I need some advice.....

YAY! I'm back! I'm finally starting to feel like myself again (thank goodness!) and am back at the machine....kind of! With my new job and working nights again, I'm having a bit of a rough time adjusting, so I haven't been sewing as much as I'd like to, but I have a lot of plans for this year. I'm trying to make a list of what I want to accomplish in the year 2014, and that is pretty hard to do, especially since I want to be as realistic as possible. So, I'm still working on that list for you guys...I've got one made, but I need to make a few edits! It's coming though, I promise!
I also am needing some advice from you all...it's at the bottom of this post!

I've started a new Scrappy Trip quilt, this one is going to be for me though! I love how easy it is, and how quick the blocks come together...I'm planning on making this one queen size which will be the biggest quilt I've made EVER! I'm really excited about the final quilt! I think it's going to be really pretty with all the colors and I'm going to use a low volume print down the center of each block...I can't wait to finish it!!!!

I'm also working on finishing up a mini quilt for my Sew Sew Modern 4 partner! I love these mini swoon blocks!!! I think this one is going to be hard to give away! I'll post better pictures once I get it finished!

But the main reason for me writing this post is I need some serious advice from you. I've been doing A LOT of thinking about where I want to go with my sewing and quilting....I've got high hopes, but I'm also trying to realistic with my goals too. But, I'm really seriously thinking about starting up a YouTube channel. I've got quite a few ideas for videos already (like 2 complete pages worth)!
   Let me tell you what I'm thinking...
I remember when I was trying to learn/teach myself to sew and quilt what kind of things I would look up on google or youtube and not being very successful at finding some of those things or if I did find them, it wasn't exactly what I would call "helpful". So, I was thinking, why not share what I've learned along my path? So kind of like a channel dedicated to mostly learning to sew and quilt and the different things you can make out of stuff...I hope that makes sense. I'm not saying it will be entirely just about sewing since there are other things I enjoy doing too. But, I really love to teach people about my passion and I can't really think of a better way to do that than through YouTube! I know that I am going to be putting myself out there and I'm positive I will be ridiculed and all that stuff that mean people out there like to do, but if I can help at least ONE person then I'd be happy!
  So what do you guys think? Of course, with every video I upload there will be a blog post to go along with it. But I really want to know what you guys think! Would you watch my channel? Do you think it's a good idea? Do you think it's a bad idea? I really really really want your advice!!!!
So I hope you will take a minute and leave me a comment to let me know! Be honest!
I'll be back soon with some pretties to share!!!!

~Hope y'all are having a GREAT DAY!!!~

Where I've Been....

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a good start to the New Year! Is it just me or did 2013 fly by? Seriously, it felt like I blinked and it was over. I couldn't be more ready for a New Year though. 2013 was NOT very good to me...2014 hasn't been shaping up that great, yet...but I have Faith it'll be a better year! I'm working on writing up a good goal planning post to share what I am hoping to achieve this year, but that's for another day!
I just wanted to drop in to give you guys a heads up on why I have been away! If you follow me on Instagram (@craftnursequilt) then you already know what's been going on, but I figure some of you may not follow me there. Soooo, here's why I've been so quiet....

