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!

pajama pants for will

The other night Nic complained that Will never seems to have any clean pajama pants.  This is because I recently noticed that most of Will’s pajama pants come to just below his knee, and so while putting away laundry I’ve been tossing the worst of the outgrown pajama bottoms into the closet (a shrine to outgrown clothes) instead of his dresser.  The result of all this ‘organizing’ is that Will is badly in need of pajama bottoms.

So I took some decade-old Alexander Henry prints (and a more recent 1/2 yard clearance purchase) and my trusty Cranky Pants Skillz, and broke out the serger.  I went the cheater way and used a rolled hem for the cuffs, and the two pants and pair of shorts all came together in an hour.

(My favorite part about the pants?  They’re gender neutral so I’ll get to use them for Ellie, too…although she’ll no doubt be 10 when they fit her!)

(PS–if you’re a new subscriber, thanks!  I will be drawing a winner for the contest Friday!)

innocent crush charm pack giveaway

Time for a giveaway!  I’m celebrating three things today: (1) finishing the vacation video/slideshow that I’ve spent weeks on, (2) the almost end of March [my least favorite month–winter is just too long], and (3) according to google reader I am just 5 people shy of having 200 blog followers!  So it’s time to giveaway this charm pack of Innocent Crush that I picked up on sale a few months ago.  To enter, leave a note below sharing a current favorite color combo!

Patty D from NC - Thanks for the chance to win. Thinking of red and cream quilt as the next color combination I’d like to play with.

diana - I have so many mixed feelings about this line, but I would love a charm pack to try. Now I’m eally stucked on dark purple and vivid green, of course I have almost none in my stash…

Alison - Anything with grey. I think you can go completely bonkers with colour and then grey seems to calm it all down and give it a modern edge.

tracy_a - Thanks for the giveaway! I agree – March is just a slog. Right now – bluey-purple and bright orange-yellow – working on a Road Runner party for my daughter!

Leanne - now you’re 4 people shy 🙂

I love your blog.

Kim - I am loving yellows and grays right now. Love your blog, congratulations on the success!!

Elise - I am loving peach, mint, warm grey, and buttercream yellow right now. And I LOVE Innocent Crush. Thanks for the giveaway!

jamie mueller - thanks for the giveaway!! I really love gray and aqua!!

Staci - Bright pinks and bright oranges–I can’t seem to leave them alone lately!
Isn’t it fun how we develop color crushes and it changes over time. Thanks for a chance to win that sweet little charm pack!

Rachel B. - I love green and purple together.
Thanks for the giveaway.

Marci - I am on an aqua and yellow kick, making some things with a fat quarter of City Weekend. I am sure I could come up with a great project to use some Innocent Crush!

Jessica - For some reason, I’m really liking pastels and white the past few weeks. It’s probably seeing daffodils and tulips out and really hoping that spring comes to my house soon! Thanks for the giveaway!

katielea - I have several Christmas items to make…so right now I have red/green/grey/white on my mind. Not really exciting but that’s where I am right now!

Cathy - Thanks I can’t wait for the warm weather to finally come for good. and I love red and white.

A.J. Dub - I am loving corals and browns right now, with a little buttery yellow to boot.

Lindsay - Congrats on 200 followers (soon) and spring! 🙂 My favorite color crushes at the moment are red-turquoise and gray-yellow.

Sandra in WA - Favorite color combo…. Hmmm…. there are so many! Looking around my home I guess I would have to say anything with blue. Most of my rooms are blue or at least have a blue carpet or surface somewhere. Periwinkle paired with a soft peach is probably my very favorite.

Kati - I love grey and citron or orange plus a bit of teal.

H2Ogirl - Oh I’m trying my luck again. . you just have the best things missy!

My fav colors right now is aqua and orange. This could be as I’m in an on-line bee that is using these exact colors for the entire swap.

Deb - My favorite colors right now are lime and navy… it’s something about seeing it on my little boy that makes me happy! Oh, and I do like March; it’s my daughter’s birth month :o)

Barb - Congrats! My favourite colour combo right now is yellow and aqua! Thanks for the chance to win.

Taylor - congrats on the followers. I’m really looking at greens and yellows since I have so many baby things to make and don’t like sticking to the pinks and blues!

Marci Girl - Now you are even closer to 200! I am a new follower, though I check in on your site often to stare at your Sherbet Pips Quilt!

Favorite color combo? Gray and Yellow!

Cori Lewis - Congrats! Love checking things off the list!

Kristy - Congratulations!! My favorite color combo right now that I’m dying to use is Grey/LimeGreen/White/Black. The combination was in a magazine ad and I can’t get it out of my mind.

Jacey - Congrats on your increasing follower count! By the way, I browsed your photography blog yesterday. Some of those wedding shots made me tear up. Beautiful work!

Oh, color combos: right now, I’m loving the eggplant & tangerine combination.

