My friend Nyeema is like a little sister to me. She became a grandmother in July, however, baby Chase had to stay in the hospital to build his strength up. As Chase room was bring prepared, Nyeema informed me that her daughter selected an adorable dinosaur theme.

Using this theme, I texted her images of various fabric swatches to coordinate with his room. When one of the swatches caught her daughters eye, I immediately ordered this cozy flannel before it sold out. Lucky for me, it was ready for pickup in 24 hours. I was so ready t sew. I then asked Nyeema for Chase’s birth announcement info and embroidered it on quilt backing. Using the remaining fabric, I made a matching bunting. However, to not waste his embroidery sample, I made a memory box allowing her daughter to save items like his first pacifier, or hospital bracelet.

I was happy to squeeze in a matching big with a dinosaur theme.

I hope Chase like the beautiful colors of this warm flannel quilt and thank Nyeema for trusting my hands

Recently, my daughter told me that her childhood friend (my neighbors grandson) was expecting his first child any day. Steven is not just my neighbors grandson, he’s like another son. I immediately rummaged through my stash to make something special for the baby however, I had no idea what to make.

Because “Sire” was due in a few days, I had little to no time to piece together a quilt; therefore, I took a different approach and used Disney themed fabric to sew a custom quick quilt. When finished, I used the remaining fabric to make a matching bunting. This was made with a standard zipper, allowing mom and dad to lay him inside, zip and secure him in his car seat or just for a stroll to grandmas.

I needed COLOR! What better way to spend Easter, than to get up, dust off your sewing machine and create a colorful dress with inseam pockets. Take a look and see and let me know what you think.

Pattern company: Butterick 6220

Modifications: None

Would I make it again?: Yes, I intend on making this again with modifications for a longer torso to allow me to make a larger casing for the elastic

Difficulty: Not difficult. I just hate working on elastic casing.

My cousins are educators and parents of two precious little girls. I understand how important it is to lead our youth to a growth mindset so I made this fleece lined hoodie with pockets for their first born.

This wording is 9″x9″ and best suited for 4T-6T based on the size of the image.

After making a friend a lined hat and snud for Christmas, several orders came in and it’s kept me busy. What better way to combine my love for sewing and crochet.

To order, look at each style name below and click on “Store” in the menu bar.

Apricot color is named Pebbles

Slate and Teal are named DC

Winter White is named Beady

I few weeks ago, I posted a preview of my crochet project that looked like a mass of loops. Last night I finished and below explains the loops.

Being asthmatic and suffering COPD, winter months can be extremely hard on me but I do not like how a long scarf adds bulk under my coat.

I found a solution.

I made myself a braided cowl (yes with fringe) instead of a long scarf that will cover my neck AND a matching slouchie beanie.

I went to a well known local furniture store yesterday in search of microfiber sofa pillows. I selected the fabric and the salesperson said they were $75. I left. I could not justify $300 for $30 worth of fabric.

Later, I stopped by a fabric store’s upholstery department in search of a camel or tan color. Lucky for me the microfiber fabric was on sale for $19 a yard and they had what I needed.

Two yards and four zippers later I have four new 18″ pillows for the sofa and chaise.

A little after the Christmas holidays, I began crocheting skull caps for various charities affiliated with my employer as well as local hospitals. I also crochet baby clothes and blankets. Lately, my yarn stash has become ridiculous, therefore I’m at a point that I had to catalog my yarn in an iOS app to know exactly what I currently own. This ensures that when I am in a yarn shop, I am not unnecessarily buying yarn that I already own. Once I reached 103 skeins and hanks I felt that its best to buy a shelf.  The problem is, I was against investing in a Sauder shelf because they are compressed wood and I found Raymour & Flanagan too pricey if it’s just a yarn shelf.

Then I thought, “Wait a minute! I can do this!

Using a little ingenuity and an Xmas gift card from my daughter, I decided to make my own shelf to store my yarn and the flat screen in my sewing room.  I take pride in this because I did this without anyone’s support.

Here’s what I did:

First I picked up 8 wooden crates. Initially I wanted the heavy-duty $28 crates but yarn isn’t heavy so I opted for the $10 crates instead.  In reality the $28 crates would have defeated the purpose in saving money.  (If you use this idea for a desk or table that will hold lamps, books, a laptop, please invest in the $24-28 crates)

Even though I knew that my yarn would not weight much, I was unsure if the crates would provide stability,  so I decided to go to Home Depot and buy wood to support the back and base (I used birch – no specific reason other than color was close to the crates). .

Then next day, I felt that it would look really cool if I painted the crates white and stained the top and made the base.  To support my little flatscreen, I had the base cut 3″ deeper to ensure that it does not tip over.  Here’s where the fun began:

After work, and any time that I wasn’t watching Netflix, I began sanding. This was necessary to ensure that the wood does not snag the yarn.

I read that stain applies better if you apply wood conditioner so after sanding, I applied a coat of wood conditioner and allowed 30-45 minutes for it to absorb.  As I began toying around with the assembly of the crates, I got the idea to add feet. Ugh!  Here I go back to Lowes on Memorial Day weekend.  When I arrived, I honestly did not know how I was going to affix them or Lowe’s selection. I was overwhelmed and stared at various legs and bums for 30-45 minutes. I selected on a 4″ to raise the shelf off of the ground.  Because my shelf is going to be roughly 70″ wide, I felt support in the middle would be best, so I invested in 8.

Just look at the rich color! I was so pleased in this stain choice.i knew this would definitely pop once I painted the crates white.

The first really looked good. So I gave it a few days to completely dry, did a light sanding and added a second coat.  I then waited a few days to ensure that there were no sticky areas before assembling.

This is the outcome.

On Father’s Day 2018, I had the privilege of finally getting around to emptying some of the bags and boxes of yarn.  I wiped down the shelf, brought it upstairs to my sewing room, stocked it, and stood back to stare at my work and smiled.

I would have made my late mother proud!

After making my nieces jacket last month, I had fabric leftover and didn’t know what to do with it. I decided on a cute back pack to accompany her jacket. It’s lined and contains two exterior side pockets, a front and rear zipper compartment as well as inner

I blinged our the straps with gold ribbon.

This fully lined jacket was truly a labor of love. Made using Simplicity 8222, I actually did not have fabric in mind but fell in love with the fabric that I used for the lining and had to have it. That led me to a quest for fabric that complemented it for the jacket.

It features side pockets, rib knit cuffs and waistband with a faux buttoned belt embellishment on the back

I hope that my niece Nasariyah likes it