Clean

So I was reading my friend Kate's blog post about making her own laundry detergent and I couldn't resist trying it out myself. One of the comments she got on her original post was that she has two little girls, and the poster wanted to see how the homemade stuff stood up to a load of boy clothes.

Let me tell you, I put it up against the ultimate in boy clothes - a load of the stuff my husband and sons (ages 11 and 13) wore to play paintball on Sunday in the muddy cold. The before and after pictures say it all:

The clothes came out at least as clean as when I use regular detergent plus OxiClean, if not cleaner. They definitely smelled better. It's not so much a scent, but a lack of scent and a definite clean air smell. Like clear water or fresh air. In fact, I like this new concoction so much that I've been using it for every load, including my delicates. I can't wait to try it on a quilt.

Speaking of quilts, I finally finished piecing my last kaleidoscope blocks based on your voting. Since there were four blocks that were definitely in the lead and I only needed three, I had a tough decision. But when I looked at my original set, there was one that jumped out at me and was way too red (bottom left corner in the first picture). So I took that one out and made the four winners. Thanks for voting! I'll keep you up to date as I work on this quilt.

Have a great week!