Soap, Cookies, and Quilting

Yesterday I made up another batch of laundry soap.  I don't know why I had been putting off making it, well I do know. I cleaned out under my kitchen island and thought that the bucket the kids were making mud pies with in the back yard was my laundry soap bucket.  Turns out it was in the garage the whole time.  Anyway, I made up a new batch and this time added orange essential oil.  I have found that the Fels Naptha bar that I have been using as a base is offensive to me.  I sneeze every time I make soap with it, and last night found that my daughter also sneezes from it as well.  The orange helps but I have read that you can use any sort of bar soap as a base.  I am going to try a different one next time  so that I still have the Fels Naptha on hand if it fails.

This is what the laundry soap looks like it globs together after it cools and I mix it up with a spoon and put it a clean milk jug.  I fill the jug a little less than half way full and top it off with water.  The recipe I use makes five gallons of concentrate that you dilute in half.  The container I'm using is a half gallon undersized so I cut the concentration in the jugs a bit to compensate.  It's quick and easy to make.

Here is a jug filled and ready to go.  If friends stop by while I'm making soap or pouring it into containers I send them home with a half gallon to try.  It is inexpensive enough that I do not mind and figure if they like it that will save them so much money in the long run.  Unless my memory fails me and I will come back and correct this later if I find it to be an error.  My friend and I calculated it costs a few points over 3cents for a load of laundry!  Not too bad!

I decided at lunch after I finished washing up the dishes to make a bath of Chocolate No-Bake Cookies.  They are so delicious... Oddly enough I can remember when I didn't care for  cookies!

Here is a quick photo of the circle quilt you might remember from my beginning  posts.  I am still working on it as I have time.  It is going to be rather large.  I am ready to pin and sew the next row on and will have 18 more rows to do before I can start on the next stage.

 

It is hard to see in the photo because of the intensity of the flash, but the closest edge is darker and the quilt gradually fades to lighter which will be more noticeable as the rows are added on.  I will spend the rest of the afternoon until the children arrive home sewing and getting the next row added on.  With luck I hope to get this finished before it's too cool to use it outside this fall.