Some Free Quilting Tutorials and Homemade Laundry Soap

Free until December 15th!  A Sharon Schamber video.  I love watching her quilt.  :)
http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/sharon_schamber2.php

Also, I like to visit the Inbox Jaunt.  She has wonderful tutorials for free motion quilting.
http://theinboxjaunt.com/quilt/tutorialsprojects-2/free-motion-quilting-tutorials/

This week I had to make some more laundry soap.  I use the recipe from One Good Thing by Jillee and I make the trial size amount:

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2013/02/homemade-laundry-detergent-trial-size-version.html

I have been using this recipe for over 6 months now and I have to say that my laundry is just as clean as when I used to use Gain.  But with trying to eliminate as many fragrances and chemicals in my environment as I can, I gave this a try.  As far as tough stain removal, it is not as good as Gain.  And I haven't found a really good stain remover that is homemade.  Yet.  Just rubbing some Fels Naptha on the stain works on some but not all stains.  So I still use Shout for that.  I only use 2 coffee scoops of the laundry soap in a load (that is 2 tablespoons!) and at first when I saw that there were no suds I was pretty skeptical.  But it works!  Even Rudi's white undershirts are perfectly clean.  I suppose that is because of the oxygen powder in the recipe.  As a fabric softener, I just use 1/2 cup of vinegar in the rinse compartment of my washer.  And my laundry smells clean and fresh.  There is some static cling, though...especially now that winter is here.  But I am working on that, too.  I use a tennis ball in a sock in my dryer to help and it does make the towels nice and soft.  My towels smell wonderful and are soft and fluffy.

Here are some pictures of making laundry soap.  Honestly, it takes less than 5 minutes!  I do most of it in my food processor and find that if I leave the bar of soap unwrapped for a day or so, it grates really well.  It is drier.  This time I forgot but it grated just fine.

Here are the ingredients.
 

Grating the bar of soap.

 

Blending as much of the powdered ingredients as fits in the food processor.

And here is the finished product!  It is enough for about 3 or 4 months of laundry for the two of us and costs very little to make!  Another plus.  :)
 

Jillee's recipe calls for the fabric softener crystals which I used this time since I had some.  It makes the soap powder smell more like Gain but I haven't noticed it on the clothes afterward.  Next time I will not bother.  But I was curious.  :)

Today I am diffusing Zen and smells lovely in here.  And it looks like winter is here...finally....  ;)

http://www.sparknaturals.com/shop/zen-grounding-blend-5ml/?affiliate=57

(enjoy a 10% discount if you use coupon code: bobbins)