    A little over a month ago I got really sick, I mean really sick, like 104 degree temp for days, I figured it was strep (which I tend to get pretty easily this time of year) and started feeling better after about a week. No big deal, right? WRONG! I started feeling better so stubborn ol' me didn't go to the Dr. Then about a week after that my throat started bothering me again....I woke up one day with the right side of my face looking like I had about 3 golf balls stuck in it! Needless to say, I drug my butt to the Dr on that one. They said it was "tonsillitis, an ear infection, and my sinuses" gave me some antibiotics to take. I took them, for 2 weeks!!! The swelling started going down some but never went completely away. A couple days after I finished my antibiotics my throat started bothering me again, and again I woke up with my face HUGE! I was also in quite a bit of pain so I sucked it up and went to the ER. The doc there said it was an abscess and they referred me to an oral surgeon and gave me some more antibiotics. By this time the swelling had only gotten worse and was starting to spread to my chin and the other side of my face.
  This past Thursday was my appointment with the oral surgeon, so I went, they did an x-ray...the surgeon was pretty upset with me that I did not have the money on hand to immediately do the surgery since he does not accept my insurance. To say he was rude is a huge understatement. He didn't want me leaving his office, but ya know, the money thing....he had no choice. But he did refer me to another doctor that does accept my insurance and got me an appointment for later that afternoon.
   I go to that doctor, and he checked me out, thought he could drain the abscess right there in his office, leave a tube in for excess draining for a few days and that would be that. He was WRONG! After he "numbed" me up with around 5 shots he couldn't get it to drain from the outside. He then did a small incision in my gums and got a little bit of the infection out, it was not pleasant to say the least. He immediately had his assistant schedule me for surgery the next day, which was this past Friday. Sooooooo, went in for surgery, he said everything went just as he expected it to which I guess is a good thing. He had to remove 4 teeth and left a tube in the bottom of my jaw line. I have since gotten the tube out and go back to him in the morning for him to remove the packing in my wound.
   I am starting to feel more like myself again, I'm still in some pain but it's bearable. I can actually eat now!!!! I hadn't ate in around 2 weeks before the surgery. I couldn't even open my mouth! The infection was really bad but I'm hoping he got it all out.

So....that's what my new year has started with....but at least now it has been taken care of and I'm on the road to recovery!
On a happier note, I started my new job at the beginning of December and I absolutely LOVE working there! I was really worried about having to miss work because of this surgery but they are being VERY understanding and just want me healthy! I couldn't ask for a better more understanding boss!
I don't have anything to show as far as sewing goes, I haven't sewn anything since before Christmas.....I'm dying to get back at my machine though!
I will be back, just as soon as I'm able to!!!!
And I wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to all my IG friends for the support and get well wishes I have received! You guys mean so much to me and knowing you all are wishing me well has really helped get me through this tough time!!! THANK YOU!!!!!




~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!~

Handmade Gift Ideas (a list of free tutorials)

Hey there strangers! How is everyone? I hope everyone had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving and are having some good luck with all the Holiday Shopping! I've been working on putting a list together of some "quick gift" tutorials for the members of the Johnson City MQG and I got to thinking, "maybe I could do a blog post and share my list with everyone!" So, yep, that's what I'm doing! If you like to give handmade gifts, but are a bit of a procrastinator like myself, then this list will be PERFECT for you!!!! I've tried to find something for everyone, and the best thing about this list is that they are all QUICK! Nothing should take you more than a few hours to complete! (YAY!)
Let's get started, shall we?
(side note: these are in no specific order, I just listed them as I came across them! I have tried many of these tutorials but not all of them!)

Lined Drawstring Bag - In Color Order (these are so easy to make and can be used for just about anything!)
HST Zipper Pouch and Key Fob- In Color Order
Coffee Cup Cozey- In Color Order
HST Potholder- In Color Order
Scrappy Stack Mug Rug- In Color Order
A Guy's Survival Kit- Ellison Lane
Double Sided Lanyard- Ellison Lane (these make GREAT teacher gifts!)
Scrappy Notecards- Ellison Lane (perfect use for scraps!)
12 Gifts of Christmas Roundup- Ellison Lane (a roundup of some great tutorials!)
Sewing Tool Organizer- HotPinkQuilts
Fabric Basket- Ayumi Mills (one of my favorite tutorials!)
Organizer Basket- Ayumi Mills
Lined Stocking with a Cuff- Cluck Cluck Sew (not sure how long this one takes to make, but HAD to add it to my list!)
Easy Burp Cloth- Diary of a Quilter
Scrappy Shoelaces- Art Gallery's blog by Maureen Cracknell
Warm Hearts- Maureen Cracknell
Quilted Heating Pad- PS I Quilt
Mod Stack Placemats- Fresh Lemons Quilts
Manicure Set- I Heart Linen
Easy Fabric Giftbags- Ellison Lane
Holiday Hostess Tutorial Roundup- Ellison Lane
Crayon Roll- A Crafty Fox
Easy Tote Bag- Skip to My Lou
Zipper Pouch- Pink Polka Dot Creations
Open Wide Zipper Pouch- Noodlehead
Gathered Clutch- Noodlehead
Fabric Berry Boxes- Noodlehead


