Soap nuts, just bag it

ok, even though I love the ease of use of the liquid detergent made by the soap nuts, and the flexibility of using hot or cold water, chasing triplet toddlers around every day doesn't allow me the time to make it when I run low.  This is something I wish someone had told me about soap nuts, the little secret that helps when you need to just throw 5 +/- soap nuts in a bag and just keep the laundry going....

When the bag no longer has that odd, described 'vinegar' smell and just smells like an over washed stick then it is time to retire those nuts.  The odd smell of the nuts actually leaves your laundry smelling just clean and not like the odd, unfavorable smell the nuts themselves have.  If the bag is on it's 4+ cycle of use and smell has shifted, well, that is what your clothes will smell like.

I've read that the nuts will turn grey or mushy when they have reached their maximum washing capacity but I have never found this useful.  If they lose their characteristic smell then they are done, pretty simple.

Receiving Blanket Rag Quilt Pillow Cover

This sewing project was easy, a pillow form, receiving blankets, a tape measure, scissors and a sewing machine and voila!  a fun way to capture a piece of the past.  Pictures coming.....

1.  Choose any pillow form

2.  Measure the pillow and then divide into squares

3.  Cut squares adding 2" per inch of desired width (8" x 8" cut 10"x10")

4.  Start by placing two squares together w/print side facing OUT and sew seam of 1"

5.  Add on squares as needed to achieve desired lengh & width, seam should be on the patterned, outside of pillow

6.  Measure out two backs, measuring width by 2" and length add 3" or 4" on

7.  Overlap the two pieces so that they overlap making it easy to add/remove the pillow

8. With right sides now facing each other attach the front to the back

6.  Last but not least snip vertical cuts to give the raw edge a fringe

7.  Throw in wash to make it look ragged and not just like fringe

Receiving blankets seem to pop up on everyone's registries it is only certain that if you have had a baby a few have passed through your household.  In our case, with our triplets at 10 weeks premature, receiving blankets were one of the few personal items we could bring to them in the NICU.  Two of the triplets were in the hospital for 2 months and the third nearly 4 months.  In the NICU the nurses used the blankets in their little hospital beds, called isolates, as bedding to line the isolate as well to swaddle them. Since these blankets are tied into the first months of my children's lives whether adorning their isolate or when snuggling with them it seemed like they should continue on.  I knew I wanted to do something quilted since we had a fair amount to work with but wasn't sure what.  After the kids no longer needed them I remembered being intrigued by rag quilts.  A rag quilt seem easy enough and also since I was going to do it on a smaller scale by making pillow covers.  These pillows are in their beds and come out on the rare occasion that they get to watch a movie or when they just want to have something fluffy and soft to sit on.