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.
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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.
On the Blog
Seasonal Toys – Halloween Edition
A lot of parents love switching out their kids’ toys, because toys get more play when they feel new. I’m not very good at that, but we do have seasonal toys. I have an entire tub of toys that Mil gets out and plays with during spooky season – tho secretly, part of them aren’t…
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Temu Shopping Pros & Cons
After hearing friends and family talk about ordering from Temu over the last year or so, I finally broke down and tried Temu. And since there is still a lot of argument over whether using Temu is good or bad, I thought I would share my experience. So far, my experience with shopping Temu has…
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Bookish Questions – What is your favorite genre?
I love reading most genres of books, and as a mood reader, the genre I prefer changes from time to time. Right now, I find myself mostly reading Urban Fantasy. I’m currently making my way thru the audio editions of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files. I love listening to James Marsters as the narrator. He…
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Playing with New Art Techniques
I’ve been playing with some new painting techniques lately. The most interesting so far has been squeegee painting. It’s really a pretty simple process. You add drops of paint to your art surface, then use a squeegee, or scraper to drag the paint across the page. It’s quite interesting to see how the paint interacts…
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Learning Procreate
I recently decided to try learning to use Procreate, a digital illustration app. It’s something I’ve been interested in doing for a long time, but haven’t done because Procreate is only available for the Apple iPad. I don’t own one, and didn’t want to invest in one if it wasn’t something that I would really…
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Making Patterns
I’ve recently been working on a new skill – seamless patterns using watercolors. I’ve created seamless patterns in the past, but always worked completely digitally. Thanks to a fun Skillshare class by @CatCoq, I’ve learned how to make seamless patterns from my traditional artwork. It was a really fun process. I learned how to divide…
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Snow Day Art Projects
Thanks to an ice storm, Mil & I had a day off yesterday. Or more specifically, Mil had a day off and I had a remote work day. Remote work days are a little hard when you’re home alone with a 5-year-old. She really wanted me to play with her, and had a difficult understanding…
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Art Prints on Society 6
A little while back, I decided to set up a webstore on Society 6. The store allows me to create and sell prints of my work directly to customers online. Right now, the store consists of a few pieces of my traditional art, along with a couple digital designs as well. I’ve even chosen to…
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Pineapple Quilt
Thanks to the massive basement cleanup, I’m back to sewing when I have the time. My 1st completed project is a pineapple quilt that I purchased fabrics for several years ago. It’s based on a mini quilt by Lori over at Crossquilt, which I fell in love with when she shared her project in 2015.…
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Basement Clean Up
My sewing space is down in my basement and over the last few years, it had become a hot mess. I couldn’t do any sewing at all, because there were boxes of junk and in all the empty space, and my sewing table was covered in Mil’s craft projects. So, I spent all I did…
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More Mood Trackers
I’ve not been doing a good job keeping up with my blogging, but I do actively keep up with my journaling. And I’ve found that the journaling fulfills a lot of the needs that I was previously meeting by constantly updating my journal without the dopamine addiction to comments and interactions. That being said, I…
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3 Blocks Away
So proud of myself. I’ve actually been making progress on my spooky crazy quilt! I’m down to needing to complete the sewing of just 3 blocks. Of course, I’ll still have some embroidery work to do between the blocks, plus basting, quilting, and binding, but I MIGHT actually be able to get this quilt done…
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