I read this article about the downside of microfibre cloths a few months ago and started looking for a new set of dish cloths that I feel comfortable using.  Microfibre is out, there are some water problems with cotton as well, so I rediscovered the knitting hemp I had in my stash. Last night at midnight, I started knitting a new set of diagonal kitchen cloths while I watched cooking videos.

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” 

Quite a few of you commented on how nice our blue quilt is (see previous post). I've blogged about this before but we must have a lot of new readers here, so let me explain the blue quilt again.  I bought the blue quilt at Ikea a few years ago when I needed a bed covering that hung down to the floor on both sides of our bed.  In winter, we have a top flannel sheet and a doona/duvet but they only hang to the bottom of the mattress. To be really cosy in a winter's night, we need a longer top covering.  The blue quilt is ideal, running from floor to floor over the top of the mattress.


But not to disappoint the quilters out there, I found the first quilt I ever made. I've only made two full quilts and this is the first one; the second was Shane and Sarndra's wedding quilt.  I made this little single quilt in 1980 when Shane was a tiny baby. A year later I had two tiny babies when Kerry was born 12 months after Shane.  I needed a cover to put on the floor so I could put both of them down. As they grew, we used the quilt as a play mat, a tent and a hide away and any number of other things. I think we even used it as a quilt for a while. I haven't seen the quilt for years but found it again this week when I cleaned out the linen press. There it was in all its unpretentious glory, lurking at the back of the cupboard.

As you can see in the photos, the quilt has been well and truly used and it's been washed many times. I don't remember much about its construction, only that in the late 1970s, I bought a bag of pre-cut Laura Ashley patchwork squares and set about sewing them together when Shane was sleeping. The backing is an old brown sheet and all the stitching is done on the machine. It's not made well, it's very simple but it holds a lot of memories for me.  It's in need of repair now with one of the squares frayed and unstitched and all along the edge, signs of wear and age need some sympathetic hand sewing. I'm not going to replace or hide any ageing fabric, the wear is part of the quilt now and I want to keep that, but I will tidy it up and repair the obvious.

When the quilt has been repaired, I'll return it to its former productive role and use it to protect my off white lounge from the grandkids. I like to use everything I have. Everything I own now has to work for its keep. It should have another 10 years of life left in it, I think I do too, so as soon as it's repaired, I'll put it to work on the lounge and it will be part of my daily life again.

Do you have any of your old handmade quilts still doing service in your home?

You can save quite a bit of money if you learn how to do some basic sewing. Sewing on buttons, mending a torn sleeve, taking up a hem, replacing a zipper and turning a collar are all skills that can be learned and put into practise when needed. By doing these minor repairs you'll be able to keep family clothing in service longer.

My favourite summer nightgown started fraying on the yoke a little while ago. There was a time when I would have seen that as a signal to go out and buy another one but I'm wiser now, I mended it and saved myself some money. I used a piece from an old cotton tablecloth that I'd used for other repairs.

This is the easiest kind of common sense sewing.  I just cut out the yoke and used it as a template to cut out the replacement fabric. I made it a double thickness so I could pin the bottom of the nightgown in between the two layers, tidied up the fabric where the new seam would be, pinned  and  sewed it together on the sewing machine. 

I had to make sure I had both sides of the new yoke sewn securely in place. I did that by pinning it together before I started sewing.

 The recipe for this elderberry tonic is in The Simple Home.

It's calm in our home, even with four people here. Yesterday we had Jamie for the day and my sister Tricia is staying with us for a couple of weeks.  The routine is held together by meal times and cups of tea. Isn't that a lovely way to live a day?  This morning, just after breakfast, Hanno, Tricia and Jamie drove down to the coast to the Caloundra markets. They said it was mostly knick-knacks for tourists and there were no fruit and vegetables. They did come back with a very good loaf of rye bread with seeds though. We had a slice each with our lunch which was corned beef hash - using up the leftovers from Saturday's lunch.

Looking towards the chicken coop and creek from the house. From left those trees are : native fig, pecan, Eureka lemon and Washington orange.

Tricia knitting and watching a Norwegian cooking program.