Emily - my favorite color combo is anything with grey, or anything with AMH fabrics… or grey and yellow. yeah I can’t decide! 🙂 I do love the Innocent crush fabrics though! 🙂

delia - There is so much to celebrate! I like pink and green together. BTW, I love how your comment section is formatted. Thanks for the giveaway!

Dawn - Thanks for the chance to win this amazing fabric. I am a follower.

Lauren - I would love to have this charm pack. I just love AMH! I am currently loving a pink and orange quilt I am working on. But I am traditionally a sucker for yellow and grey – so pretty, calm and invigorating all at the same time.

Jenna - My current favorite color combo is turquoise and white! Thank you for the give away!

Mary C - My favorite colors are purple, burgundy, gray, and ivory (among others, depending on my mood!). Thanks for the giveaway.

Kelly - Still very much loving my chartreuse green with a wide variety of colors to compliment it- aqua, grey, yellow, black… you name it. Chartreuse is my new neutral. 🙂

Becky - Orange and purple…why? I have no idea!
But also still hung up on red and pink. Like Valentines Day every day:)
Congrats, congrats, and congrats again!
beckymac1 at hotmail dot com

Jen S. - Add one more follower to the list! I have no idea why I haven’t clicked that button before; I love so much of what you do! Congrats on everything!!

felicity - I’m with Kelly – chartreuse + anything = love.

Sarah - Orange and green! I know, they sound kind of weird together, but with the right shades, it looks great. Even used them as my wedding colors six months ago–and I swear, it didn’t look like a University of Miami pep rally. 🙂

Heidi aka Digital Misfit - Right now I am in love with charcoal, dove gray and persimmon, as well as gray and yellow!

Natasha - Favorite color combo is white and blue. Thanks for the giveaway.

Melissa - I currently love limeish greens with blue, like the M & M’s colors and purple with limeish green. Thanks for the giveaway 🙂

Molly - Congrats on the almost 200 readers!! My current favorite is brown and blue but I’m finishing up a quilt with those colors and am anxious to start something new with some fresh colors. Innocent crush would be awesome 🙂

LisaB - I’m consistently drawn to yellow & grey combos, also to red and teal, although I’ve never done a project with either of those combinations, weird, eh?

Jolie - Oh, thanks for the lovely giveaway!
WE are heading into Autumn and Winter here, and I am thinking of greys and blues and rust…

Crystal - Congratulations! 😀

What pattern did you use for your slippers???

Laura - Bright pink and black polka dots! Love them!

Jen B - Blue and green or blue and yellow ((I tend to gravitate to this combo for bags!)

Ruth - I’m coming over all olive and orange, with a bit of grey and black, but don’t count right? Thanks for the giveaway, and March Madness is nearly over 😉

Judy - I’m currently obsessed with bright sunny yellows or bold spring greens paired with silvery or matte grays. I like the contrast, and it reminds me of Spring – brilliant colors, but always still a budding thunderstorm on the horizon.

amanda - Go, you! I’m loving chartreuse + gray & sometimes + aqua. The daily outfit on A Beautiful Mess killed me today. Btw, I got here via Flickr… off to peruse your archives… 🙂

Beth Moore - I am really into gray and anything, but esp. teal or orange.

Susie - Ooh, love this! I’m a fan of the yellow/orange/teal combo- so sunny 🙂

Joan Callaway - I am helping my daughter with her wedding, and her colors are yellow, gray, and white. Soooo pretty!

Teresa Felgueiras - I love blues reds and creams.Thank you for the giveaway.

Lori - I’m really liking the coral-y orange color and soft green tones right now. We’re going with this palette for our little girls room, and I got to paint giant seven foot tall poppies all around the room. They love it! 🙂

Kait - Congratulations! I am also ready for spring; it’s just around the corner! My current color combo favorite is a hard one to pin down. I really like a dark grey with bright colors, I’m really into high contrasts right now.

Jennifer G - Neat giveaway! I hope you get 5 more people to follow! I like balancing what I call “masculine & feminine” colors – like, hot pink with brown or bright yellow with grey.

nora - Lately I’ve been loving Grey with yellow and grey with lavender. Or a rich burgundy color with gold. . . lovely fabrics! Thank you!

Jennifer - Love your blog- it’s my first time stopping by. Very cute and your pictures are just lovely.
I am really into gray and yellow right now- just ordered some Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 in those colors and can’t wait to get my hands on them. 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway opportunity!

Melanie - Grey, blue, and white. Thank you so much for the chance!

Ann - I’m currently loving navy with coral and lime green. And maybe a bright aqua thrown in for good measure.

Deanna - Turquoise and Red. So fresh!

MK - I’m very partial to purple and gray these days… but a nice green and gray can work as well! Bravo for 200 followers!

Jen - I am really loving natural combos like simple white and grey. So fresh!

Julia - I am getting married thismsummer so my fav combo is our wedding colors: red, aqua and brown!

Jackie - just found your blog and read through the whole thing this week — love it! great giveaway. i’m really into oranges, yellows, and turquoise. i guess it’s spring?

Jackie - just found your blog and read through the whole thing this week, love it! the color combo i’m digging right now is orange, yellow, and turquoise. it must be spring!

