... and so.....

Wishing you all a very very lovely 2020.... I am unable to come up with profound things to say but I do wish you lots of happiness

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I made a start in the sewing room.... (no surprises there) 

I had this plastic box marked 'Baby'... with a mixture of minky, chenille, muslin, flannelette, cotton, cotton bedlinen (new).

Our youngest grandbaby is 4 ... so they have been languishing a while.... mostly leftovers...

first up I chopped the muslin and chenille and got out my overlocker… which I tried to kill a month ago by sewing over a pin, then thinking I could change the blade, and instead I broke a needle, so I sent it for service and paid enough for 5 metres of fabric but it works very nicely thank you Mr Fixit ....

These make just lovely washcloths for bubz, and Mums too.....

Then some good used baby items got the chop... a towel and a muslin wrap.... overlock raw edges...

these are now dishcloths ...

 Then I went to put the dishcloths away in the drawer and took out horrible stained old ones ….

Which I took to put in the laundry to become dusters.... and saw the cupboard was full of all sorts so I started tidying.....

and discovered I had all the things to make up my cleaning stuff.....

.... decided I needed more laundry powder...…

MY LAUNDRY POWDER RECIPE... 

4 cups grated soap..... (this is the only bit of labour intensive - you can use an electronic thing but I have broken 2 with soap so I just use the good old grater)

2 cups washing soda

1 cup bicarb (or borax but all our water is recycled into the garden)

1 cup nappy soaker (optional)

Mix it all together... need 2 Tablespoons for a wash....

I think I have enough for a couple of years now.... this is a 4 litre container....

Then I made up my all purpose cleaner....

ALL PURPOSE CLEANER RECIPE (I do 4 lots at a time and have a heap of bottles ready)

1.5 litres water (1 cup boiled) 

300ml vinegar

60ml dishwashing liquid

25mil eucalyptus oil

3 Dsp washing soda (60ml) (same stuff I use for the laundry powder)

Mix washing soda with boiling water to dissolve.  Add remaining ingredients

I use it almost everywhere, wonderful for sinks, stoves, soaking cooking things (especially oil fried pans), kitchen bench, toilet..... blah blah blah.

Do not use on timber with a varnish... the eucalyptus ruins it.....

I have a few spray bottles in strategic places in the house....

Of course I recycle as much as possible but I do find they need replacing - I think the eucalyptus slowly messes up the plastic....

Then I went on to make my glass cleaner..... (good for windows, mirrors, shower glass)

GLASS CLEANER RECIPE

Equal quantities of: 

alcohol (I use methylated spirits)

water

vinegar

None of these take much time to do at all (just grating the soap does a bit) and they all work fine for me... and have saved me a lot of money over the years.

There are a few stronger cleaners that I do buy and use periodically... so these don't fill all my needs.

Then I went back to the box that started it all....

and made a bunch more washcloths.....

... isn't this the cutest fabric, I think it's vintage and it was passed on to me by someone who had a bunch of lovely old fabrics....  If there had been enough I would have made myself a Bondi top with it....

Righto, Gotto Go..... there is cottons in there that can be made into little quilts.... with some help from other coordinates from my stash.... I would like to empty that box.....

Karen reminded me that bibs can be made... always useful and I do have a bucketload of press-studs!  I can use some of the fabrics and the towelling that is in there..... 

May your 2020 be fun... and happy.... and creative in any way you like

Saving in the Laundry.....

I've been pinning this quilt... delicious fabrics in a simple design

.. then I needed a stretch so I went to replenish supplies ....

Another of my savings is with Laundry Powder....

Yea, I know.... better things to do with your time....

There is such a range of detergents available.. the cheapest I saw was about $4/kg (homebrand).  Based on 1/4cup needed per wash that's probably 15 washes...... or 26c a wash.....

Assuming one wash a day using the cheapest brand it's about $94.90 a year on laundry powder....

I spend $12 a year and it takes me 5 minutes to get it together

This is my recipe:

2 bars laundry soap (homebrand) 

1 x 500g bag of baking soda (homebrand)

(you can use Borax instead of baking soda but if you use grey water, which I do, it is not advised)

500g (or half a bag) washing soda (Lectric is found in woolies)

(If out of Australia I don't know any equivalents... sorry)

Grate up your laundry soap..... this is what takes up the time .... about 3 minutes per bar!!

Mix them all together....

I find the 1kg yoghurt container is perfect ..... this is over 6 months supply for me

Use 2 level teaspoons per wash (in most detergents there is a lot of extra salts... they don't do anything but add bulk because we seem to think a big cup of detergent means a better wash...)

I have a fun spoon which holds the 2 teaspoons nicely....

That's it....

of course if you do more washing you make more savings

P.S. I do use a tablespoon of the Di-san (Aldi's napisan equivalent) in my white wash... adds a bit of extra cost and also I do need help with hard stains (but I think we all do whatever detergent we use)

.. and then I made a big mess with cutting blocks and applique preparations....

