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!

Quiet Book Sew Along Week 4

Okay, epic fail.  I missed not one, but two weeks.  The first week I had a really good excuse–I’d been up until 4am photographing this momentous occasion:

And the next week was the first week of school around here, and we were busy with all that goes along with it.  But I think we actually have two or three participants in the sew along now so it’s time to get serious!  I am going to modify the timeline and bump the construction date out into late October and set the check-ins to be every other week instead of weekly.  This is supposed to be fun, and it was feeling too much like work.

This week I completed two pages.  I’m a little disappointed in how my book is coming together.  In my head everything was way cuter.  For the doll I used the Flat Emelie tutorial from Moda.

I’m super disappointed that the size of the outfits didn’t work with my original clothesline page plan–I’d really wanted to have a tree that the clothesline was strung to, but the outfits are just too big (or page too small).  I bought the tiny clothespins at JoAnns in their wooden dollhouse accessories section.  I sewed them onto the page to keep them from getting lost, but did attach a couple of loose pins to the basket for extra fun.  Luckily it was a big bag, so Ellie can lose a few and we’ll be okay.

When I planned out the book I envisioned all these cute little outfits with lots of details, but I’m a little burnt out so I did very basic clothing.  I figure I can do up some super cute outfits as a birthday present or separate Christmas gift.

Amanda - The little girl and her clothes are adorable…and the clothesline and laundry basket – to cute!

Liz’s quiet book has been neglected as of late also…hope to get back to it soon to have something new to share! The relaxed schedule for this is very nice…but still have to have them done for Christmas 🙂 !

Alli - Not having had access to the images in your head, I think these pages turned out great! The tiny clothespins were a great idea, and the clothesline looks fine with two outfits hung up. The basket for the extras is brilliant, too! 🙂

Nicci P - You are too hard on yourself! This is looking soooo cute. What about doing a two-page spread to extend the clothesline & attach it to the tree you wanted to incorporate. Or, could you do a foldout page, like they do in wide ads in magazines, to extend it to three pages if it didn’t make things too thick.

Deanna - I just found your blog! I’d love to make a Quiet Book for my daughter whose 14 months right now. Maybe as a 2nd birthday gift. I can’t wait to see how your book turns out! PS: your Pinterest Quiet Book ideas are great too!

children at play border print dress

I fell in love with the Children at Play border print, but until I saw this dress tutorial at Little Blue Boo I wasn’t sure how I’d use it.

I’m way proud of the way I was able to make the repeat match up perfectly:

Since the summer is ending, I decided to make this in a 2T for next summer, but put Ellie in it to model it–I figure it will be cute to do a before and after.

The tutorial is super well written and the whole process is very easy–the hardest part is the gathering (I loathe this step and pretty much suck at it).  I’ve already got plans to make another one in a different print, though, so it can’t be TOO awful!  The only changes I made were to serge the back seams and use a rolled hem.

I wanted to take a few more shots, but Miss Elsie let me know that it was potty time.  Sometimes she signs potty, sometimes she shouts “PEEEEEE!” and sometimes she goes with a less subtle approach.  😛

Tomorrow I’ll be back with a new Quiet Book post!  It’s already written and scheduled so it is so on.  😛

Alli - Your dress is super cute! I wish I had a little girl to make one for — my niece is a little too young, yet. Thanks for pointing out the tutorial! 🙂

Susanne - That dress is SO cute. And the dress on Ellie, how do you even stand it? I might have to check out the tutorial!

Kristie at OCD - Beautiful! What a great use of this print!

Jessica - That might be THE perfect toddler dress. And I might have to copy you exactly 🙂

Victoria Paige - This is adorable! it is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. And so it her potty look. Hilarious. It’s funny to think my daughter will soon be that old and doing funny little things like that, too. It happens too fast.

angelina - so beautiful xxx

Susan Phillips - I love the fabric, and you did an amazing job of matching up the repeat perfectly. Plus, you have a cute little model, so what’s not to like?

Jaime - Gorgeous!!! I’m making this pattern this week. 🙂

I was upstairs, Ellie and Will were playing downstairs.  And then I heard “MOM!  ELLIE’S PEEING ON THE POTTY!  YOU GOTTA COME SEE THIS!”  By the time I got downstairs she had hopped off and was tossing a ceremonial bit of toilet paper into the potty before flushing. 

She’s never gotten up on the toilet by herself before—she’s always told me and I’ve lifted her on it.  On Sunday morning all of a sudden she knew how to get off the potty (which I was concerned about—it ruins the ‘you might as well pee since you’re stranded here’ element) but she has done so well in the last couple of days I think we can removing the ‘ing’ from “Ellie’s potty training” and add a ‘ed’ as in “she’s potty trained!” Now she’s doing it independently!!! 

