Hello, I’m Bernadette and welcome to our blog!  We started this venture back in January of 2018 and it has been quite the ride since then!  

If you have followed along for any amount of time, you may have noticed that there have been a few updates to our layout, mission statement and focus of posts here on A Purpose and A Stitch.  You may be wondering, “with this rebrand, will I still have access to free crochet patterns and tutorials?”, “what is the new purpose of A Purpose and A Stitch?” Or, perhaps you’re just wondering, “what’s with all the birds?”

I hope I can explain some of that here.  

When I first felt drawn to the idea of starting a blog all I knew for sure was that I wanted it to focus on my love of crocheting and hoped it could make a positive difference in the world we live in. After much consideration, prayer and talking it over with my husband I really felt that I wanted to do more with it then just share patterns with others who share my passion of all things crafty.

The initial goal was to donate a portion of all proceeds made through this blog to charitable organizations whose aim is to help the enslaved, poor and needy.  But after 18 months and 50 patterns later, we still hadn’t turned a profit.  I felt both defeated and lost about the direction of the blog.  I was quickly loosing my “crojo” and wondered if all the hard work, frustration and time away from my kids was worth it. I had lost focus on why I started this whole thing to begin with; to better the world we live in. 

After a very encouraging and honest conversation with a good maker friend, I figured out where I wanted to see the blog go.  She helped me to remember what the real goal was and how to refocus on the things that really matter to me.  Essentially, we are now going to focus more on the “Purpose” and a little less on the “Stitch”.  

We really want this to be a space that educates and encourages.  A space that shares the love of Christ through the love of crochet.  A space that empowers freedom from chains. 

To find out how we plan to do all this, I hope you will check out the Our Mission page, and our Empowering Freedom From Chains blog post. 

You may have also noticed that over the past 18 months, I have started using more pronouns like, “we” and “our”.  That’s because, while this whole thing really started out as a dream of mine, my family has come alongside and really been a huge support and help to keeping things going.  

My husband has singlehandedly helped me to figure out all things ad and tech related.  Our children have also modeled for me and been so patient with me while I work on posts and crochet during their play time.  My parents have played a huge part in encouraging me to keep going both verbally and fiscally.  And each one of my 4 sisters has contributed as well.  From things as simple as giving feedback on the direction of a pattern all the way to modeling and photographing makes and even coding website features.  

Our extended family and friends have all been a huge support as well, whether through a purchase from our Etsy shop, or by suggesting what my next pattern should be.  This blog really has turned into a community-run business, and I’m just the humble hands that are used to crochet and type it into being. 

I count myself very blessed to be on this journey, and can’t express my gratitude to you enough for being here and supporting us along the way!