Herb Society Craft Night

Our last Herb Society meeting was filled with making herbal crafts. President Veronica was our speaker, she had so many wonderful ideas we didn't have time to get through them all. Here are a few.
We started by learning how to make an herbal gathering basket out of 3 grocery store bags. Fold the first one down 3 folds, then insert the next bag inside and fold down 2 times. The folding down makes them sturdier. The third bag cut off the bottom and place it in the bottom of your new basket for reinforcement. Cut a long strip off the same bag, fold it in long thirds for the handle and hot glue it on inside the basket.

This is my finished basket, we tied raffia on it that could be used to tie a pair of small scissors on for cutting herbs (or dye plants).
The little "herb card" was another project, a cute idea for gift tags held on with a small clothes pin. I liked it so much I hot glued it to my basket.

The inside has 2 smaller brown bags used as dividers for the plants.

Another cute idea, a small glass bottle filled with cotton and a few drop of lemon eucalyptus essential oil, a quick smell during the day to give you a natural picker upper and great for stuffy head.

Veronica filled a big bowl with lavender, herbs, flowers and drops of essential oil. She passed the bowl around and we each made little sachets.

Another idea she had was filling a glass bottle (hers was beautiful cut glass with a pineapple on top), with witch hazel and adding a vanilla bean. This makes a wonderful skin freshner applied with a cotton pad.

For cooking and the table, sea salt with your favorite chopped herbs mixed in. Leave a couple of weeks then enjoy. You can sift the herbs out if you choose and place the salt into a shaker.

And to sugar add lavender. Use the sugar with your favorite sugar cookie recipe, cake recipe, or tea. Sift out lavender if desired.

My bitter sweet vines were full of berries this year, last year I had 1 berry on all the vines. My grandson helped me take off all the leaves. This one loves helping with projects.

I finally had enough to make a swag over my dye studio door, redo the other windows in the studio and my kitchen window.

While on our fall color tours we collected beautiful red maple leaves.

Which when dye printed (steamed in the dye pot) on wool became teals and golds. I've never got the teal color before, this piece will be added to my wool quilt that's in progress.

Red leaves from the yard.

After steaming become golds and greens.

The kids had a great time carving their pumpkins they picked from the pumpkin patch. While they carved I baked the seeds: I melted 1/2 cup of real butter on a cookie sheet, washed the seeds and spread them all over the butter. Sprinkled seasoned salt over all. Bake 325 degrees 20-30 minutes stirring occasionally and test tasting to see when done.

Have a Wonderful Halloween!