Quilting, Soap making and fruits from our garden

A few weeks before my new granddaughter was born, I started making her a little quilt for her cot, so she could have something a personal gift from Granny.

I bought quilting squares with pink colours and a pink backing material, watched a couple of "Youtube" step by step videos on how to make a simple quilt and away I went. 
It's not perfect and I don't think I'll be taking up quilting as it's far too fiddly for my liking.
I hope little Elli will treasure her baby quilt 😊

The pink backing

The finished quilt

Usually once a year I make home-made soaps to use at home and to give as Christmas presents, using the Cold process method with involves combining oils with sodium hydroxide lye which causes a chemical reaction called saponification. These soaps should then only be used about 6 weeks later.

Recently I've been working with the Melt and Pour method where the soap ingredients that I purchase have already gone through the saponification process.

I'm loving this method as I find it is more compatible with my artistic vein and I can use soap dyes and fragrances and my imagination to make all sorts of different soaps.

Coconut and honey soap (left), Gelato (top),  Oats and Brown sugar (right)

Summer berry lollies, tiny butterflies to be used in glycerin soaps (left), a cupcake soap and Seascape soap

The soaps on the second photo were from my second soap session and I've got lots of ideas and more soaps to come with transparent glycerine where the tiny butterflies above will  be inserted.
Right now I've been giving a couple of soaps away as gifts, but eventually I would like to sell them at Christmas time or as party favours for weddings, christenings, etc.
What do you think, do you like them?

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In our garden some of the fruit trees are fruiting, others have just finished and others are just starting...
The fig tree in our front garden is still going, and I think I can still pick enough fruit for my third batch of fig jam.  Recipe here.

Fig Tree which I had to cover to prevent birds from eating the figs

Fig Jam

The passion fruit vine is flowering and fruiting (yellow ones). I have a purple one too, but that one is still just starting to flower.

Passionfruit vines

The mango tree, that only gave us 4 mangoes last year, has this year given about 30 mangoes! 

A few were picked on by birds which made me very angry, so I covered the remaining with newspaper to hide them. Eventually they started falling onto the grass and I would quickly bring them indoors.

I've just picked the last one on Tuesday this week and I've still got 4 in the fridge (slightly green) hoping they will last until Jose comes home on the 18th so he can taste what he planted. They are delicious and the aroma is amazing.

 And the 2 Papaya (paw-paw) trees are bearing plenty of fruit, but since we are in Autumn already I'm not sure the fruit will ripen.

Papaya trees

Very busy weekend - lemon cordial, soap and dinner/dance

This weekend I managed to achieve quite a lot on my to-do list.
On Saturday I made 4 litres of Lemon Cordial using lemon juice and a syrup made of 1 litre water to 1 kg sugar for every litre of juice. A lot of juicing, but worthwhile, natural and refreshing.

A nice glass of cordial with mint leaves

Then after a bit of preparation I finally made the soap from Rhonda´s recipe. It was easier than I had anticipated and today I have already taken them out of their silicon moulds and they will now dry for 6 weeks until they are ready to use.


Here is the recipe :

450ml rain water, or distilled water. (If using tap water let stand for 24 hours before using)
172gr caustic soda/lye
1litre olive oil (a cheap one will do)
250gr copha (vegetable fat made from hydrogenated coconut oil),found in the butter section or coconut oil.


Materials needed :
Measuring jug
Stainless steel pot (do not use aluminium pots)
Stainless steel, plastic or wooden spoon 
Kitchen thermometer
Scale
Mixer or electric blender
Moulds

Preparation:
- Measure all ingredients beforehand.
- Work in a well ventilated area, as when you mix the caustic soda with water, the mix can burn you or the the bench tops, and it emits fumes.
- Make sure there are no children or pets around when you are working with the caustic soda.


PS: Animal or vegetable fats can be used to make soap. All soaps are made using caustic soda, but when they go through the chemical process (saponification) all ingredients come together over the course of a few weeks and the caustic soda is neutralised making the soap safe to use. Home made soap contains natural glycerin unlike the commercial soaps where it is extracted and other chemicals are added to counteract this, and the glycerin is then sold as an expensive product.

Preparing and measuring the ingredients

1  - Measure all ingredients and oil the moulds first. Cover the counters with newspaper. 
      Wear gloves and goggles.                                                                        

 2 - Pour all the oils and copha into a stainless steel pot and heat until the temperature 
      reaches 50ºC.

Add the caustic soda to the water, not the other way around

               

3 -  Pour the caustic soda into a jug and mix until dissolved (careful with the fumes). The mix will heat up, so you have to wait until the temperature comes down to 50ºC.

  4 - Using the thermometer check the temperatures of both the oil and the caustic soda and 
       when  both reach 50ºC you can mix them, pouring the oil into a mixing bowl first, then           the caustic soda.      

The oils and caustic soda mix are now together

The soap mix reaches trace

5 - Mix with a hand blender, I used my Kenwood mixer. Start in the lowest setting so the mix doesn´t splash, (I have a cover that fits over the bowl) and when it's thick increase the speed, until it reaches trace - that is when the soap thickens. If you drizzle soap it leaves traces that  don´t disappear into the mix. 

It could take about 10 minutes, but it all depends on different oils used.

If you want to use essential oils or essences you can add them at this stage.

I sometimes add oats.

The moulds are already oiled

I used a soup ladle to pour into the moulds

6- You can use silicon moulds (used for cakes) or well washed milk cartons or plastic containers. (Again - use no aluminium) I used a soup ladle to help pour the mix into the moulds.

7 - Wrap the moulds with some towels or blankets to keep the mix warm.

8 - After about 15 hours unmould and cut into bars.  

9 - Let dry for 6 weeks before using.    

Ready to dry for 6 weeks

Some interesting sites with soap recipes (they are in imperial measurements, you would need to convert to metric if using these recipes) - http://www.millersoap.com/
Saponification - scientific explanation  http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/soap.html

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After the soap making session it was time to get dressed and ready to go to a Dinner/Dance at the Portuguese Social Club. The event was being held at the Stirling Bowling club.
The dinner was Beef Curry or Beef Stew, and both were very tasty.
The party theme was "Madeira 
Island", but not many people were wearing the Madeira traditional dress, I don´t think it would be easy to find such an outfit in Perth. Entertainment was good, starting with various talented young singers and then the DJ carried on with dance music until the early hours of the morning. We had a big group of 20 people sitting at two tables and it was a very pleasant evening.

Hubby and I after a dance

The hall before the party started

 

The traditional Madeira house - a miniature on stage

The traditional Madeira outfits

On the Sunday morning we woke up at 6AM with loud noises on the roof of the house, and I realized it was hail. I quickly jumped out of bed, went to the linen cupboard and grabbed some bath towels and ran outside to the driveway to cover our car.

As we had arrived home after 1am, we left the car in the driveway as the garage door makes a huge noise when opening. I certainly didn´t want to get some dents in the car, as some unlucky people had when Perth was hit bit a big hailstorm last year. 

It hailed for about half an hour before it stopped and a couple of hours later the day was sunny and warm. 

Of course I came back inside dripping wet as not even the umbrella covered me properly as I ran around throwing towels over the car...

My son who woke up later hadn´t even heard the hail and found it strange that I had covered the car and that there was an open umbrella outside the front door when it was such a sunny day.

My car covered in bath towels

The grass covered in hail balls

 All in all we had a very busy and fun weekend. I hope you all had a great weekend too.