There are a ton of great tutorials out there by some extremely talented people, so this is just the tip of the iceburg! I hope this list will help you out! I tried to include things that can be made for anyone on your list! I hope you have fun GIFTING HANDMADE! It's the best kind of gift there is!!!!
Do you have a favorite tutorial that you'd like me to add to my list? If so, leave it in the comments! I'm always looking for new tutorials!!!

I'll be back really soon to share some things I've been working on!!!!


~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!!~

For the Boys....my stop

When I saw that there was going to be a "For the Boys" blog hop going on I just HAD to take part in it! I have a special little boy that is getting ready to turn SEVEN on the 24th of this month! (seriously, where does the time go? Seems like just yesterday he was born!)
Anyways, I knew this would give me that "gentle push" I needed to make him something really special for his birthday. So I hopped on board!

If this is your first time visiting me here, WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME! I'm SEW happy you stopped by! I hope you'll stay for a while and get to know me a bit better...(and hopefully like me enough to follow me! ;-) )   You can learn a little bit about me right here and you can see some of my finished quilts right here! Also, if you are on Instagram or Twitter you can find me there too (@craftnursequilt)! I love new followers!!!!

Let's get back to the reason we are here! With this blog hop in mind I had been watching one of the blogs I follow and she was creating a FANTABULOUS quilt! I knew my little boy would just love it if I made him one just like it. So, when I saw she had finished her quilt and was about to publish a pattern for it I left a comment (half joking-half not) stating if she needed a "tester" I would LOVE to be her girl! AND SHE LET ME!!!! WAHOO!!!! lol! (I'll be doing a full review of her pattern very soon, so stay tuned!)
Anyhow, the blog I'm talking about Seriously....I Think it Needs Stitches. (you should really go check her out, she does some pretty awesome work!)

Isn't it adorable?!?!? I used his favorite colors and pulled from my stash! This pattern was super easy to follow too! (more on that in a later post)

It's got some of his favorite things! I love this power drill!!!

The hammer and pliers!!! Too cute!

And what boy doesn't love a good saw?

There's even a wrench and a loose screw! (we won't go there on loose screws though! LOL!)

Anyways, he has NO clue I'm making this for him, I've been VERY SNEAKY! I've got approx 12 days left to get this baby a backing, quilted, and bound...think I can do it? I better!!!
I'm even thinking about making him a pillow to go with it....hmmmmm......

I hope you enjoyed my stop on this wonderful blog hop! Don't forget to go check out my fellow blog hoppers though!
Pig Tales and Quilts
CeLynn's Sunflower Patch
Rainbows. Bunnies. Cupcakes.
Devoted Quilter
Desertsky Quilts
Sew Fresh Quilts
Red Letter Quilts
Craft Nurse Quilt (you are here)
Miss Priss Quilts

I can't wait to see what everyone else has created for their boys!!!
I also want to say a BIG THANK YOU!!!! To Mdm Samm and Amy for putting this together and cheering us all on! THANK YOU LADIES!!!!

Plus a huge THANK YOU to Kelli for letting me test her wonderful pattern (which can be purchased right here)


I will be back when I finish this quilt with a full review of this pattern, I PROMISE!


Thank you guys for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed my stop!

P.S. Linking up my finished quilt top with Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday!

~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!!~

I need Melody in my life!

There's nothing like cutting it close to a deadline huh? I like living on the edge! LOL! This post is my entry into the FANTABULOUS giveaway Amy is offering as part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. What is this awesome giveaway you ask?

