The Communique Layout

Popularized by Rhonda Dort, who uses the layout in her classes, the Communique Quilt Layout works for both featuring large fabric and panel pieces, as well as a basis for multiple block designs.

About Me

Welcome to Mouse in My Pocket! I'm Andrea, a web developer living in rural America with her husband and daughter. I'm excited to share my life with you as I explore some of the great things about living in the middle of nowhere.  Be sure to check out the blog below to see a few of the things that are speaking to me right now.

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On the Blog

Finished Baby Communique Quilt

By Andrea | January 27, 2020

I’ve had this little quilt done for a bit, but the weather has been too dreadful for photos. But, thanks to a lovely Sunday afternoon, and the hubs taking the tiny human with him on errands, I was finally able to get a few photos of this fun finish. This quilt uses my Baby Communique…

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WIP Wednesday

By Andrea | January 22, 2020

I’ve made some time to do a little sewing in these first few weeks of the year, and I’m happy to say that I’ve managed to accomplish a few things. The first is a new quilt top for the Scrap Quilt Challenge (#SQChallenge20 & #SQ9Patch on Instagram). The concept of the challenge is that each…

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Mental Health Monday – Hobbies

By Andrea | January 6, 2020

Welcome to a new year! I hope that everyone survived the holidays with minimal stress. And now that the busiest time of the year is over, let’s talk about getting back into a good routine for your mental health, by finding a hobby that helps you cope with your anxiety/depression. For me, that hobby is…

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Friday Favorites

By Andrea | November 15, 2019

I’m kind of in love with natural cleaning products right now. I’ve had a terrible time keeping anything clean since Mil was born (not that I was exactly a neat person before), mostly because all my cleaning products were full of chemicals and I wasn’t in love with the idea of having Mil around while…

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WIP Wednesday – Holiday Ornaments

By Andrea | November 6, 2019

In between playing tiny house and kitchen with Milli, I’ve been using up a some of my scrap Christmas fabric to make ornaments. I’ve done two different kinds so far – Christmas trees and fortune cookies. The Christmas trees are made from 4″ strips of fabric cut into triangles (one for each side), with twill…

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Mental Health Monday – Panic Attack Emergency Kit

By Andrea | November 4, 2019

Almost everyone keeps an emergency kit in their car or bag with things that they need in case of a physical emergency – bandaids, gauze, antibacterial cream, and the like — so why not keep a kit for your mental health too? I ran across the idea on Reddit a few weeks ago and thought…

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Mental Health Monday

By Andrea | October 21, 2019

Sometimes you’re doing really well. You’re keeping up with your medications, and your journaling, and your breathing, and everything else that you need to be doing to keep yourself in a good mental space. But then life happens, and suddenly it’s been days since you journaled, let alone thought about doing breathing or meditation exercises.…

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WIP Wednesday

By Andrea | October 16, 2019

I’m super excited to have made progress on the baby communique quilt again. I was able to piece a backing from all of the leftover bits of the fabric I had purchased to make the front. I crumb pieced all of the leftover bits of fabric from the front into sections and added the uncut…

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midred on baby communique (fishy) flimsy

WIP Wednesday

By Andrea | October 9, 2019

I’m super proud of myself because I made a lot of progress on Mil’s baby communique quilt this week. One whole side of the quilt has been pieced together for about a week and I had all of the solid blocks for the other side sewn together. All I had to do was to put…

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charlie brown shirt for halloween

Friday Favorites

By Andrea | October 4, 2019

I got to go to one of the big annual craft shows in my area over the weekend. It’s something I try to go to every year, and while I’m there I always try to get a little of my Christmas shopping out of the way. I’m big on having as much of my Christmas…

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panic tracker -september 2019

Mental Health Monday – Journaling

By Andrea | September 30, 2019

One of the things that my therapist has me doing to help with my anxiety is journaling. She’s having me write for about 5 minutes every day, either just things that are going on, or from a prompt. I know plenty of people in my position who like to buy CBD products from somewhere like…

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pumpkin cream cheese muffins

Friday Favorites

By Andrea | September 27, 2019

It’s finally Fall! That means I get to appreciate some of the things I love without being “out-of-season.” Now, I know pumpkin is overdone, and we don’t need pumpkin spice everything, but I have to give a shout out to the fabulous pumpkin cream cheese muffins I made this week, thanks to a recipe from…

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