Accidental Baby Quilt

Have you seen the cute fabric line Gretel designed by my sweet friend Amy Smart for Riley Blake designs? I had a chance to work with them and I made a quilt top a few weeks ago. What? the quilt up above? NO. That isn't it. The picture below is the quilt top I made first. For some reasons, my dog always shows up from nowhere when I start taking pictures of my quilt and gets in the pictures. Sorry if you are not a doggy lover. ;) It is not quilted yet, but I love how it turned out. I made it up as I went along, which is great, but because it wasn't planned nor did I follow a pattern, I had some left over blocks. I hate to waste so many blocks, so I started playing with them and kept switching things up to see the design potential... and pieced them together...

and ta-da! This baby quilt was born.

I was so happy how it turned out and got carried away. I hand quilted it, decided to do scalloped edges, and embroidered some red motif on it.

Sometimes you can come up with something fun and unexpected when you go with the flow and just let it happen. My baby sister is pregnant with her first baby and I am crossing my fingers that the baby is a girl, so this aunt can ship this quilt to Japan!

Two Tone Modern Baby Quilt

I posted this quilt I made for a family friend for Christmas a few weeks ago...

I had some left over blocks and I was playing with them the other day. I figured out a layout and decided to make two other quilts with them. The one, which is still laying out on my sewing room floor will be a wall hanging and this baby boy quilt...

Remember, the quilt I made was for our male friend... so I was thinking about that when I was designing the quilt. I went with a color scheme which I don't normally use (but I ended up really liking it!). When I make a quilt for a baby boy, I usually go for more pastel blues and greens or crisp red and blue. This one is a bit different. I am not very confident about my machine quilting skills, but I came up with a design I can manage and that is unique too.

Because the quilt top has darker matte colors, I chose crisp white & gray houndstooth fabric as a backing and added more colors with bias tape. Hoping to make the quilt a bit more playful and lively.

This was an unplanned project but I am pretty happy with the result. I am working on several quilt projects right now, I can't wait to share the others soon!

Hexagon Baby Quilt

My sister-in-law just had a baby girl; I wanted to make a special something to welcome the baby... So I made a quilt.

I don't have a half hex ruler, so I used a 60 degree ruler to cut fabrics for this quilt (don't ask me why I didn't write a tutorial for this... I wasn't thinking... I started the project in the middle of the night... who knows why). When I made a hexagon quilt in the past, it was with the traditional paper piecing method, but this is a quick and easy way to create a hexagon quilt.

After I was all done, I washed the quilt, and used the dryer to dry it. I love how shrinking the fabric helps to hide the imperfections of my machine quiling skill. :)

With the leftovers, I made a mini quilt, so the baby's big sister can have the same quilt to take care of her baby dolls.

I like the picture I took inside, but it wasn't showing the true color of the quilt.

I took some pictures outside; this is the real color of the quilt. I have so much to learn in many areas, but photography is one of the thing thats I want to get better at. Isn't it so tricky sometimes?

I am planning to send them soon. I hope the real mommy and the mini-mommy will love and enjoy the quilts.

Diamond Quilt

Over the weekend, we visited family, and had a nice time. I was particularly excited that I was able to finish a quilt. A quilt I pieced so many months ago, but afraid to machine quilt and walked away from it for a while... I wanted to give it to my brother-in-law as a house warming gift.

I stayed away from my usual colors and flower patterns(giggle), and went with darker colors and plaids. I used a 60 degree diamond ruler to cut the fabrics (I bought my ruler at Joann's with a 50% off coupon, by the way). Cutting and piecing the fabrics went pretty quick. Can you imagine using different fabrics to make this diamond quilt? Ah... did I hear Amy Butler? Woo, I am so going to...

He gave us a tour of his first place he purchased, and I was soo excited that the color of the quilt actually went with the couch and the chair he had in his living room!


Do you know what else I was so excited about? I. Machine. Quilted. It!!


I mentioned that I wanted to practice machine quilting more, but I was really worried that I would mess it up. But, you know, it actually wasn't so bad, I just did loops all over the quilt and it turned out OK for a machine quilting apprentice. :)

Zig Zag Baby Quilts & Blanket

If you haven't entered the giveaway, please do so before you start reading this post.


I have been enjoying my family (and food!) the last several days. It is so nice not to worry about pick up time, homework, after school activities and all. I am going to indulge myself in this moment a little longer until Monday.

