Using Chalk Paint to Dye Fabric

I got a wild hare idea yesterday, to try what I have read online about using chalk paint to dye fabric.  With two colors of paint in hand, Primer Red and Graphite, and some chunks of prewashed cotton dropcloth, I got to work.

There's not an exact proportion of paint to water to use for dying fabric.  I poured a small splash of paint into a large mixing bowl.  I added hot tap water to the paint, mixing it with a whisk, till the mixture was the consistency that I thought it should be ... really watery.  (next time, I will probably see what happens if I use even less paint.)

I didn't think about this becoming a blog post, so I was a little late with the photos of the process.  The photo above shows the last piece of fabric that I dunked into the dye, and the mess that this made in my kitchen sink.  I didn't soak the fabric ... I just squished it into the solution in the mixing bowl, making sure that there was dye all over the fabric, wrung it out, put it back into the bowl and squished it into the dye again, wrung it out really well, and set it aside.  Then I used Soft Scrub to clean the sink.

Since this was an experiment, I wanted to see if the dyed fabric would end up being colorfast and machine washable ... so I tossed them into my washer (front loader) and washed them on the Delicate setting with a small amount of detergent.  I thoroughly expected to find that the dye completely washed out when I checked it after the wash cycle, but it didn't!  I was pleasantly surprised at how much I really liked the colors.  After a spin through the dryer, I was ready to get to work making something ... throw pillows.

This is the design that I came up with ... graphite for the background, with natural and Primer Red strips appliqued onto it.  I tore the strips and fringed them, to add some texture and a bit of rustic interest to the design.

As always, at least one of the cats comes to help.  In this case, it was Dorothy ... checking my sewing machine to make sure that it was in good working order after its tune up at the repair shop last month.

Here is how the pillow cover turned out.

The cording around the edge adds a nice finishing touch ... and I installed a zipper on the back.  (Envelope closures and ties are quicker to construct, but a zipper makes for a much nicer pillow.)

Here we have the finished product!

I love how this turned out.  I learned that I really like the colors that resulted from using chalk paint to dye the fabric, and I am anxious to see what I get when I use other colors of paint.  This pillow and its mate (I made two of them at the same time) will go into the heap of things that are destined for the Lucketts Spring Market in May.

My Happy Place ...

... that's what this blog is to me.  It's a place where I come to focus on whatever is happening around here, share a project or two, and spend time with other people whose company I enjoy ... some of whom have become almost like family.

I read something earlier this morning that got me thinking.  It was someone's list of things that we all supposedly must do if we want to grow our blogs.  The list included items that mandated that we must comment on other blogs to generate traffic on your own blog, must form alliances and mention and link to other blogs in exchange for reciprocal mentions and links, must promote our posts mercilessly on ALL of the various social media outlets, etc.  Seriously?  It sounds so calculating.

I guess I'm just a bit too naive about stuff like this ... I read blogs that I enjoy and I leave comments when I have something to say or when I want to offer encouragement or praise.

To be honest, I admit that I fell into the link trap early on.  I participated in various 'link parties', with the hope that more people would see what I was writing.  The only traffic I saw that those links generated was toward the hosting site, not mine.  I do see traffic on my old blog posts, mainly from Google searches and from Pinterest pins.  The posts of mine that get the most hits like this are ones that I wrote to put out something that I thought was important ... there's not a week that goes by without at least one hit from a search about how to make a dog throw up, how to install subway tile around an outside corner, or how to wax chalk-painted furniture.  (That wax tutorial is my most popular post.  It still gets hundreds of hits a week, even though it is more than two years old.)

I know that there are blogs out there that have grown to the point where they have become the blogger's livelihood.  Many of these are ones that I used to read, but I now avoid them ... too hard to determine whether a post is intended to be genuine and helpful or if it is fueled by a sponsor (which makes it into paid advertising, in my book).  How many times can we read about the virtues and wonder of 'whatever' product that coincidentally happens to be featured on dozens of blogs at the same time?  There are blogs that I follow and enjoy that are very clearly meant to be an extension of someone's business ... with the blog serving to highlight the business's barn or antique sale, or market booth, or latest and greatest product.  I'm okay with this.  There's a difference between clearly marketing one's own business and what seems like a plot to produce content with keywords, back links, and the like, to drive traffic for pay-by-clicks to the animated advertising on one's header or sidebar.