Righto, Gotto Go... I've just saved $100 ... shall I use it on fabric?

Wendy is hosting

this Friday... sign ups are HERE.... hope you can join us.... Wendy has made chocolate pudding.  I've got a load of handwork I want done....

Fixing......

In my attempt to reduce my grocery bill and also do more environmentally friendly cleaning (but without too much extra work!) I am trying out a few alternative cleaning methods....

This week I just sighed at my shower door... why do they make clear glass ones?  they only look nice when they are new ....

Here are the comparison pictures... there is an improvement.... and it wasn't hard work either and inexpensive 

The etching marks aren't completely gone but they are a whole lot better....

Shannon Lush is the clean queen in Australia and her recommendation for the 'etching' that happens to the glass due to the suds and salts is....

~ spray with vinegar and wipe clean

~ using a rolled up pair of pantihose wipe over with small amount of sweet almond oil

(I found this at a chemist ... $9 for 100ml and it will last forever as I hardly used any)

this picture shows when I started wiping with the oil... you can see the marks where it has helped...

This remove etching  treatment will need to be done regularly (like once a month which is not bad) as the almond oil does wear off.... 

Has anyone else tried this... how did it work for you.. any improvement ideas?

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Now to something much more pleasant and happy making....

I finished off the edging of my framed hexagons and put them together.....

... and sighed....

... you can clearly see where I went wrong???..

... so I left it and went to talk to my sewing machine.... as she was being friendly to me...

sewing on the binding... I saw this tip somewhere.... I have a lever lift for my machine foot but you can use the leg under the machine.... It did help not to get those miles of binding in a big rolled up knot...

... last night I fixed the hexagons table topper.....

These are lovely little stitchery designs by Michelle.... I love them... and I love the happy Christmas fabric I used to frame them (Nancy Holverson I believe!)

I traced an extra heart by mistake and Michelle sent me an extra picture on purpose so I have two matching coasters to go with the topper.... 

.. they are perfect to hold the Christmas bottles glasses of beer and wine

Thank you so much Michelle... these have been such fun

Righto, Gotto Go.....  no cleaning today.... I'm going to sew....

Oh Rats ............

.... well.....mice actually.... we have had several in our pantry over the last few weeks and since the peanut butter treats haven't been eaten for a week I can assume they are gone....


.... but today I had to get on and clean the pantry of mice poo..... lucky for you I am not going to show you before and after pictures of mouse poo...


.. but I did want to show you what I use for cleaning ....

 It's wonderful in the kitchen... leaves the stainless steel benches lovely and shiny....

~ Cuts into grease so well so I use it on the bench top of the stove...


~ It was wonderful cleaning the pantry cupboards... I don't know about everyone else but I find there is always spills and that sticky oil areas.... just a wipe and they were done.... 


~ I found a few spice bottles that I wanted to recycle and got the labels off but the sticky was still on the side.... just a spray of this and the eucalyptus cleaned it off easy peasy...

~ I use it in the bathroom and round the toilet too.... 

The original link that I used is HERE....Thanks to Bev (my cleaning agony aunt!) who sent me the link and recommended it to me..... 


here is how I make mine

Miracle Spray
(more or less amounts I used) - I like using cup measurements but they are in mls in the original...


1.5 litre water (1 cup boiled)
1 cup vinegar  - I used cheap Cleaning Vinegar
1/4 cup dishwashing liquid 
1 Tbsp eucalyptus - love the smell of this and I use this for all sorts in the house
3 dessertspoons "Lectric" soda (washing soda) - concentrated washing soda found in the laundry area of the supermarket.....



Dissolve the washing soda with the cup of boiling water then add all remaining  ingredients.

Fits into a 2 litre bottle.  I had a 2 litre milk bottle which I used and then I bought myself a nice $4 spray bottle which I decant it into...

It's economical, I like the idea of making my own cleaning agents... and most of all it works....  this is now my standard cleaning agent....

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I have been working on my fusion blanket.... and trying to find the right yarn and cotton to use.... I got some lovely bamboo/cotton mix for the crochet

my first attempt I used a double thread of thin crochet cotton for the blanket stitch... it is not right for me... a bit delicate and wobbly ....

the second sample on the pink patch is what I will use.. .it is a finer bamboo yarn

this is where the butterflies fit in though not all the patches will have butterflies...
(the butterflies are reusing some from my Butterfly Garden pattern)

The soft pastel is recycled doona cover  .... and the brighter daisy is from some bargain flannellette ....

I think the bamboo/cotton yarn will be the most expensive part of this project - and that I got for 30% off......


Tutorial for this project found HERE - I found it irresistable

Righto... Gotto Go..... EVERYTHING needs to go back into the pantry now!!!  I would rather stitch.......

(My apologies for this spread out formatting - not sure what happened today but I can't seem to change it)