Meanwhile I have a few pictures of quilts that I made for my sister-in-law. She is having a baby girl soon (after three boys!!) I was able to give her the blanket this Thanksgiving.

Here they are;

I used Rolie Polie from the Lost & Found line by Riley Blake Designs, and I combined ivory fabric from my stash.


On the back, I appliquéd the baby's initials for a more customized effect...


The quilt above is a combination of Red, black and ivory while the blanket below is gray, pink and Ivory. I only used one Rolie Polie plus my ivory fabric, and I got two blankets! For the back, I used soft terry cloth.


The baby is going to be born to a very loving family; awesome parents and THREE fun brothers. My Rachel has two older brothers to protect her, but at the same time they toughen her up. So, she love's all the girly stuff, but at the same time, she loves being a tomboy. Whenever she is with the guys (my boys, hubby and his brother), she is laughing at the burping sounds and worse, makes me worried a little, but I guess that will give her an "edge" to her personality.

I thought the zigzag design is perfect for a baby girl with three brothers to keep her on her toes. :)

Clothes - Memory Blanket - and Mini Clothes

When I first started blogging, I posted about Rachel's baby clothes and that I had a hard time saying good-bye. I ended up making a memory blanket out of them and I was soo happy with the results...



For other people, the story of the "I can't part with my kids clothes" will be ended here. Not me. Yep, you guessed right, I still couldn't throw away the scraps of the scraps of the baby clothes (Please don't roll your eyes...). I tucked them away and forgot about them.

Lately, Rachel has been into playing house, big time, and taking care of her baby dolls. She has three baby dolls, but I have never bought extra clothes for them. The other day, I have noticed that she is exchanging clothes among those three dolls and trying to come up with new combinations (maybe she wasn't thinking that deep, but at least that's what I thought). They looked really funny.

Then, those scraps came to my mind, I decided to make some clothes for her baby dolls.


I used two different fabrics to make this skirt.


Ruffle tunic and a couple of headbands


Polka dot is always my favorite. Apron and headband for doing house work...


Same dress with Rose scarf for going out.


Sundress with Apron also works...


I haven't given her these clothes yet, but tomorrow, I know I am playing house with Rachel accompanied by three baby dolls in their new outfits. :)

Link Party Time!

After giving much thought, I decided to try hosting a link party regularly. It will be every Wednesday, and next time I will make sure that you can start linking from Tuesday night. I can't say that I will do a giveaway every time, but if I have something, I might, so who knows... I think it will be fun to see what everyone is up to and to get to know more of you.

Before I start the party, I will share my latest project first... I have been working on this baby blanket for the last couple of days. Christopher's teacher is going to have her first baby soon, she has been such a wonderful teacher for him; I wanted to do something nice.

I love making baby blankets like this. They are quick projects, I get to play around coordinating fabrics, and I looove the feel of minky while I am working on it.

For the back, I used the same minky shown in the picture. There are zig-zag stitches on the edges.


I hope she and her baby boy will like it...


Ok everyone, it is your turn! The rules are simple:

1. Please post something YOU made. It doesn't matter if it is crochet, quilt, clothing, anything would be fine. I want to see it!

2. Link to your specific post, that way it is easier for everybody to find and read it.

3. Please grab the "Tea Rose Home" grab button, and link back from your post. If you can mention the party in your post or place the button on your side bar, that would be great! I want more people to have a chance to come and show off their creation.


4. One more thing, please DO NOT link anything inappropriate or any kind of advertisement.

Go visit people on the list and say hi! I can't wait to see your projects!

Down Memory Lane---Quilts for Michael ---

A while ago I went down memory lane, remembering the quilts I made for Christopher. I am going to do the same thing for Michael's quilts today.

For the first one, I used a pattern by The Ginger Cookie Company called "X's". I fell in love with the design! I used my scrap pieces for most of the parts. The hardest part was hand quilting it in the areas with seams, it was very hard to quilt. So, if I ever decide to make this quilt again, I would machine quilt it for sure.


The second quilt is my original design. I just drew things that I thought future Michael would like. I also included his initials too. This quilt holds special memories for me. I held him and we pointed out all the things on the quilt and he smiled and giggled while we did that.

I guess somethings are so precious that you will never forget.


The Third one is his circus quilt. I found the design in one of the embroidery books and designed the wall hanging for it. I wanted to do an American Flag theme room for the boys in the future and thought that this might be a good decore on the wall. When I look at it now, I think the animal rights group may not like this though...