I am a fairly transparent person ... what you see is pretty much what you get with me, and I try to be the same way here on the blog.  You never have to wonder where you stand with me.  If I like you, you know it.  If I'm upset with you, you're the first person I will tell.  I occasionally produce posts to promote things that I am selling, but this is clearly stated.  I try to include aspects of the project that can help others if they are working on something similar.  If I feature a product, you can be assured that it's one that I use and that I like and that I think will be helpful to someone ... I'm not doing it because the product was provided for me, because it wasn't.  (Have turned down all offers of this so far, and I will continue to do so.)

Let me conclude by saying that I am grateful for everyone who visits here and spends time reading what I write.  We are all given the same 24 hours per day, and I am humbled that you choose to spend some of yours here with me.  I am especially grateful for those of you who go beyond reading, by offering comments and participating in email exchanges that have served to ignite true friendships.  Even if you read and click away without speaking up, which I do while blog surfing most of the time myself, please know that I am glad to have you here.  I want to keep this as a positive place, one where I share life and projects and pets and whatever is on my mind ... I guess today's post is one of those that fits into that last category.

This blog is my happy place ... it's where my friends are.

(Images in this post were modified using the Waterlogue app on my iPad.  Thank you, Janet, for introducing me to this and to Karen for encouraging me to keep at it and to have fun.)

Restoring Our Vintage GE Refrigerator

If I remember correctly, we bought this lovely little vintage GE refrigerator in either 2008 or 2009.  I saw it on Craig's List and I knew instantly that I had to have it ... you know how that goes, don't you.

The ad read something like "Vintage GE Refrigerator, good working condition, $75."  It included this photo.

I think the thing on the side of it was a magnet decal.  It wasn't there when we picked up the fridge.

It was being sold by an older couple in a nice neighborhood in a town about an hour from here.  Turns out, this refrigerator was in continuous use since it was new.  It was the main fridge in their kitchen for many, many years.  When they needed more space, they bought a new refrigerator for the kitchen and this one was put to into the basement as a spare fridge.  They listed it for sale because they bought a new fridge to replace their kitchen one, and the old kitchen one was going down to the basement, so it was time to pass this old one on to a new home ... ours.

As we visited with the gentleman and cleared a path through his stuff to get the refrigerator out of the basement, he said, "I like you and I know that this old fridge will have a good home with you.  Just give me $50 for it."  (Mind you, we hadn't talked price at all, because I was going to give him the $75 and giggle all the way home at the deal we got.)

The fridge has lived in our detached garage since then, sometimes with bottled water in it, sometimes empty.  It has run perfectly and its only real problem was that the door gasket was hard and cracked and didn't seal well.  I tried for a while to find a replacement gasket, but was unsuccessful.

Last week, on a whim, I searched online again for a replacement gasket.  This time, I came up a big winner.  Antique Appliances in Georgia restores and sells vintage refrigerators and stoves AND they sell parts INCLUDING DOOR GASKET MATERIAL!!!  They even have a video on their site to help you decide which gasket to choose for your particular refrigerator, since the ones they sell may not be an exact match to the original.  I watched the video, weighed my choices, and placed an order for 12 feet of gasket ... a foot and a half more than I needed, but ordered the extra just to be safe.  (Running talley ... $50 for the fridge, $75 for new door gasket = still a great deal on a seriously cool refrigerator.)

As with most of my projects, I did not take nearly enough photos of this little refrigerator's sad Before condition.  It was almost all cosmetic, thank goodness ... lots of basement grime from the previous owners, and garage grime from us.

While I was waiting for the new gasket to arrive, I set the fridge outside in the sunshine so it could defrost.  I honestly don't remember when I last defrosted it, and you can tell that it had been a long, long time.  I propped the door open, put a dishpan under the icy mass to catch the water.

The next job was to figure out how to get the old gasket off of the door.  The vague instructions I found online told me to look for screws and/or clips.  Turns out, this gasket is held in place beneath the door liner panel by long L-shaped brackets and screws.  (The gasket itself came off in pieces during this process.)

I kept the pieces of old gasket ... just in case.

The best way I found to deal with the grime was to use Soft Scrub with Bleach and 0000 superfine steel wool.  I gently scrubbed and polished each part and side of the fridge until it was clean.  The bleach in the cleanser even helped lighten some of the little rust stains on the front and side of the fridge!

Lower inside door corner, Before.

Same corner, After.

Front of the fridge, Before and After.  The screw holes are for the bracket that holds the top of the door.

See the difference between the part of the door that I had cleaned and the part that I hadn't?

