Needles and a Pen » Knitting, Sewing, and Nursing School

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  • Welcome to my blog!

    Hi! I'm Traci. I'm a Registered Nurse who loves quilting, knitting, cross stitch, and the great outdoors. In my pre-scrubs life, I owned Real Photography, and you can still see my old wedding and portrait photography site here .

    I've created a map that shows links to our camping/hiking/general family fun review posts that you can find here. It's pretty much the coolest thing on this site. Thanks, Google!

    I great big puffy heart *love* comments, so please let me know you visited! I try to always reply!

me: Guess what, buddy? It’s a Snow Day! You don’t have to go to school!
Will: You mean it’s a Too Snowy Day?
me: I guess that is the more accurate term when you grow up in Colorado.

November 1st:  Ellie is so tired she just asked to be put down for a nap.  “Bed?  Bed?” 

pretty little pouch swap

In what will be my last flickr swap ever (please direct me back to this statement if I should ever lose my mind and decide to sign up for one again), I made this little pretty:

It’s the Curvy Clutch pattern from Keyka Lou (next time I will use less stiff interfacing, fewer layers of it, shorten the flap, and possibly even ditch the side darts).  It’s going overseas, hence the spring colors!  I included some US only DS quilts fabric and a couple of fun Sees suckers.  I hope it’s beloved!

I also feel like I never showed the final pillow talk swap pillow, so here that is, too:

Toni - They both look great! I’m sure your partners will be thrilled!

Susanne - That’s so funny. I was thinking maybe I’d do the pouch swap again too…there’s SOO many cute pouches!! BUT I remembered how much headache I had over the last swap, LOL. I received a beautiful pouch, which I use daily, but I ended up having to make TWO pouches for someone who never really gave me any clue about anything they liked…ANYWAY….Enough about ME-ME-ME.

The pouch you made is gorgeous!!! The hand stitching around the edge is perfect. And that pillow. I general don’t like stars, but that pillow is amazing!!!! I’m sure it will get tons of love!!!

nicke - eeeppp. i love them both. bummer i don’t live overseas! 😉

A.J. Dub - That IS a pretty little pouch. LOVE IT!
The pillow is awesome.
And now I want a See’s chocolate lolli. 🙂

Norine - The pillow is amazing!

I’m thinking the P{l}P swap might be my last one too…. 🙂

LKH - Very good use for scraps that you just can’t part with! A little elegant, a little country, a little spring = very CUTE!

a kitchen-y gift

It’s been a while, but I can say that I’ve been sewing up a storm!  Since my last post I’ve completed two quilts, 5 (!!) Jedi costumes, and a bunch of little swap-y/bee/gift items.

This one is an oldie but a goodie–it went out as a thank you to my friend Lisa (who sells the most amazing fine art prints) for some pants she’d sent along to me.  Since she is an awesome cook, I knew just what to make her–one of my favorite aprons.

I also crocheted up some of my favorite dishcloths for her (finally taught myself to crochet so I could make all of the amazing things I’ve been pinning).

 

Erica - Oh that turned out *so* cute! I bought that exact same utensil fabric a couple of months ago to make an apron for myself (AND paired it with some orange and white polka dots left over from Zack’s quilt) Have I made it yet though? No. Should make it a priority though so I can look cute before I host Thanksgiving 😉

nicke - very cute apron!

Greenstylemom - cute apron! I like the ties that wrap all the way around to the front.

And don’t you love to crochet?!? I taught myself a few years ago. Haven’t been doing much since I started quilting, but I’m going to try to do some more this winter (and finish up some WIP… one is a baby blanket for a now 2 year old!)

Dolores - Hi Traci, would love to hear more about the Jedi costumes since I have a huge Star Wars fan in the house with an upcoming birthday.

dxx

will snuck into our room around 3am last night

Me: Hey sweetie–go back to your bed.
Will: But I had a nightmare!
Me: It’s okay–it wasn’t real.
Will: But a zombie killed Els!
So Will finished the night in our bed. The poor guy was very upset–he mentioned it many times today.

overheard

The sounds of make believe play. And then
Will: ELS! Zombies don’t wear hats!
Ellie: NO!