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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…