This wonderful sewing machine!!! The Baby Lock Melody!!!!! She wants to know why I want to win this gorgeous machine. Well, that is a pretty simple answer...Just look at her!!! She is GORGEOUS! Plus the features she comes with, WOW!

I can really see us together! We would make a wonderful couple! The things we could do together....I can just see it now! ;-)

I know that with my financial situations that I will probably not ever be able to afford such a wonderful machine. Soooo, that's one reason I want to win it! (to make it possible for me to own)

I think this machine could help me take my sewing and quilting to the next level! I've heard a lot about Baby Lock in general and have never heard one bad thing! I've heard their machines are durable, long lasting, quality machines!

This machine comes with a TON of accessories, really it comes with everything I could need! 189 built in stitches! You can customize your preferences as far as the stitches you like, drop in bobbin, 3 monogramming alphabets, need I go on and on? This machine really has it all!!!!

So, Amy, I NEED IT! I WANT IT! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!! (no, I am NOT above begging for this gorgeous machine!!!!)



OH! BTW today is the last day to vote for your favorite quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival! So go vote for mine!!!!! In the ROYGBIV category it's number 45 (you can read my post on it here) and my other quilt is in the Group/Bee category and is number 4 (you can read my post on that quilt here) I am really hoping and keeping my finger's crossed that I win, just because I've never won anything from something that I've made! It would be so awesome!!!!

I will talk to y'all soon!!!!

~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!!~

Modern Yardage and Pretty Pillows

I'm so excited I get to share this post with you guys!!! I recently got the opportunity to try out a new fabric manufacturer. I was hearing a lot about this company on IG and was super stoked April let me try out some of this fabric so I could give you guys a review of it!!!!

DISCLAIMER: All opinions are 100% MY OWN, I am not receiving compensation for this review, as always, I promise to only give you my HONEST opinion!

Now that that's out of the way...what am I talking about????? This new fabric manufacturer is called Modern Yardage. I will let their About Page tell you a little bit about the company....
                   Modern Yardage is a brand-new digital textile fabric manufacturer, dedicated to bringing fresh, contemporary, fun fabrics to the modern sewist. Created to help solve the problems that the fabric industry faces by taking away the speculation on trends, popular print shortages and scarcity, and limited color and scale offerings, Modern Yardage is rethinking the traditional fabric manufacturing process and offering something new to the industry.

I love how they have taken such a different approach to traditional fabric printing. Their fabric is NOT cut from a bolt, WHAT???!!!! Let me show you...

I ordered a total of 8 Fat Quarters and this is what I received. Your order (no matter how much you order) is on one continuous piece of fabric. Which is just really cool! They print on 58" wide fabric but their prints are the standard 44" wide (like from a bolt) so what do they do with all that extra space???? Well, it varies for every order. You could receive a little pattern, a note from the designer(s), and all kinds of other fun stuff. 

If you look in the lower right corner of this picture you can see one of the fun things I got with my order. A READY TO SEW POUCH! Yep, just gotta cut it out, pick out some lining and a zipper and VOILA a cute pouch!!! Pretty cool, huh?

Another thing I really like about this company is the way that they "print on demand" the wonderful prints that you fall in love with DON'T GO OUT OF PRINT!!!! Yep, that means YOU CAN USE THE FABRIC YOU ARE IN LOVE WITH rather than hoarding it (I know I'm not the only one that does that!)

I also really LOVE the feel or "hand" of the fabric! It feels so great! (I think I would compare it to the way Art Gallery fabrics feel, just my opinion!)

So with that being said, what did I make?? PILLOWSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a really big fan of mixing up lines of fabrics so I wanted to see how Modern Yardage fabric played with others. I am extremely happy with the results! The pillow feels wonderful and soft and cuddle ready! I made this pillow to coordinate with my Hubby's quilt and it looks GREAT with it! (I should've taken pics of the 2 together....)

I absolutely LOVE this pillow!!!

