Between Everything

This week was our last week of school. On top of the normal schedule, I had lots more going on.

Between everything; "Mom and Tea", "Field Day" and the "Kindergarden graduation", I completed the quilt.



I stuck with the simple quilting design and love the results.



I also enjoyed spending time with my family doing school stuff.

The summer is here. Between the martial arts, swimming lessons, reading program and whatever else we decide to do I know I am going to "Create".

I will create memories with my family.

I will create whatever my heart desires.

It is going to be a great summer.

Coming soon--New items on my etsy shop--

I like window shopping because I get to see beautiful things, get some ideas and best of all, it's free!

Well, one day I was windo shopping at a high end department store when I found pretty corsage. Even though I tell my kids not to touch anything in the store, I couldn't resist picking it up and admiring it in the mirror against on my clothes.
Ahhh...it's so pretty, I wonder how much it is... then I turned the price tag around... I can't remember how much it was exactly, but it was over $30-$40!! It was way more than I was willing to pay for a corsage. The price hurt my eyes and almost blinded me.

If you know me well enough, you guessed right. I went home and made a similar corsage, and I LOVE IT!! I was so excited about how it turned out that I wore it last sunday to church.

The clothes I was wearing weren't new or expensive or anything. The corsage made me feel special and dressed up a little bit more than usual.

I made several. I will post them on my etsy store soon.



I promise, it will be a lot more affordable than the one I saw at the department store. :)

Tutorial--Modern square garden quilt--

Ok, I gave a fancy name to my simple square quilt. This is very easy to do, but I wanted a different look, so I chose ginghum check fabric for the sashing and the borders.
* You will need
1 charm pack (I used some for another project, so I only had 35 pieces left. That's what we will use for this quilt).
2 yards ginghum check fabric (for sashing, borders, and bias tape)

* Note--Always cut big pieces first and work your way down to small pieces. I cut all the long pieces from length of fabric.

* Cutting:
25P-- 2 1/2"x 5" (sashing for between the squares)
6P--- 2 1/2"x 31" (sashing for between the rows)
2P--- 4"x 38 1/2" (top borders)
2P--- 4"x 44 1/2" (sides borders)

* How to assemble the quilt:
1. Lay out the squares and decide where you want the fabrics to go.
2. Using a quarter inch seam allowance; sew 2 1/2" x 5" sashing between the squares. Then, press the seam towards the sashing. Repeat the process and make seven rows.



3. Join each row with 2 1/2" x 31" sashing to make the center of the quilt. Press the seams.



4. Add 4" x 44 1/2" borders on both sides. Press. Then, Attach 4" x 38 1/2" borders to top and bottom. Press.



Now you have the quilt top! The finished size is 38 1/2" x 51 1/2".

I like the batting and backing to have an extra 3" around the egde. So, when you baste them, they have enough room to move a little.

For the bias tape, check out my tutorial.

I basted my quilt and haven't decide what to do. I am still new to machine quilting. I am so tempted to hand quilt this one, but I have been hand quilting another quilt I started a few years ago. I need to finish that one first before I can commit myself to do another quilt by hand. I will post the quilt when I finish it.

Kung Fu Panda night!

I have a friend who is so much fun and very creative. A while ago, she posted an activity she did for her children called "Kung Fu Panda Night". They ate noodles and pot stickers while they watched "Kung Fu Panda".

Our whole family loves that movie, and my boys are in to martial arts, so I planned to do this when they advanced to their belts; as a small celebration.

I made noodles and pot stickers and we watched the movie. It was a huge hit! They thought that was such a fun idea and LOVED IT!!




The apples had nothing to do with "Kung fu Panda", I was just being a mommy.

Thank you for the great idea Becky!

In my last post I said I will do a tutorial, but I just had to post this one tonight.

Have a wonderful Memorial day weekend everyone!

My first spotlight and Interview!

A few days ago I was contacted by Ucreate. It is a very successful blog that features many different crafters and introduces them to her viewers.
She visited my blog and my etsy store and wanted to feature me on her blog!! I was so excited! This morning Tea Rose Company was featured on her blog.

Thank you so much Kari!!



I bought this charm pack and started working on a quilt top. It is a very simple design and is easy to do. On my next post I am going to do a very quick tutorial for this.

Well, now I am off to put the kids in bed, I like that it is bright till late now, but it is hard to put them in bed. They will say "Mommy why do we have to go to bed, it is sunny outside!" When I have time to sew tonight, I might sew a special curtain for thier rooms so the night will come early for them. Am I a horrible mom?...Nah!

Free Give Away Winner!

I meant to post this late last night, so in the morning people could find out who the winner would be. I was so busy and couldn't sit in front of the computer to do this till now. Sorry!
Well... the winner is....

My Curly Hair Days

Congratulations! Please email me your address so that I can send you the purse.

Also, thank you for playing everyone! I am planning the next give away in August, for the one year anniversary of my blog. So, come back often and play it again! I have several ideas of what to do, but I haven't decided yet...

I am working on a new quilt top. I will post the progress on my next post.

Where is my dream home?

I consider myself and my family a mid-American family. We live in a house with four bedrooms and 2.5 baths and a two car garage. The square footage isn't that big, so, with three children and stuff, I feel like the house is shrinking, literally. When we bought this house, it was a step up from our first town house and the step before our dream home.