And of couse, I did this flannel throw for Michael too. He uses it all the time.


Sometimes I make quilts to put in a show or just to hang it on the wall. I also make quilts that are meant be used. I feel warm and fuzzy when my loved ones are wrapped in the quilts I have made. I feel like I am giving them secret hugs.

In the near future, I will take you down memory lane for Rachel's quilts.

Thank you for coming down memory lane with me!

Down Memory Lane---Quilts for Christopher---

Christopher 3yrs old
Sometimes people would ask me if I make stuff for my boys... YES I DO! But, I guess the question is totally valid, because I post things I've made for Rachel all the time but not the things I've made for the boys.

Well, let me tell you some of the things that happened to the things I made for the boys.

I made a small back pack with a pocket and a tiny teddy bear that had the letter "C" on it (this was for Christoher. I thought he could put his toy cars and snacks in there when we go out. The teddy bear was his little "friend"... Well, everytime I try to put it on him, he screamed and also, he took the bear, and kept throwing it, so, I have no idea what happend to the bear.

I stitched several pillows for both of the boys to decorate their room. I didn't see them for while and I was wondering about that. When I was going to wash their beds, I found them between thier beds and the wall. All, squished. I asked them why they stuffed the pillows there, and they said,"We put pillows in there, so the monster won't come and get us!" Hmm... lovely.

The things I made and they use and love are the super hero capes (although, they out grew the capes...) and passenger bags to carry thier gameboys. I guess for the boys It has to be something they use, and is practical; not something I think is cute or decorative and not supposed to be protected from dirty hands and stuff.

We girls love pretty things don't we? Eventhough, some... or lots of the things we buy are not something we need, we love to beautify our space.

This is probably why I make more stuff for Rachel. It is not that I love my boys less, she loves pretty things and appreciates them more. Also, I just can't help myself from picking up pretty fabrics!

Well, I just want to share with you all, some quilts I made for Christopher. Here is the proof that I love him too! :)

I made this one, before he was born. I was at the Baby Gap and saw a quilt, I loved it so I drew a quick sketch. That same night I started making the quilt and came up with this. I call it fake gap quilt.


This one was for his first birth day. I saw it in the Pottery Barn catalog. I loved the colors and the simple applique design and decided to copy it. It is only for personal use, that's ok, right?


I made this one as part of a Christmas gift for the boys. I used cowboy theme flannels. They use it all the time.


I wish, I could make more then of couse, I had two more children and I made them some quilts too. There is one quilt top waiting to be quilted for Christpher, whenever I feel I am ready, I will do it.

Those pictures remind me of when he was little. I should go and tuck him in.

I will post Michael and Rachel's quilt's pictures in the near future. Thank you for coming down memory lane with me!

Basket Makeover

I am feeling a lot better today, which means... I am back in to sewing! I am working on this quilt and I have another project I want to do.

I made this baby quilt for Rachel, when I was still pregnant with her.



In fact, I start working on this one rignt after I found out that I was having a girl. The fabric I used is one of my most favorite lines from Moda, designed by "Three Sisters" called "Sea Side Roses". In fact I love these fabrics so much that I named the quilt after the line.



I sewed this tag on the back of the quilt, and was going to write the name of the baby when I decided her name but forgot about it. My first two were boys, and I made them a bunch of quilts and blankets. I was so excited that I was finally able to make a quilt for a baby girl! I went to a quilt shop and when I saw these gorgeous fabrics, I almost fainted. They were exactly what I was looking for, delicate flowers, soft colors of pink and greens...sigh

Anyway, I finally decided what I am going to do with the left over fabric. I found this fantastic basket at DI about six month ago. I took off the old lining and cleaned it. I was going to get back to the project when I find the perfect fabric for the lining. Ha! I had it all along.



The summer is half way over but I don't think it is too late to have a sweet basket to go out, right?

Rachel's Babies' baby quilts

My daughter Rachel is one little busy girl. She has 3 baby dolls to take care of. When I make a quilt and have left overs, I make a baby doll quilt for her to play with. Last time when I was working on this quilt, there was some left overs, so I made a third baby doll quilt.



This quilt is 17" by 19". This is my second attempt at machine quilting. I just have to keep practicing.



While I was working on it, Rachel kept asking, "Is it mine?" I'm so glad that she gets excited when I make something for her. I hope someday she will pick up sewing and we can sew together. Wouldn't that be fun!