Friday, April 29, 2011

Easy As Pie

I bet a lot of people don't realize how easy pie really is, but that's another post when I might reveal our pie crust secret (which isn't really a secret).

You know what else is easy? These little squares. I have always wanted to make a quilt. My mom and my sister are champion afghan makers, but I lack their skills with crochet (my blankets, or actually scarves end up strangely shaped to say the least) and used to churn out complex afghans and baby blankets on a practically weekly basis. Now, I hate HATE acrylic yarn, I can't stand the squeak, and before I got into luxury yarn, I thought that was all there was (what a dark sad world I lived in..) So while I was still spinning but not knitting, I briefly tried quilting. I have no idea why I thought this would work because I hate to sew. You see, when I was little, my sister was in dance, and drama. Our weekends and evenings were spent sewing outfits for her, her friends, and anyone else that needed an outfit RIGHT THEN cause the play starts TOMORROW! I associate sewing with hot brightly lit rooms, lost pins and needles we'd step on, and ripping out seams for hours. I also associate it with cutting out and pinning patterns, typically incorrectly so I'd have to redo it. I was especially good at cutting off darts that just seemed like stupid pattern errors. I can sew, but oh how I hate it!

However, for some reason I thought quilting looked fun, easy, and artistic. Uh huh. Now I did get fabric (along with sewing I also detest fabric stores, and have a panic attack within 20 minutes, speed shopping is necessary, so this was a feat in and of itself) purchased along with a rotary cutter, and even a few squares completed. In this attempt I found out a couple really important things: 1 - I am not a perfectionist when it comes to crafts. This is an issue with such things as quilt squares, where everything has to fit right. 2 - I seriously do hate to sew. Now, I still have around 20 pairs of jeans, plus a bunch of cut out (into random sizes of course) pieces of denim and someday when my sister and I have time, we're going to make a denim quilt. She for some reason likes to sew, probably because she was at play or dance practice while I was locked in the room with mom sewing.

This knitting squares though is right up my alley - I like to knit, I love Noro, and they just appear. I finished the first one in just a few hours of knitting, and the 2nd one I got done yesterday while watching my nephews fill out math papers (another story for another day). I realize these are 2 different sizes, this was one skein and I was experimenting. I am now, either going to use both sizes in the same quilt, OR, I am making 2 quilts. I am not sure which, I am letting my knitting zen control this, and just knitting for the sake of knitting.

Neptune just believes in blankets. Preferably the heated variety.

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