until then, we have a ton of topics starting with “remember when we…” to keep us happy at home. For your viewing pleasure, below is a picture of the mountains on our way back from white water rafting (!!!). Luckily I had the sense to snap a few pictures with my phone. 

Meet Paul...

We have a new friend in our little home! Everyone, meet Paul. I decided to name him after Paul Newman since I had recently watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (the original, and the best) at my in-laws home and I couldn't get Mr. Newman's baby blues out of my head. He is a happy addition to the only other plant in our house (no name as of yet) and much loved by me since he is extremely hardy!

I'm still trying to find him the perfect spot, but for now I'm just enjoying moving him around and introducing him to all of the surfaces in our home. 

A Bee of a Time...

I’m finally back! And let me tell you, a lot has happened in the past few months. My husband and I had some wonderful things happen in our little family as well as in my in-laws lives and I’m very grateful to God for the blessings He has given us.

In the more immediate/What I’m allowed to talk about without giving attention to those who don’t like a good ol’ spot light (the husband) news…. I FINALLY completed a quilt. (You can’t see, but I’m smiling from ear to ear right now) I finished it completely on the Kenmore I borrowed from my mom. I still have MY quilt that I’m in the process of hand stitching, but it’s sadly on the back burner at the moment.  I forgot to take pictures of the baby quilt finished to share, (rolling my eyes) so I’ve asked my mom to take them for me so I can post the pretty pink pictures on here for you.  The quilt was for a little bundle of joy coming to a couple my mom is close to. As you can see, this picture was from the beginning stages of “Honey, what do you think?” “Should I put these colors next to each other?” “Are you even listening???”

In more recent news! I have joined my first quilting bee!!!! (Again, smiling from ear to ear) It is called, 4x5 Modern Bee. Every group member will be completing 5 different blocks and then we will exchange them and (hopefully) all of us will end up with 20 blocks. I’m very excited. I’ve also reached out to the San Antonio Modern Quilt Guild via Facebook. Some of the members are the ones getting this bee together. I’m hoping that by participating that I’ll make some new fabric lovin’ friends and potentially join the Quilt Guild (who am I kidding? If they’ll have me, I want in!!)

A LOT is happening and I’m hoping to be more consistent about sharing everything with you all! I’ve decided to keep the blog in real time, so please bear with me.

“Yeah, about that…”

I’m alive! What happened was…I was very sleepy (red flag waving in front of me went un-noticed) but determined to finish cutting out all my pieces needed for my quilt. My thought process was this: “I’m going to do this, I will piece it together quickly and it will look awesome!”

However, that didn’t happen and I quickly lost confidence in my abilities. The remedy? Charm Packs!!! I decided to start a new quilt using charm squares as my blocks and only using selvage to selvage cuts of Kona Cotton to add a few resting spots for my eyes when looking at the finished product. I’m hoping this will be a great way to dip my feet into the self-teaching world of quilting. A little bit of rotary cutting, a lot of machine stitching, 3 layers, and a lesson from my new favorite quilting friend on how to bind it all together!

I would have loved to attach photos of some squares already pieced, but no can do. My husband and I had my nephews sleep over this weekend so we have been playing catch up on the housework and “Honey do this” lists. Hopefully (fingers crossed) I will be able to start some rows tonight!

To make amends, I have attached a not so great photo of the fabrics I was planning to use originally before the switch-a-roo. Aren’t they gorgeous?!?

"After all, tomorrow is another day"

Well, last night I attempted my first quilt pattern! It is called Uptown Girl by Creative Solutions. It looked easy peesy in the store; my fabric selections for the quilt are marvelous if I do say so myself. Or, “absolutely sweet and darling!” as my favorite associate at a local quilting store (Quilt Haus) said.

I was feeling a bit nervous, a whole lot of excited and pretty proud as I started to lay out my fat quarters for the pattern. Then came time to begin cutting. I had put it off as long as I could, but it was time. Apparently, I am a serious perfectionist with this cutting business. I couldn’t get the lines exact and I don’t yet own a quilting rectangular ruler. It would have been extremely helpful! (on a side note: I felt bad for my husband by this point, he had just gotten home from work and was cooking up some wonderful dinner, All he heard as he was trying to watch the Spurs game was me griping and muttering about “rectangle ruler” “Why did I do this?” “Has to be another way”, He’s wonderful.)

I FINALLY took the advice that he so lovingly kept offering – “You can do this, just come eat dinner, walk away for a bit.” The best advice ever! I now found a way to get those perfect measurements (standard paper size is 8.5 x 11”), cardstock! Yes, I am extremely happy about this. Now, I’m sure that a seasoned quilter or anyone smarter then me would have said, “Um, Ellen there is an easier way to do that…” But alas, they weren’t there.

Tonight I will be attempting to cut out the remaining large pieces now that I have my handy dandy piece of cardstock to get me through it. If anyone has any suggestions on getting the perfect cuts, please I implore you, share your wonderful information! (That last sentence was said with an old English accent. At least that’s what it sounded like in my head)

Psst! I’ll be posting pictures of the fabric later this evening, just FYI for all of you fabric loving people out there

"I have thoughts too."

My name is Ellen, I’m newly married to a wonderful, perfect-for-me, makes me smile and laugh daily, amazing guy man. Our sometimes precocious, entertaining, and much loved dog named, Maximus Cobra (Max for short) rounds out our little family. You will probably read a lot about them since they are central to my life after God.

Why the name of the blog? That’s what my husband asked me the first time I mentioned it. He thought it would be silly to name a blog Imperfectly Stitched if my intention was to give people advice. Thankfully for all of you, that wasn’t my intention! When we got married in December I went on a hunt to find the “perfect” hobby for me. I started piecing things together like, “I love paper and fabric.” “I love prints!” “I want something useful and pretty!” “I want to be able to develop a much needed skill.” All of those spoken thoughts lead me to my “epiphany”, sewing and quilting. It had everything I ever wanted wrapped up into something fabulous and time consuming. But I digress.

The reason for the name was to communicate the fact that:

1) As much as I would love to do things perfectly. Shockingly, I can’t. Who would have thought?

2) This blog is about all things sewing, quiliting, and a dash of my life thrown in.

So! I hope to connect to many people who share a love of fabrics and thread as much as I do and perhaps as I go on this journey of learning, seam ripping, sighing, and a few tears of frustration I will be able to see progress and develop new skills! 

Thank you so much for reading and I look forward to the possibility of developing new friendships!