Resist dyeing with hearts for Valentine Day!

Wool is folded, clamped and simmered in cochineal dye.

First batch using foam heart stickers as the resist. Okay, but not great.

Next batch, add more cochineal and squeeze a half of lime in to the pot.

Use plastic heart toys from Wal-Mart for the resist, simmer and let set a couple of days. Much more intense.

Same pot with a more cochineal added, I add wool, simmer of few hours and let soak a few days. I end up with almost purple! An over-dye with indigo and it will be a deep purple. There's still dye left in the pot so in goes another piece of wool. The other fabrics behind the purple are the fabrics dyed  with avacados, they have a much more intense color than the picture shows.

Spent a few hours this weekend with my friend creating natural face and  body cream. Also face wash and hand soaps.

Melted the coconut oil, Shea butter, and mango butter, cooled and whipped it until it looked like whip cream.

Added different essential oils to the different creams.

With lavender, frankincense, Full moon, and a comet streaking over I should be free of all wrinkles when I use this cream:)

Dyeing wool with avacados

Ingredients for guacamole...

Ingredients for a dye pot!
Avocado pits and skins simmered in a water bath,

with premordanted wool

dyes a beautiful peachy apricot color.

 

Cochineal crushed,

tiny little dried bugs from the cactus of the South West.

I folded wool and placed plastic hearts (on each side of the fabric) as a resist.

Two different cochineal pots with two different wool heart fabrics to dye. The second pot I placed a squeezed lime in the dye. When I was in the South West they taught adding the lime juice to the dye would make your wool redder.  We'll see, the results next week:)

Thursday bee last week we finished beading ornaments that Mary started for us.

She had cut and stitched winter/Valentine fabrics,

we stitched on beads to hold the sides together and make the shape.

This was a fun sparkling project to share on a dark winter night. Thank You Mary!
See the pink pin cushion on the table, my friend Jamie made that for me and my friends in my other quilt bee. Thank You Jamie.
What great Valentine presents.