The Pillow Shams!

I worked on the Pillow Shams yesterday.  I think they look great.  A perfect match for the duvet cover.

 

It is an envelope pillow cover.  I've made several of these over the year, but never one for a bed pillow.  I followed the instructions on here - Easy envelope pillow tutorial from Freshly Picked. Great instructions and so easy!  I love how you can change the look of any room with a simple pillow cover. 

It turned out to be a duvet cover.

What started out as a quilt, turned into a duvet cover.  I made the triangle squares, and made them into the quilt top.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I found a Mysa Ronn down quilt in the Ikea as-is for dirt cheap.  After a couple of hot water washes, it was like new.  I found a beautiful 400 thread count 100% cotton sateen sheet at my favourite thrift store for $1.50.  It became the back of the duvet cover.  I added 4 giant snaps across the bottom of the duvet cover for easy access.

This afternoon I am making pillow shams.  I love the colourful squares!  Good thing I have another sheet for the back of the shams.

We made laundry detergent!

DD and I are avid Pinteresters. Is that even a word? We both had how to make homemade laundry detergent pinned and wanted to try it. 

We were in Bellingham last month and we bought the Fels Naptha soap, borax and washing soda.

I grated the soap, and put it in a large pot...

Filled it with hot water, and heated it up to melt the soap shavings. 

We filled the 5 gallon bucket with hot water, and added the melted Fels Naptha, 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda. We mixed it well and let it cool. 

When it was cooled, we poured it into these containers. 

 Here is the recipe we used for handmade laundry detergent:

1 bar of Fels Naptha soap
1 cup of Borax
1 cup of washing soda
a big pot ( that holds more than 2 gallons)
a grater
a funnel
a long spoon or stick for stirring. 

5 gallon bucket to mix the detergent in

Grate the soap (I used a cheese grater) and put it in the large pot.  Add about 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. (about 10 minutes)  Remove from heat.  Fill the bucket about 1/2 full with hot water.   Now add your soap mixture and stir.  Add the borax and washing soda.  Stir well.  Now fill the bucket with water and stir.  When cooled, pour into your containers using a large measuring cup and funnel.

The recipe I have says to use 1/2 cup of detergent, but others recipes I read say to use 1/4 cup.  I am going to try the 1/4 cup first, and if necessary will add more in future. 

Triangles Quilt

I'm working on my triangles quilt using this method- Half square triangle tutorial from In Color Order. Since I am making a queen size, there are a lot of triangles.  340 in fact.  I am really enjoying piecing together the quilt top, although I am now considering making this into a duvet cover.  I just bought an Ikea down comforter from the as-is for a steal, and this might just work. 
Now to see if I can upload a picture from my Iphone since the SD card for my camera disintegrated last week.  Yay for me! It worked.
And this isn't all of the squares.........