I have scrap books with ideas of what I want for the dream house. I love sidings, shutters with white trim. Oh, I want a wrap around porch too. I know the colors I want for the inside and the outside. Even the details for the kitchen and bathrooms too. I know exactly what I want. When the time comes, I will have no problem with deciding those details to complete my dream house.

Several years have passed. During thoes times things happened and our plan has changed many times. Seems like the "dream house" is far away from us and to be honest I get frustrated sometimes.

Recently, the company my husband works at had lay offs. It wasn't like few people were let go, more like a few thousand people. Until I heard that we were o.k. this time around, I was very worried and scared. While I was thinking about this for a few days, I realized how much my family and I already have. First of all we have each other, all well and together. A roof over our heads and food to eat every day. What more can I ask for? If all these were to be taken away; would I still be complaining about the dream house I am not getting?

I knew that I had all these blessings but sometimes I need a reality check to actually "see" these blessings. If for some reason we are never able to get exactly what we want, I think I will be ok and content with where we are. As long as we have each other.

I always wanted a very close and happy family and I have it.

I guess in a way, I am already in my dream home.

Free Give Away!

I made this purse a while back by using an Amy Butler pattern in the picture. It was very fun to make so I made two. Because of the copyright law, I can't sell them on my etsy store. So, I decided to do a free give away to thank my readers! I will give away one of the purses, not the pattern.

Here the rules:
1. Leave a comment on this post.
2. If you follow my blog, I will enter your name in twice- yes, I am very biased, I favor my followers.
3. I will announce the winner on May 19th, so come back and check to see if you are the winner. Then if you are the winner, e-mail me your info. I will send you the bag!

Good luck :)

Call it good

After the open house I have been enjoying some wiggle room and freedom. I usually set my goals like what needs to be done by when and try to follow that. As of right now I don't have a project that I HAVE TO DO by tomorrow or by the end of this week, so, I hemed my boy's pants and tomorrow I am going to make a bag using Dragon print fabric for him to put in his sparring gear. Yes...dragon... it is totally not my style, but that will make him extremely happy.

Also I started organizing my sewing area. It has been a mess for quite a while. I know, once it is clean and organized I will be much more productive and love the space better.

As I was going through the stuff, I came across this quilt.



I peiced it about nine years ago. I alway have several project going on at the same time, I finally finished quilting it last year (it is all hand quilted) then I thought I will do Trapunto, a method to put stuffing in to some quilted areas to make it pop out more, and was tucked away.

I looked at it and thought "What was I thinking!? This quilt is done!" Although I love modern style, I also love traditional style quilts. I think I can call it good and move on to the next unquilted quilt tops. Because I have many that are waiting for thier turn....

Post open house

Yes, last night was the "Open house"...the results? It was wonderful!!
For several days, I stayed up late to make some more stuff, made signs, did pricing, BOY, there was so much to do. Who cares that I had circles under my eyes and needed whole bottle of concealer in the morning, or sewed my finger with the sewing machine (it really happened, but, I am proud to say that I did not get any blood on the item I was sewing). No pain no gain right?

I was almost hyperventilating just before the party because I was so nervous; I was afraid that no one would show up for the open house. It started out slow... then, eventually my tiny house was filled with lots of women and thier chatting sounds. You know, the good kind of fun noises!

I just want to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH to all, who helped me with this party, and the friends who came!! And my wonderfult husband who didn't mind taking the kids to eat out at Del Taco for the night. I really appreciate your love and support!

I sold lots of bows and some other items, Yeah! The best part of it all was visiting with everybody. I have done the home parties at other peoples' homes but this was a totally new experience. My friend Marnie and I had lot of fun; we talked about doing this again! (well, it is not official, we just talked about it).

Although I had a good turn out, I still have more items. I will soon list them on my etsy store.



Well I am off to sew more stuff for the special orders. See you at next post!

The Scholar in Me

Growing up, I always liked encyclopeadias. It contains so much information about the things I want to know or even the things I didn't know I had an interest in. My parents bought my sister and I this gigantic encyclopeadia set (they came with its own bookshelf too) and set it in our room. I loved to just sit on the floor and go through them A to z.

Recently, my friend asked me if I wanted her to get me an encyclopeadia from Costco, since I don't have membership there. This one is my FAVORITE encyclopeadia, ever!!



It was on my top 5 craft and quilting books that I wanted to own. Wow, how did she know that I would want it! Greatest thing is, it is originally $35.00 and I got it for $18.99!! What a deal. Let me zoom in there for you.



I am getting ready for the open house this Wednesday. I decided I can read it afterwards as a reward for myself.

I guess Mother's Day came early for me and I am super excited!

New stitchery pattern

I have been designing and selling stitchery patterns for almost 6 years now under the name of "Just A Stitch Away". I am not a big time designer or anything like that, but it is awesome. I do something I love and I earn money to support my fabric obsession. At first I was so commited and sometimes produced three patterns a month. Over the last several years I have been slacking, I design new patterns every now and then, but not like when I started.

I have been wanting to get more involved in stitchery pattern design and do more. Last week I created this one.



Today I drop them off at a couple quilt stores, and by next week hopefully a couple more will follow.

I am very excited! As I was stitching the samples for the stores, I remembered how much I enjoyed doing this. I have several designs drawn up, I just need to gett my act together and start stitching!

Tonight is an exception, I just want to relax and enjoy a movie or two with my hubby.