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!

A wonderful lazy Friday.  It’s 1:00 and we’re all still in our pajamas.  I just laid Ellie down for a nap, past her normal nap time, but she’s been playing so happily with Will that I couldn’t stop them.  Will went into her room when she woke up this morning and they played for 25 minutes before Will came in to inform me that she needed a diaper change—which seems to be a new routine for them.  They have played and colored and practiced walking this morning.  Ellie has always refused Will’s attempts to help her walk—she’s very particular about who she trusts—but today she bestowed the honor upon Will finally, and they were BOTH having the time of their lives as they walked up and down the length of the downstairs, over and over again.

secret treasures

Even during the decade when I wasn’t quilting, I occasionally wandered into a fabric shop and bought a pattern or yard or two of fabric.  A few years ago I bought a portabellopixie pattern that I have been looking for for a few months.  I knew it had to be somewhere, but hadn’t had any luck finding it.  Last night I gave it another big effort, and turned my attention to the office closet that holds most of my old craft supplies.  I finally found it, along with two other patterns, a sewing necklace I made in high school, and a bag of fabric with five prints…one of them the coveted pez print from Peas & Carrots!

I was so excited to see a ‘hard to find’ print from a period I thought I’d missed out on!  I looked at the stack long enough to remember buying them for the purse pattern–I hadn’t been able to decide on the floral print or the pez fabric, and so I bought both with enough coordinating fabric to make two bags.  Of course, I wish the pez had been the coordinating fabric so that I’d have a yard of it instead of just 1/3 of a yard!  But I’ll take what I can get!

I’ve asked my mom for this sewing pattern so I can make another one.  It’s a handy little accessory to have!

And I’ll add to my list making the pez bag I had intended to make and maybe I’ll even make the floral version, too!

Lee - No way! I wish I would magically discover some Pez in my closet. : )

showdown: gray vs cream

Thanks for commenting on my last post about my gray vs cream dilemna.  I think all of the comments are well illustrating my thoughts on both sides!!

I felt like I could only decide if I could see a few blocks, so I thought I’d make two test gray blocks and two test cream.  Except these string quilt blocks are certainly tedious!  So once I finished the gray blocks I decided to just ‘fake’ the cream versions.

I’m not sure the photos really show the differences as well, but the cream seems to fit the vintage feel of of the fabrics and feels lighter and brighter (of course) and the gray makes them seem more rich and dramatic.  I think I’ll wait to decide until at least tomorrow, so I can angst about it more!

Julia - I think I like the cream better…. The gray is nice though. But I ink I would do the cream if it were me 🙂

Susanne - I really like the grey.

Staci - Either way you go, it will be a wonderful quilt.
Personally, I’d go for the grey. It seems more modern, and I love it when you can get a modern edge to vintage fabrics.

Crystal - I am usually a cream/white type of person but I am actually really liking the grey. You know you could make half the quilt with the grey and half with the white….or make two quilts or even make a few blocks of the one and put it on the back of the quilt. So many options!! 😀

A.J. Dub - Well, I was wrong. The Gray rocks it!

Brooke - I actually like the gray better in this block. I think the cream blends in and looks like just a coordinating fabric from the line. The gray really divides the blocks. That’s the one I’d go for.

Becky - Cream:)

diana - I think you can decide even later, after finishing more blocks. And if you want the cream, just put them as an aplique later on.

Sonia - I like the cream, I used bella natural with my postage stamp quilt and I was really happy with the combo.

Fran - I love that there are votes for both. I also love that you named it gravyvscream. Sounds like a Thanksgiving horror flick. Gravy Scream 2, The Giblet’s Revenge.

Beth Moore - Cream all the way.

Lori - From the pics, I like the grey. Either way, it will be beautiful! But we’ve seen the cream before. The grey is unique, and much more graphic.

Sherry - Do both! I think a chevron pattern would be cool, alternating cream and gray every other row. I think I just added a project to my growing list! Anyway this will be a beautiful quilt!

6:14pm

If I hear the phrase “Look at me” one more time I don’t think I can be held responsible for my actions.  Nic is late, and the children might not live until bedtime.

hope valley string quilt indecision

When I began quilting again this past summer, I spent a lot of time pouring over the gorgeous quilts at Film in the Fridge.  I absolutely adored the combination of Hope Valley and charcoal in this quilt, and loving the string quilts, I decided that I would make a Hope Valley string quilt with charcoal center strips.  (Later on flickr I saw other quilters had made the same decision!)

This week, though, as I prepared to start cutting into my now washed and pressed Hope Valley stack, I saw a Hope Valley quilt that used cream to set off the prints.  And now I’m torn between cream and charcoal.

A.J.Dub - I like the cream with it.

Dolores - Having had a look at the quilts you’re talking about and some cream versions, I have to say that I think the charcoal unifies the colours better and gives it a more modern edge.

Kelly - I’m starting to think that cream is the new neutral… 🙂 Can’t wait to see what you decide. 🙂

Steph - What I do is lay out a yard of each of the solids and put the FQs on each of them and take a photo. Looking at the photo usually shows a clear winner.

A.J. Dub - I like the cream with this. To me it shows off the colors rather than blends them. But then it depends, what look are you going for?

brown bear brown bear quick quilt

Will’s preschool class made their own Brown Bear, Brown Bear book this fall, so when we were at a fabric shop a few months ago and Will saw this fabric, he wanted it desperately.  I bought it and planned on working to sew it up in a way that would still be a bit modern, but there were always prettier fabrics to work with and I kept delaying.  I realized last week that if I just sewed it up in strips and didn’t try to make it pretty to ME, Will would get his quilt a lot sooner and be just as happy with it.  I’m so glad I finished it for him, but I wish I’d done it a few months ago.  3 months is eons to a 5 year old!

It’s backed with minkie and serged instead of bound–serging is my new favorite binding on anything backed with minkie or fleece!

Mary - I have done that type of quick thing with Scooby Doo fabric. For some reason my children do not appreciate a twin size double hourglass as much as a scooby doo wholecloth quilt – go figure!

Fran - Super cute! Look how happy he is! So adorable…