Archive for June, 2011

Yesterday evening I went to see my mom give a “mini” quilt trunk show at the home of a blogging friend of mine, Amber of A Little Bit Biased.

She was assigned to talk to her quilt group about color… which she didn’t end up saying very much about except that you need to put what you love into your quilts…. and don’t worry as much about the rules.

She only brought about 20 quilts or so, which is truly a fraction of my mom’s total quilts she’s made.

Here is a peek of a few of them.

This one above is called Aunt Essie’s cupboard… all 30′s fabrics of course.

Oooh, my pictures are terrible!  I was more interested in what was going on to fiddle with my camera settings.  But this is a cool quilt graphically… also in 30′s… with lots of great polka dots.

300 small Needle Turned Appliqued baskets make up this quilt.  As in three HUNDRED folks!  And like many of my mom’s quilts, it’s hand quilted.  Quite a labor of love.

But that’s just the half of it.  This is the second of this quilt pattern my mom has made.  So really it was 600 baskets in all.

And the best part, she was actually sad when she stitched the last stitch.  She truly loves the journey.

I LOVE this Sunny Day’s pattern from Geoff’s Mom Quilt Co.  My mom made this quilt this spring in homage to the red and white quilt collection displayed at the Folk Art Museum in New York City.

This quilt has been making it’s cheerful appearance in my family room this spring.  It’s another 30′s.  The real star of this quilt is the ice cream cone border. Can you see the scallops?  Oh how I love this quilt.

I’m around my mom and her quilts so much… but it was still wonderful to go and hear her talk about them and her creative process.

As part of the Arm and Hammer Switch and Save Challenge I have a few more tips on dealing with dirty laundry.

When I asked about your biggest summer laundry challenges there was A LOT of discussion about stained and stinky laundry. Here are a few solutions that are working for me:

First, conquering smelly laundry:  I wrote about my husband’s smelly running clothes last summer…  after discovering the power of baking soda to conquer the sweaty stink.  Since then, I’ve refined my process even more.  I’ve found that if I use 1/4 cup baking soda in the pre-wash dispenser and 1/2 cup vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser of my front load washer it works wonders for removing the stinky running smell.  I use a HE front loader washing machine, but this process can also be achieved with a top loader by simply adding 1/2 cup baking soda in the wash cycle and waiting to add 1 cup of vinegar when the rinse cycle starts.  To really knock out any lingering smell, hang your clothes outside to dry on a clothesline. Sun and breeze work wonders on smells.  This wash and dry treatment is always enough to tackle even the stinkiest clothes my husband can produce.

Here’s another stinky wash problem some of you might have faced.  Sometimes I forget to take clothes out of the washing machine for a day or two… and the clothes take on an awful mildewy odor.  I used to rerun the whole load… which seemed SO wasteful.  Nowdays, I sprinkle in 1/2 cup baking soda right on top of the load and run a “rinse and spin only” cycle.  This is so much better that running the whole load through a complete cycle again.  Unless the clothes are really stinky, this has been enough to freshen them up.  Plus adding the baking soda to the rinse really softens the clothes up nicely.  The best solution is not to leave clothes in the washer… ah huh…  hopefully someday I’ll be that smart.

Last but not least, since I started using Arm and Hammer plus Oxiclean Power Gel Laundry Detergent over the last month and a half, I’ve experimented with it as a pretreatment on some nasty stains.  I simply rub the gel detergent right on the stain before washing.  This trick has worked great for removing more stubborn stains that might not have come out without pretreating… ie. grass stains on the jean knees and ketchup spilled down the front of a t-shirt.

OK, enough stain talk, are you ready for another giveaway?   Enter for a chance to Win a $25 Visa Gift Card compliments of the Arm and Hammer Switch & Save Challenge.

To enter leave a comment completing the sentence,  “I could use $25 for…. ” Fabric…. or a night out with my husband to the movies or to Five Guys for their outrageously good french fries with some malt vinegar sprinkled on top (not a very healthy craving I have at the moment)… or flowers for my garden… or some new flip flops – well that’s what I might spent it on anyway.

The Rules:

• Contest closes on Thursday, June 23th, 2011 10:00 MDT

• Only one comment per person please.

• Random winner will be announced on Friday, June 24th

Be sure to head over to the Arm and Hammer Switch and Save website and enter for a chance to win $25,000!  How fun would it be to win $25,000?!   Let’s see… how would I spend that?

****** This is a sponsored post for Church & Dwight Co., Inc,  the maker of ARM & HAMMER branded products, who is compensating me  to try different products. Click here for a coupon to Save $1.00 on any 2 ARM & HAMMER Laundry Detergents.