Another really fun thing they do is offer their prints in different scales (small, medium, and large) so you choose the scale! I was very intrigued by this so I ordered the same print in 2 different scales (and color).
                          

If you look at that yellow print on the left (kinda in the center) and then look at the top orange print you can tell the difference in scale. I LOVE IT!!!! :-)

Of course, I couldn't just stop with ONE pillow! I had to make another that focused just on this fabric...

I've had an obsession with bunting lately, so I chose to make a bunting pillow! (the background is Essex Linen) Didn't this turn out sooo cute? I just love it!
I chose fabrics from 3 different designers so I really didn't want to do a post about the designers but I will say the Modern Yardage Designers are amazingly talented. I PROMISE you will be able to find any sort of fabric you need from them! They have all kinds of different types of prints! They are constantly adding new fabric lines too! I could spend thousands of dollars on all the wonderful fabric I want from there! (I've got my eye on quite a few things they have!)
I really really hope you will go check them out! Their site is extremely easy to navigate so you will be able to find whatever you are looking for! Just a fair warning though, be prepared to spend a LOT of time drooling over your computer monitor! (I hope I'm not the only one that drools over fabric....)
All in all, I really really enjoyed getting to play with this fabric and would HIGHLY recommend anyone who plays with fabric to get their hands on Modern Yardage! You will NOT be disappointed!!
Make sure you go and follow Modern Yardage on your favorite social media outlet too! (that way you can stay up to date with all the wonderful fabrics they are coming out with!)
Make sure you go and follow Modern Yardage on your favorite social media outlet too! (that way you can stay up to date with all the wonderful fabrics they are coming out with!)
You can find them on Pinterest here
Facebook here
and on Instagram here (or just search for @modernyardage)

Let me know if you get their fabric and if you love it as much as I do!!!!

Pssst....I'm linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday

~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!!~

Blogger's Quilt Festival- ROYGBIV

I can't believe I did it! I finished the quilt ON TIME!!! (Well, with less than a few hours to spare!) And I'm barely making it to the deadline to enter my 2nd quilt into the Blogger's Quilt Festival! Seriously, the linky closes in less than 1 hour!!! It's 9 a.m. here and I just literally finished this quilt 5 hours ago!!! I busted my tail to get it done...but I DID IT!!!!
So, for my 2nd entry into the Festival (my other entry can be found here) I am entering Color My World!

I think this is my favorite quilt I've made to date! You can read more about the pattern and quilt top by clicking here. I have debated and debated which category to enter this quilt into....I have one of 3 options....the Throw Size, ROYGBIV, or Scrappy. This quilt is completely scrappy and a good throw size but I believe ROYGBIV is its best fit! I really loved making this quilt and can totally see myself making another one, just maybe a lot bigger next time!

Here is the backing, I won't go into to much detail with this post (a better post with better photos coming very soon!) but let's just say this was not the original backing! Oh well, stuff happens, especially with kids right?

I chose to quilt it in an all over meandering loop and I'm pretty happy with the results!
As I'm sure you guys can tell in one of the above pictures, the weather does not want me to get pretty pictures today! So I plan on dragging my hubby out this weekend (weather permitting) and have a real quilt photo shoot!

It's a rainbow quilt, so what better to bind it in than black stripes? I think it finishes the quilt perfectly!

I hope you guys enjoyed seeing my version of Color My World and will come back to see it again, when I get better pictures!!!

Quilt Stats
Finished Size- 62"x72"
Pattern- Color My World by Elizabeth Dackson of Don't Call Me Betsy
Pieced and Quilted on my DSM
Fabrics used- Scraps from my stash and Kona Snow for the background
Quilted in an all over meandering loop
Festival Category- ROYGBIV

If you haven't already you really need to head on over to the Blogger's Quilt Festival and see all the amazing entries!!!
P.S. I would absolutely LOVE it if you would vote for my quilt!!! ;-)

It's Friday so I'll be linking up the wonderful Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Friday!

~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!~