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!

wip: sherbet pips quilt–all 20 blocks!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Posted in quilts, WIPs

This week is a light sewing week for me.  I had a bunch of accounting and editing to do on the work front, and on a personal front, we bought a car, Ellie’s first birthday party is Saturday, and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law will also be visiting.

I did finish up the blocks for the Sherbet Pips quilt, and am about halfway through sewing them all together.  I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the backing and am having a hard time narrowing it down.  We’ll have to see what happens, but I would love to make a few moments to finish them both before Friday!  (Mainly so I can put the giant stacks of fabric away!)

Here’s a look at all the blocks on my pretend design board as they looked this morning and a peek at one of my favorite details in the quilt that I snuck into one of the final blocks.

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Fran - Absolutely LOVE it! And the snail is just perfect!

Kristie at OCD - Love the snail!

Looks great, Traci. My Pips quilt is almost done as well. I went with a simpler pattern this time around, and have my second layer cake on reserve for another…..Such a fun line! My middle daughter has already requested a quilt of “only grey, pink and blue puppies.” Since I already spent a fortune on the Far Far Away 2 line for a quilt for her, I am trying to talk her out of it….but those puppies are pretty darn cute!

Vickie - Fabulous! Well done, Traci.

Jessica - It’s beautiful! Such a fun quilt!

Jacey - The little snail is a great detail. It’s looking great!

Louisa - What fun! I love the idea of adding small surprises like the snail in a quilt.

Beth Moore - Love, love, love this!!! I envy your talent!

Carolyn - Hey there. I found your blog through the fan photos from Simply Solid Fabric. I loved your Dr. Seuss! Seriously fantastic! And I love this quilt. I’m working on a quilt for my daughters with some vintage sheets and from my stash. This quilt has inspired me. Good work my friend. P.S. Your little baby is adorable!

Ellie gets fussy and we have the following conversation

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized

Me: Is it nap time?
Ellie: Yeah.
Me: Let’s go get Bao Bao.
Bao Bao is her pacifier bear. We walk into my bedroom and I reach for him
Ellie: Bao Bao.
She pops it in her mouth happily, we walk into her bedroom, I put her in her crib, and walk out. She goes to sleep. What an easy baby!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized

Oh Eloise, you’re fired.

Will, exasperated with Ellie while they were playing.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized

Will is pushing Ellie around in a laundry hamper making train noises while I work up the energy to make dinner…it’s like American Childhood Cliches over here.

Sunday, January 16, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized

I had no idea how often I say the word ‘jerk’ until I heard Will say it to Nic during game smack-talk the other day.  I was all “where on EARTH did he get that?!” and then I heard myself say it about once an hour and realized.  Oh.  It’s me. 

Better jerk than douche bag, though.  I say that a lot, too.  😛

weekend away travel bag from weekend sewing

Saturday, January 15, 2011 Posted in bags, gifts

Today sucked because I didn’t get any sewing done.  I did lose about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to make the darning foot I bought of ebay work on Edna Elizabeth, but it was totally lost time and I still can’t figure it out.  Luckily for me I *did* sew this bag from Heather Ross’s Weekend Sewing book yesterday.  Actually, I made it twice.  The first time it turned out looking like my dog made it.  I can’t even describe it, but it was lopsided and uneven and crazy wrong.

I used brown linen for the outside, even though it’s a little too drape-y for this project.  I tried to put some fuseable interfacing on it to stiffen it up, but it wasn’t my night and I couldn’t get it to fuse.  I started thinking that even though it had a shiny side, maybe it was the plain non-fuseable interfacing I bought on accident that one time…and then I got impatient and figured if the bag flopped a little, it would still be okay.

The lining is from Amy Butler’s Soul Blossom’s line (it’s one that I actually like, though I’m tempted to not like it just because it’s part of the Soul Blossom’s collection because I’m dumb like that).

My plan for those super cute camper trailers is a bag like this–I just wanted to test it out first before chopping into my cute little trailers!  🙂

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eva - Oh my! You made me laugh! You just put words to my very own thoughts whenever i have one of these “not-good-for-sewing” days on which i still put myself stubbornly to the task.
And most of the time it’s because i’d do some sewing any time my two busy boys allow me to -which is not ver often- or at night time when they’re asleep, and i’m tired!. When this happens i sometimes find out that my mind is gone in other matters than sewing and all that i can manage is a clumsy piece of different fabrics put together. Well, some other times i make what i mean 🙂
I love the pink touch the zipper adds to that super warm brown shell. Dark as it may be, but one of my favourite colours lately.

Jacey - Great contrast! I haven’t made that project, but I’ve had it on my list for awhile.