A few days later and I am still on a high about finishing this.

The first thing I’ve ever machine quilted! This is a baby quilt kit from QuiltCetera and it took me one afternoon to put it all together. The hardest part for me was arranging the pattern, and that was just me deciding where I wanted each block to be. I had two pieces of each fabric and then the pink tags to put together too. I didn’t notice until I was sewing the tags to the quilt that the material matches! I mean it’s the same pattern just pink or purple. I loved that so I made sure to match a tag to a block.

Really the big news is that this is machine quilted. I just got my new sewing machine I think last summer. I didn’t use it too often but when I did I just did standard straight line sewing, even though it came with a wide variety of feet. So I did a quick google search to figure out which was the walking foot because my manual is still packed away somewhere. A few minutes later and I was machine quilting!

The back turned out great because you can really see the diamond pattern that turned out.

I need to give it a quick washing and pack it up to be mailed. It’s a gift for a friend of mine who just had her first baby not quite a month ago. We also have a couple of onesie outfits and a toy for her.

Making the quilt felt so good. It took the better part of an afternoon, including taking a break here and there for whatever. I loved that in the chaos that is the house and is the etc room I was still able to complete something. I moved the sewing machine to the temporary kitchen table and we’ve been eating in the living room. Chris is gone at school right so we have a little bit longer that we can get away with that. We are also getting a new table next week!

I ordered some material to make more blankets like these for my newest nephew (due this fall) and a friend who is having twins soon. I can’t wait to machine quilt again, it was so fun and easy. I’m sure it would be tough if I tried to do something really big but for baby quilts, it’s perfect.

Sorry for no moving update - how about a picture of our new place to make up for it?

We are in military housing this time around and it’s nice. We have a fenced in yard, really nice neighbors and a pool! The community center has a work out area and more, but we haven’t checked it out beyond the pool. We have a four bedroom that is quite a bit smaller then our last home and, it has to be said, if I complain about a large home and how much it takes to clean it up - remind me not to.

While Chris was in school and we were in Montana for all those months all of our stuff were in storage. When Chris and a friend went to pack everything up, in the biggest moving truck we could get, we ended up leaving a lot of stuff. We had to leave a shelving unit we used in the garage, one I had in the closet in the craft room, a big desk of Chris’ (we had it for at least four years), a ladder we only owned for a couple of months and maybe I forgot something else. I can’t believe we had to leave that desk! It was huge though and very heavy - and after unloading the truck there was no way we could have kept it. There was some settling in the truck, like boxes got squished and such, but the stuff we left would have never fit.

I’m over having left all of that stuff now - but when we first got to TX I was very upset. We just bought that ladder! We used it only to paint the house and that was it. And the shelves - okay the garage ones, fine, but the ones I used in the closet! Those were a gift from my Dad a few years ago. I even cut them to make them fit. They are sold at any hardware store but if we couldn’t pack them before, is it worth buying again?

That’s the trouble with the military and moving yourself - you have to pack it all up and hope it all fits. I guess we just assumed all of it would. And not only would it not fit in the moving truck but this new place doesn’t have the right layout for a few things - the desk, no idea where that would have gone! Hindsight- I should have gone through our stuff before moving. I could have donated more then we did, we could have left something (the ladder and shelves!) at the house to stay with the house. At least then we could have still owned it. As it was everything was left in the storage unit which meant the owners got to sell or use the items for themselves.

We are mostly unpacked, just have four or five boxes still in the garage, but still need to hang things on the walls and finish rearranging. I moved a bookcase, the couch and coffee table yesterday. Chris is gone again at a school so I have a couple of weeks to get things finished up. My goal is to have every room basically done, the kitchen better organized (I do miss all the cupboards I had!), and at least one room will have pictures hung up. Once I get a room done I’ll share pictures.

It’s no secret I love etsy! I am there at least once a week looking around - adding to my favorite sellers and favorite product lists. Sometimes I even add to my cart but I’m really good about not impulse shopping. The past week I’ve been doing tons of homeschool research and looking around at what I have and also looking for some kid craft projects to keep them occupied.

Unfortunately for me the mail person doesn’t deliver packages directly to our door. We have a little stand that has all the post office boxes that will hold letters and whatever tiny packages come in. So the other day we got a slip in the box saying we had packages to pick up! I am glad the post office is close’ish and it’s by the grocery store so it was two stops in one.

One of the packages was something for Jake!

It’s a Green Monster!

Jake is so excited to get started on this guy. I need to cooperate and dig my sewing box out. When I was gone taking my nephews back to my brother, Chris piled stuff in what is now the Etc. Room (formally known as the Craft Room). So I need to dig out and then put back together. That reminds me, I need a moving post don’t I.

Back to the monster - isn’t he cute! He looks pretty easy to do. Alice has her own kit on the way but it’s not one of these. I’m trying to not have them do identical things which can be hard at times!