Dyed Red Wool and more Herbal Body products

Every year with one of my quilt bees we have a fabric challenge. We decided what it will be at our Christmas party and it needs to finished by the next year Christmas party. This year we each will be making each member a Santa block. Pieced or appliqued. So you will go home with 6 Santa blocks to put into a wall hanging or a larger quilt. I'm appliqueing mine with wool. I started out with these cute cream wool packets from Primitive Gatherings. I pre mordanted the wool, then first dyed them with madder root, then over dyed with cochineal. I didn't want them to bright.

This is the beginning with more fabric soaking in the dye pot. (OK Deb C. this is the last you'll see of this challenge until next Dec.)

 I have to say once you start making natural body products you get very excited to keep learning and trying new products. One I was very excited to try making was bug repellent. This year the mosquito and ticks are horrible. I studied my books and the web and came up with this recipe using the best of what all the recipes suggested. Last night my girlfriend and my little herbalist neighbor girl came over and we mixed some together. This is the recipe we used. Pouring the ingredients right in to the witch hazel bottles.
                              2 Cups of Witch Hazel
                              15 drop of Citronella essential oil
                              15 drops of Eucalyptus e.o.
                               5 drops of lavender e.o.
                               5 drops of tea tree e.o.
                               1 Tablespoon of cider vinegar.
Mix well and put into a spray bottle.

 We put them to the test, they worked wonderful, better than we hoped and felt great on the skin. Witch hazel is a natural skin astringent. You do have to reapply this more often then chemical repellents with DDT. 
One essential oil they say is as good as DDT is catnip but we weren't able to find it. Next time.

Next we made a herbal skin balm taught to us by P. J. from our herb society. She "invented" this recipe years ago. It is great for dry skin, wrinkles, sun burn, diaper rash etc. I can't tell you how wonderful this cream is.
If  interested this is it:   1 cup coconut oil
                                   1 oz 100percent cocoa butter (1 stick)
                                   6 drops of rosemary oil
                                   10 drops each: tea tree oil
                                    thyme oil
                                    clove oil
                                    basil oil
Place coconut oil and cocoa butter into small coffee can, then put can into pan of water. Slowly melt (do not boil). When liquid is clear, remove from heat. Add oil and stir gently. Pour into containers. Let cool to set.
This is expensive at first to buy all the ingredients but the essential oils will last a long time, you couldn't tell we even used any. Next time we only have to purchase the coconut oil and cocoa butter.
Coconut oil melts at 78 degrees so is quickly absorbed into skin carrying other oils with it.

Along with an abundance of mosquito we have an abundance of roses, I'm collecting and drying as fast as I can with hopes to make another skin cream. I am going to look 10 years younger soon!