More Birthday goodies

In keeping with my crafty-ness from Sunday, yesterday I moved on to another project--and another birthday gift for another niece. My niece Alexis will be twelve in April. She is currently obsessed with the Jonas Brothers--and Nick Jonas, in particular. So, we have the "I love Nick" collection for her:





Yes, I went a little overboard with three shirts (and Rob was saying, "is she really going to wear this?" Poor thing just doesn't get girls... I hope she wears them! Panic!). It was actually pretty easy, once I got all the equipment together. First, I downloaded some cool fonts. Then I traced them onto freezer paper. Then I cut the letters out with an exacto knife (that was the most labor-intensive part), and then ironed the freezer paper to the shirt. Then just add fabric paint and remove the stencil, and voila: your spring wardrobe!

I decided on Sunday to attempt an x-string quilt. Erin at house on hill road made one a couple of weeks ago, and it's beyond beautiful. Erin is very good at taking something fabulous looking and explaining how to do it in such a way that I find myself thinking, "hey, I could try that." So here we are. I decided to start with a lap-size quilt (since the only quilts I've made were the doll quilts for Valentine's day) and to use up most of my stash of little calico florals. So I've cut most of the pieces, and yesterday I learned that I cut the wrong size for one of the strips. So it's off to the fabric store for me to get just a little more fabric (plus the backing and batting) to attempt this project. One I've successfully completed it, then I can make a bigger one with fabulous new fabric (see where this is going? Right to the great fabric websites!).

And I have one more niece with a spring birthday...time to start thinking about what to make for her!