I’m so glad I stuck with it.  There were definitely some days where I thought I should pack it in, but last week she went Monday-Wednesday without an accident (then pooped on the kitchen floor on Thursday) but she’s even rock-starring it with errands and at night now!  Last night at 2am she woke up, I went in to lay her back down, she signed ‘potty’ so I took her, she peed immediately, then went back to her crib.  Before she’s just held it all night!  Yesterday she went pee on her baby potty all by herself while I was in the kitchen (she was wearing a bubble, so she peed straight through it—but it was huge that she did the whole thing by herself) and she’s been doing great with pooping on the potty, too (always harder to get the kids to do on the potty than pee). 

I’m super proud of her!

for the record

I love my kids so much that sometimes I think my heart is going to explode. 

Just in case they ever wonder.

giant children at play dollhouse pillow

I’m sitting at the kitchen table looking out at a foggy misty CHILLY morning, with Kindergarten Orientation on the calendar for today and wondering where the summer went!  It’s making me feel like I need to dash off and finish my ‘late summer’ quilt before fall is here in earnest!  But for those cozy winter days, Ellie has a new pillow to cozy up with…

It’s based off this dollhouse pillow with a structural change–instead of having the exterior of the house roll up, mine folds over to the reverse side and attaches to the buttons.  Knowing that the front cover will receive more abuse, I used fusible web to give the raw applique a little more strength, so my front cover is a little bit bulkier.

The kitchen fridge opens to reveal its contents and a little lightbulb.  🙂

I based the doll off the doll in the Children at Play fabric–right down to the detail on her lapel. Her hair is a little helmet-y, though–I have been considering giving her longer hair, even though that will stray from the illustration!

I finished it off last night and snuck it outside this morning for pictures while the kids had a morning snack with a movie.  Then I brought it in to give to pajama-ed and morning haired Ellie (it was 7am–it’s okay!).

She was completely enamored with the doll and immediately began babying it.

I opened up the interior of the house for her, and she began checking out all of the flaps and curtains.

After checking things out, she settled into its pillow function, sucking on the doll’s shoes, and finishing up their movie.

Will has requested one with a cake in the fridge, but I think I’ll try to talk him into a Quillow instead–I think that will get more years of use by my easily-influenced-by-his-peers-on-what-is-allowed-for-boys little guy, or I’ll have to try to ‘boy’ it up by making it a monster house!

Kristy - Hopeful Threads - Oh my goodness!!! This turned out sooooooo sweet! Great work! And I love how your precious girl is loving it! Nothing makes your sewing more worthwhile! Thanks for sharing!!!

Jessica - Stinkin cute! This is the perfect project for that children at play fabric. I love it!

Susanne - I can’t believe it’s almost fall, too. Just THINKING about Kindergarten really just makes me want to cry.

I adore that pillow. All of those little details are so beautiful and so full of love!! What a blessed baby to have a mama like you!!! : D

Jennifer @ Ellison Lane Quilts - That is completely adorable. And I love all the pics that show how appreciated your wonderful gift was. Super cute all around.

Rachel - SUPER cute! What if you did a garage/workshop type thing for a boy?

Jennifer Can Quilt - there’s a fine line on giving the boys “boy stuff” and straight up teaching gender roles. i never know what to do!

i think a monster house sounds fun; so many things you could do. an under the bed area?

felicity - I admit that I read this post title as being about very large children. Heh.

Anyhoo, what a terrific creation – I absolutely adore that scribbly applique stitch and what you did with it here is inspired. And the cuteness quotient was upped significantly by your adorable kiddo and the wonderful photos.

Alli - That’s awesome! I love the kitchen and especially the fridge. It’s so sweet how Ellie snuggled up to it!

Sherry - Beautiful job! I need to make two of these for Christmas. Thank you for the inspiration!

Vanilla - I absolutely ADORE this pillow!!! You chose such beautiful fabrics and all the little openings and appliques are super cute. Thanks for inspiring me!!!

Shannon @ A Mom's Year - Oh my goodness! This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. It must feel wonderful to be able to create something so amazing. Truly fantastic idea.

A Mom's Year » Toddler Chore Chart - […] Reason #542 to learn how to sew: this adorable pillow. […]

Kim - So, funny story – I’ve been admiring this blog for a long time (since I discovered your quiet book post) AND I’ve been a fan of your photography for YEARS. Then I come back to this blog to get reinspired to work on a quiet book for my daughter and find out that both sites are yours!

I love your work (both your photography and crafts) – thanks for sharing 🙂

Elizabeth - I saw this on Sarah Jane’s blog, and I am so enamored! The details are so wonderful. This will be a treasure for your daughter forever.