Down Memory Lane---Quilts for Rachel---

I have talked about the quilts I have made for Christpher and Michael. Today I will do the same with some quilts I made for Rachel.

I made this one long before I had Rachel. My friend saw a quilt like this at a quilt shop and described it to me. I used my imagination and designed it on paper, and kind of made it my own. My favorite part of this quilt is the muted colors I chose, instead of going with pastels. It makes it a unique baby quilt that way. I was hoping that, someday I would be able to have a little girl so that I could give this quilt to her.



I call this quilt "Seaside Rose Quilt". I was pregnant with Rachel at the time, and went to a local quilt shop. When I saw the beautiful line of Seaside Rose fabrics by Moda, I seriously got goose bumps!

I decided to name the quilt after the fabric line. I love this one.


The next one is a blanket more than a quilt. I used very soft minky; I just had to make a blanket out of it for her! I added pom-poms to add extra character to it. This is also one of my favorite blankets in the house. I love to cuddle in this blanket when I read fairy tales to Rachel; I feel extra girly.


The last quilt... yeah, I can't call it a quilt yet, because it is not done. I finished all the applique in the middle part and added borders. Then, I was supposed to do more applique around the borders. I don't know what happened. I have to confess that I haven't touched this quilt top for about 7 years. I started making this when I was pregnant with my second child, I was secretly hoping for a girl and kept calling it "Ashly quilt". I wanted to name my little girl Ashly for a long time.



Well, we found out that I was having another boy. So, I started working on some boys quilts after that. I thought I was putting away the Ashly quilt forever. Then, I was blessed with another baby. Funny thing is, after I found out that I was finally having a girl, the name Ashly started to fade away.

My husband and I felt strongly that we should name her "Rachel".

Rachel means "beautiful favored one" and her Japanese middle name is "Kokomi" which means "beautiful heart". We wanted her to be a beautiful person on the inside and out. So far, she is living up to her name. I can say this because I am her mom!

I love designing the quilts and it gives me so much joy, but the biggest reason why I keep doing this (I mean all the quilting and crafting) is I want my children to know how much I love them. When they use the quilts I made; it's just like I am giving them a big hug. Also, I want them to realize that having something they enjoy and are passionate about, will bless thier lives so much more than just going aimlessly through life.

I really hope that I can be there to help them to find their wings.

Tutorial ~Scrappy Corsage ~

Ok, I was sitting and working on a project the other day. It was a project that I kind of made up as I went along, then I had a mental block. So, I kept sitting there trying to figure out how to finish and still, nothing came. I decided to work on something else, that's when I spotted those little pieces of fabrics on my table. That's how this scrappy corsage was born.

I will share a quick tutorial.

You will need;

Three different fabric scraps

A metal botton to cover it up

One silk flower

Alligater pin or clothes pin, whichever you prefer.

How to:

1, Fold the scrap pieces right sides together, then cut six sets of peddles for the outer peddles and six sets for the inner peddles. I just eyeballed it, my outer peddles are 2 1/2" tall X 2" wide in the bottom. The inner peddles are 1 3/4" tall X 1 3/4" wide in the bottom.

2, To make the peddles...the order is cut, sew, turn, and fold the bottom.


3, I cut out a circular piece of wool then, sewed the outer peddles on to it. Make inner peddles same way as step 2, except, the way to fold the bottom is little different. Use the picture as a guide.


4, For the middle part I chose to use a silk flower. Cover the metal button then, sew it to the flower.

5, Put eiter alligater clip or clothes pin. Ready to wear!


After I was finihed with this, I was able to come up with the design for the other project. Isn't it interesting how our minds work? Sometimes we need a little detour to figure something out.

As soon as Rachel saw this corsage, Rachel was asking me if that was hers...
"Well", I said, "I will share it with you but it's mine." ;)

My Newest Favorites

I went out with my friends tonight, that was sort of our Christmas get together. We did a gift exchange, ate a lot, and of course, talked a lot. I am very blessed to have friends like them.

I just wanted to share my newest favorites. I have MANY favorites, I mean, big or small, people and things. I think it is nice to have "favorites" to make my everyday life happier.

The cup and saucer...


My friend gave it to me for my birthday. All the designs are hand drawn. How unique and pretty. I love the lace like design. It has been my take a break with style mug.

The Ring...


I found this ring at Beehive Bazaar. There was a booth filled with pretty jeweleries and there were so many of them that wanted to come home with me, but I decided to take only this one home. I have been looking for a ring like this for a long time and it was perfect. The flower matches my skin well and I love how the ring has an antique look. She has an etsy shop, I am definately going to visit her shop in the near future.

Do you have "favorites" that make your life happier?

Tutorial ~ Corduroy Skirt for Little Girl ~

Today was very snowy where I live. Too wet and cold to go outside...but there is always an up-side to a day like this. Stay home and work on the projects I have been wanting to do for a while.

Several months ago, I found some ivory colored corduroy fabric at the sale section. I guess it was the end of the bolt and I paid around $3 for 22" of fabric. I wanted to make a skirt for Rachel.

Here is what I did:

1. Cut 2 pieces of 16" X 22" of fabrics. This will be the main skirt.

2. Cut 4 pieces of 3 1/2" diameter circles, 4 pieces of 3" diameter circles, and 4pieces of 1 3/4" diameter circles. I traced the circles using the drinking glasses in my kitchen. This is a personal preference, so, you can change the size as you want. Be creative! For the leaves you will need 12 of them. I just eye-balled it and cut them out.

3. If you have a serger that would be great, if not, you can use the zig zag setting on your sewing machine to sew the edges of the circles to prevent flaying.

