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

Christmas Decorating

By Andrea | December 9, 2013

With the ridiculous amount of snow we got on Friday, I decided that it was time to do a little Christmas decorating. And with all of the vehicles were snowed in, it wasn’t like I could do anything else. So, I got my husband to drag up a few tubs of Christmas decorations – the…

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Virtual Craft Night Ups My Progress

By Andrea | December 2, 2013

Thanks to 2 evenings of Virtual Craft Night over the long holiday, I’ve made amazing progress on my Christmas Crazy Quilt.  I’ve managed to piece together, embellish and faux sash the top left quarter of my quilt. On top of that, I have been able to get several other sections in progress, including these 2…

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Steampunk Crazy Quilt Finished

By Andrea | November 27, 2013

As you may remember, I finished steampunk crazy quilt top last month.  When it was finished, I set about looking for a quilter willing to do the quilting for me.  Even though all I wanted for the quilting was something simple, outlining of a few of the blocks, none of the local quilters wanted to…

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Giveaway Winner

By Andrea | November 25, 2013

Congratulations to Tanja for winning a copy of Lolita Patterns latest dress pattern, Gunmetal!  Check your email for information about how to get your pattern. For everyone who didn’t win, you can still get a copy of this great pattern, either in PDF or print form from the Lolita Patterns website.  And while you’re there,…

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Christmas is Coming Along

By Andrea | November 25, 2013

My Christmas crazy quilt is starting to come along.  Which is really quite surprising as I haven’t been working on it anywhere near as much as I should.  With my steampunk crazy quilt, I spent about an hour or so each evening, piecing my blocks and then spent another couple hours each night working on…

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The Push to Create Content

By Andrea | November 20, 2013

I’ve noticed something about writing a blog.  I always feel pushed to create new content.  Sometimes it’s a good thing, pushing me to create even during my creative slumps, but other times, it feels like a hindrance.  After all, how do you really create beauty on a timeline? I’ve decided that while I will continue…

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Gunmetal – A Lolita Patterns Dress & Giveaway

By Andrea | November 18, 2013

I was super excited a couple weeks ago when Leila (you may know her from The Three Dresses Project) asked me to try out and make a promotional version of Lolita Pattern’s latest release, Gunmetal.  It was the first time I’d ever been asked to make a test/promotional version of a pattern, and it was…

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Grown Up Christmas List

By Andrea | November 13, 2013

Every year I find it harder and harder to come up with a list of things that I would like for Christmas.  It’s not because I don’t want anything, but because as I’ve grown older, the things that I want have changed.  It’s a lot harder to ask someone to go buy you clothes, than…

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The Lizard Lets Me Shop

By Andrea | November 11, 2013

In case I haven’t mentioned it on the blog, our cat is really good at finding animals in the house and killing them.

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Let’s Talk Turkey (Leftovers)

By Andrea | November 6, 2013

Now that Halloween is over, it’s time to start talking about Turkey, and all the other things that go with Thanksgiving. So today, I’m sharing with you a great way to use some of your Thanksgiving leftovers. Remember my recipe for Chicken and Gnocchi soup?  Have you considered making it with some of the leftovers…

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Christmas Sewing

By Andrea | November 4, 2013

It’s November already, which means time to start on my Christmas sewing.  OK, so I started this project a couple weeks ago. But in my defense, I am making myself another embellished crazy quilt, so I expect it to take a while to put together.  Actually, I expect to be working on it until after…

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Happy Halloween

By Andrea | October 31, 2013

This year for Halloween, I dressed as the title Character from Hayao Miyazaki’s The Secret World of Arietty. I’m pretty happy with how the costume came out, even if I spent all day explaining who I was.  I think that’s a problem with being awesome in a small town. Not many people know what/who the…

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