Alexis - I’m loving innocent crush!! Fave co.our combo right now is natural linen with anything!!

Shari - Fav color combo……hmmm… that’s like chosing a favorite song or a favorite child! I’m dreaming up a grass green and grey quilt for my son right now…..does that count? 🙂 And add another follower to your total – great blog!!

Sylvia - Hi Traci,
I found you today via flick’r (smocked dress from weekend sewing) and must say that your blog is beautiful! So nice pictures, projects and many colours 🙂
It will be a joy for me to follow you in the future!
many greetings from sunny Spain,
Sylvia

Carla Sander - I like your blog. My favorite colors are red, turquoise, gray, and ivory . Thanks for the giveaway.

Gina - Yellow, gray and turquoise. A total turnaround from my usual fall color spectrum! Nice blog; thanks for the giveaway!

Brooke - Fun giveaway and congrats on all those things! Green and blue are always a sure fire win with me.

Lindsey R. - I’m loving teal and yellow! Great giveaway, thanks for a chance to win!

Wendy D. P. - I’ve been following as well – still working on google reader, but you have a place on my blog favorites list 🙂 Thanks for sharing inspiration! My favorite color combo right now dark brown and robin’s egg blue.

Lee - Hmmm, I think I’m liking yellow and gray at the moment. Thanks for a great giveaway!

beth lehman - funny – I just came over from flickr – looking at your mardi gras quilt. I found you once before with scarves and another quilt and was interested to see you fm quilting with the singer! my machine is making me frustrated these days – your quilting looks great!! i’m in love with grey and anything bright or linen and anything bright. just started following with google reader.

Rebecca Tunnell - I’m loving yellow and grey together these days! Thanks for the opportunity! Glad I’m following your blog 🙂

Lorna - Love the fabric! I am quite into orange and brown at the moment, bit 70’s!!

Ellen - Today I’m loving gold and blue! Thanks for the chance to win. 🙂

Madison - grey/aqua/yellow happens to be my combo of late… thanks for the chance to win some quilty goodness 🙂

Jen - so hard to pick just one color combo…I am always a sucker for yellow & turquoise…yellow and grey…yellow and poppy…

Lori - Hope I’m not too late for this fantastic giveaway!

Lately I’ve been loving bright pink and gray. (anything and gray, really)

linda - Beautiful fabric! Right now, I'[m liking blue, purple and teal.

Courtney - I love eggplant and mauve right now – thanks!

thanks, nic!

When I was little, I liked to eat waffles frozen.  They tasted better to me than when they were warm.  A few years ago when Will was in full day preschool, we were usually dashing out the door right at 8:30, and one day, realizing I hadn’t given him breakfast but he was going to be too late for breakfast at school, I handed him a frozen waffle to eat in the car. 

It was such a good solution that I started doing it more often.

Nic was horrified and thought it was one of the most hobo things I’ve ever done.  No Good Mother would ever hand her kid a frozen waffle and call it good.

Well, his complete disgust at the whole idea turned frozen waffles into the most exotic of forbidden treats in Will’s eyes.  So that when we have waffles in the house, Will will come up to me, as he did this morning, and lean in conspiratorially and whisper “Can I have my waffle cold?  They’re the best cold.” 

And that is how Nic turned the easiest hobo breakfast in the world into the most exotic delicacy.

Now if only I could get him to do the same thing for leftovers…

friday at dinner

ellie (as always): “whassdat?!”
me: “peas”
ellie: “whadyousay?”

I looked at Nic, eyes wide, waiting for him to confirm that our 14 month old just said “what did you say?” He nodded. (For months we’ve joke about Will’s ever present “what you say to me?” replies and apparently Ellie has decided that “what did you say?” must be the standard reply to any conversation.)

‘vintage flair flats’ – house slippers

I got to spend the late afternoon in the studio this afternoon cutting fabric for upcoming projects and finishing these slippers.

I used fusible fleece instead of interfacing on the sole to provide a little extra padding.

I love the bright polka dots mixed with the subdued Hope Valley print.

The afternoon was beautiful, and since I was borrowing the table in the studio as a cutting area for the afternoon, I opened the door so I could listen to the birds and the breeze.  I really do love our house on days like this!

And a peek at a pretty stack of fabric that will soon be a bag:

Dolores - Love, love, love… the shoes, the house & most of all, the fabric stack!! What bag is it going to be?

Sonia - Is there a pattern for the slippers? They are so cute.

Susanne - I was wondering the same thing as Sonia!!! Those slippers are SO cute!!!!

Traci - It’s an etsy pattern: ‘vintage flair flats’. There’s a mary jane version as well as sizing for babies and little girls. 🙂 The bunny version is particularly cute!!

Jessica - Oooh, cute shoes! I’ve been looking at that pattern! How do they fit? Yours looks so comfy.
🙂

Jennifer - Love that fabric- especially the purple and the blue!

Amanda - Pattern PLEASE!!!! I love these and in desperate need of a new pair!