4. Put together three different sizes of circles. To make it look interesting, I alternated the right side of the fabrics and wrong side of the fabrics. You should have four sets of flowers. For the leaves, put fusable interfacing then do the same.



5. Lay the flowers and leaves out on the skirt fabrics. Use the pictures as your guide. Leave about 2 1/2" on the bottom for the hem line. I used matching colored DMC floss to hand sew the flowers and leaves. Use the up close picture as your guide.


6. Take care of the edges to prevent flaying, put the skirt fabric right sides together then sew both sides. On the top of the one side, leave some opening for the
elastic.


I did 1/2" seam line. Open and Iron.

7. For the bottom, I folded twice(first 1/4", second 1") and sewed. For the top, I did the same thing, put 1/2" elastic through. You can measure your little ones tummy to know how much elastic you need.

8. Enjoy!


I got carried away and did some bead work on the flower too.


Also, I used some left over corduroy to make matching flower clip! Rachel loved her new skirt and she was very happy wearing it all day long.

See, there is some benefit to the bad weather :)

Memory Making and a Little Announcement

Well, it is past midnight, so technically, yesterday was one very busy day. I had a lot going on since I woke up, then many places to go to.

In the afternoon, we droped the kids off at my sister-in-law's house so we could go on the real date for my birthday. Bless her heart, she has her three little ones to take care of but she was willing to watch our three too. Thank you so much!

I have a good friend whose birthday is two days early than mine. We have been going to this sushi restaurant to celebrate both our birthdays for three years. We didn't intend to do so every year, but we had so much fun it is became our little tradition.

After that, Aaron took me to see New Moon. I have been dying to see that movie. I loved it, and it is so nice to have "us" time. Oh, after seeing that movie, I still have to say I am team Edward.

By the way, I have a little favor to ask all of you... I was wondering, if you have done any projcts based off my tutorials? Would you send me a link, not to your blog, but to that particular post? I want to do a party by posting your Tea Rose Home inspired projects sometime around the end of this month! What do you think? Doesn't that sound fun?

I know some of you already sent a link to me, but it was a while ago, and I am having a hard time finding them, so if you can send them to me again, I would really appreciate it!

Well, I am relly tired, I need to get to bed... I will see you all on Monday.
Have a lovely Sunday!

My Birthday Wish

Today was my birthday, I will share some of the things that happened in our home with you all.

Gift:



Michael gave me this handmade necklace...I thought "Ahh...how sweet". It was made out of lego pieces. How creative of him, I thought.

"Hey, can I look at it?" Christopher asked. So, I held out the necklace to him, then he shouted, "Hey! Those are MY legos!"

So, Michael made me this one instead.


Rachel wanted to do the same thing, but she burned out at the 8th bead. She asked me to tie the ends and put it on, and when I did it, she put both her hands on her cheeks and said "Mom you are so beautiful!!".


Christpher said he was thinking about what to give me but he forgot right after Thanksgiving. Funny kid...

The Planning:
I heard this story from my husband later on

My sweet hubby gather the children and wanted to discuss where they should take me for dinner.
He jokingly suggested, "How about Chuck E. Cheeses?" (those of you who are outside the US...Chuck E. Cheeses is the place kids can play games or hold birthday parties.)
Then the kids got really excited and said "Yeah!"
My husband thought (Uh-oh,I need to steer this in the right direction)
"Well... do you really think mom will like Chuck E. Cheese's and thier pizza for her birthday?"

Christpher and Rachel were quite but Michael was still hanging on by a thin thread of hope and said, "But, they have salad too!"

When I heard the story I couldn't stop laughing. What the kids don't realize is they are already giving me so much. Even the craziest days they give me something to smile about.

Aaron came home earlier than normal, then they took me out for Chinese.

I opened the gift I bought myself two months ago (I promised Aaron I would not open it until my birthday).

The cards they gave me made me laugh and tear up a little.

I want to say thank you to the friends and families who gave me nice birthday wishes. My world is a better place because of you all.

I took a self portrait:


One year older, I guess I will find out if I became any wiser too throughout the next year. If I can have one wish for my birthday... I want for our little family to be together forever. There are many other small wishes, but my family makes me happy the most. That is my birthday wish.

Advent Christmas Tree & Paper Crafts

I love family traditions! I wanted to have some of our own for the Christmas season. So, several years ago, I started doing an advent calendar for my children. One year, instead of a calendar, I did separate envelopes and I put them all over the wall. A couple of years ago, I bought a cute house looking advent calendar, with small doors. This year, I wanted to do something crafty, so I did this:



I found this tiny white Christmas tree at Target's dollar section (but, it was 2.50). Still, I thought it was a nice deal. I used some wrapping paper to write stuff down...



My kids loves this. I mean every year, they look forward to this. The things I write down are not anything big, but I guess part of it for them is finding out what is written. For example, December 1st was Rachel's turn to open the first one. She did't wake up before the boys went to school, so the boys had to wait till they got home. They kept guessing in the car after I picked them up from school. I think it is so cute... I am going to keep doing this until they say, "Mom, it's ok to stop".

I also made a banner for my fire place:


Red polka dot crane and Christmas tree...


This was fun, so I kept going. I used doilies that I found at a dollar store and red polka dot wrapping paper to decorate the plain white candle. This could be a fun Christmas gift.


I highly recommend doing some paper crafts! They are inexpensive and for some odd reasons, paper, scissors, and glue bring out the inner child (or is it just me?). It was a lot of fun. Is your house all ready for Christmas?