Tricia and I have been working on crafts for the new book although she has done much more than I have.  Most of the time I've been at my laptop, fan on, door closed, writing.  But even though I've been closed away, I can feel the calmness in our home. We are working, relaxing, reading, crafting, cooking and baking, but the rhythm here is quiet and peaceful. It makes such a difference to work in a tranquil home.

Chocolate buttermilk cake.

I'm really pleased to tell you the book is half finished. It's all going along quite well with only a few brain freezes in my department. If it keeps going this way, it will all be finished on time in mid-June. Thank you for your continued visits, even with fewer posts. I hope you read through the archives because I've been told more than once that there are real treasures there.

I hope you are well and if you're in Australia, that school holidays are treating you kindly. My plan for the coming week is to keep writing and cooking but I do have to make some laundry liquid and some four ingredient soap. I'll probably do that on Tuesday. What will you be doing in the coming week?

During the week as I was ironing I came across a pillow case that was frayed and very thin in a few places. It came in a set of a fitted sheet, top sheet and two pillow cases and to the best of my knowledge it's about ten years old. A lovely pair of blue and white check sheets that I always enjoyed using and thought looked lovely and fresh on the bed. Oh well, all good things must end, the rest of the set survived. I got four good sized rags from that one pillow case and they will probably last for another year, working for a different purpose. I love doing those little things that help me save money and lighten our foot print here. Such a short amount of time to make a difference.

As the fabric was so thin, I decided to make the rags double thickness so after I cut it into four, I stitched the perimeter to keep it together, then pinked the frayed ends off. The pinking will ensure the edges don't fray again and when I'm cleaning, I won't leave threads of cotton behind.

I haven't bought any sort of cleaning or washing up cloth for about 12 years now and have been very happy with how I can extend the life of worn out fabrics simply by cutting them to shape and tidying up the edges. I smile when I think of young Rhonda buying cleaning cloths and throwing out useful old towels to landfill. Such an innocent I was, working for the enemy. I think in those 12  years I probably saved close to $500 just on cleaning cloths. Amazing eh? Here are the current cleaning cloth prices at my local shop: Chux original 10 pack $3.99, Chux super giant 5 pack $3.99, Jif Ballerina cloth @ $1.70 each, Woolworths cleaning cloth domestic wipes extra $3.29, Chux kitchen scrubs non-scratch 4 pack $2.54. On the other side of the coin, a recycled pillow case, towels and sheets: zero, maybe five cents for the electricity. And it has the added advantage of not sending more rubbish to the tip - not the old commercial cloth when it's short life is over and not the packaging that it comes in. I wonder what a ballerina cloth is.

And speaking of dish and cleaning cloths, Faye's post on The Blessed Hearth about loving your kitchen struck a cord with me.  I took Faye's lead and decided to make up a couple of fabric cleaning cloths to see if I liked them. The answer is a resounding YES! I love using them for washing up, wiping down the bench tops and general cleaning. So I made up a few more to test over the coming months.

When the sides are sewn together and the cloth is turned out to the right side, edge the border with zig zag stitch.
This is the most basic of sewing so if you've never attempted anything on the sewing machine before, this is your project. Simply cut out a square as big as you want it to be, mine are about 10 inches square. I think you need two layers for absorbency, and they have to be sewn together.

1. Turn them so the right sides are facing inwards, then stitch around three sides. 
2. Cut the right angle corner off fairly close to the stitch line so it will sit properly. 
3. Turn the cloth right side out, turn the hem of the fourth side under and pin it, then zigzag stitch around the border of the cloth. 
4. Finished, but don't forget to wash the cloths before you use them. Many fabrics are dressed with chemicals and it needs to be washed off.

I made two cloths with flannel one side and recycled terry towelling on the other for heavier cleaning. They don't dry as fast as the knitted cloths, but it's not a problem if I hang them to dry in between uses or on the side of the laundry hamper when they need a wash.

I made seven cloths in about 25 minutes. So if you aren't a knitter, here is a good way of making cleaning and washing up cloths that provide a good cleaning tool and cost next to nothing. Believe in yourself, you can do this.