The worst of the mold and rust stains were on the bottom corner of the door, as shown in the photo below.  I am super excited about the way that so much of this came out!

After I finished scrubbing the outside of the fridge, I gave it a good coat of car wax to help protect the finish.

With the outside of the fridge all clean and polished, it was time to attempt that door gasket.  It took me a couple of hours to do it, because it was tricky to keep the gasket under the bracket AND cut accurate miters at each of the corners.  I kept at it, and finally was able to stand back and admire the brand new gasket.

This is the material as it arrived in the mail.  I put my baggie of screws into the box so I wouldn't lose them.

It took a while for me to figure out how to cut an accurate miter at each corner.  I used a short piece of gasket material to help me mark each side of the 90 degree cut.  The piece of newspaper is there to help keep my hands out of the fiberglass insulation.

Gasket's all installed!!

With the new gasket in place, I reinstalled the door's liner panel.

... and here it is, with the door screwed back in place.

I will do a better cleaning job on the inside part of the fridge later.

What a difference, all clean and polished and working beautifully!

I have tried to find the age of this fridge, but have been unable to so far.  Everything I find about determining the age of GE appliances references a system where the serial number begins with two letters (which represent the month and year of manufacture)  The earliest date for the two letter system appears to be 1944.  The serial number on this fridge is H3019-890 (model number AC-62-CA16).  I wonder if this may mean H=August and 3=1943?  1933?  It's just a guess.  Yesterday I used the contact form on the GE appliances web site to send them the question.  I hope I hear back from them.

Photo taken before I vacuumed the mess out from under the fridge.

It feels great to have our sweet little refrigerator looking good and in proper working order!  As of now, it will stay in the garage ... but it will not have things piled onto and beside it like it was.  Once construction gets rolling on the renovation of our Shack, whenever that will be, I plan to make a place for this little vintage beauty in there.

Once again ... the Before and the After.

Is it weird to be totally in love with a refrigerator?

Playing Outside, Part 2 ...

When we last left the job of working on the climbing roses on the structure that we call The Arcade, it was 10am yesterday, the roses were severely pruned (poor, neglected roses) and they were ready to be weeded and have fresh mulch added to the bed.

After a short break, I made quick work of pulling the weeds.  Then, I gathered my tools and laid landscape fabric on the half of the bed where there wasn't any (the formerly-weedy portion of the bed).  

It was at this point that my husband had to make a quick trip downtown.  I asked him to please take my truck and pick up some mulch for me while he was out.  (We have to go right past the mulch place whenever we go just about anywhere from here.)  A little while later, as if by magic... we have two yards of mulch in the truck!

I got right to work, hoping to have the bed all mulched by the time I quit work for the day.  Alas, I could only get about 2/3 of the part of the bed with the landscape fabric done ... I worked too hard for too long and I hit the wall.

I put my stuff away and I crept up to the house.  My hands and my shoulders and my legs hurt, and I was so tired.  My sweet husband met me when I came in the door, I told him that I was too wiped out to finish, and he said, "I'll do it for you" ... and he did!

This is what The Arcade looks like right now ... roses are pruned, weeds are gone, and it's all topped with a freshly applied layer of mulch.  I'm still sore today, but not too bad, so I've been taking it easy and working on a few other things.  I will share these with you another day.

Playing Outside

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day, and today is promised to be more of the same.  I got an early start this morning, dressed for work with tools in hand.  The object of my efforts were the climbing roses on our Arcade.

Wearing my favorite Timberland work shoes and the latest new-to-me addition to my collection of military  camo BDUs.

The clouds in the early morning sky were fascinating.  It's bright and sunny outside now.

It's only 10am, and it has already been a very fruitful day.  The Arcade roses are all pruned and ready to be retied to their posts.

Before

After

With the roses cut back so severely, it will be easy to get up those pesky winter weeds in the bed, lay down landscape fabric, and finish the bed off with a fresh coat of mulch.  I don't usually cut them back this much, but winter damage and two years of neglect made it necessary to be more ruthless than I usually am to whip them into shape.

Okay, break time is over.  I'm off to see what else I can tidy up outside.  If you are looking for me, you will find me out in the garden!

Mariner's Compass Rose Tables ... All Finished!

These two tables came from Salvation Army months ago, and they were living in my garage (part of my stash of raw 'Before' projects), waiting for their turn at a make over.  Their shapes led me to add a bit of detail to their tops ... showed you how I painted the design in my last post.  Now it's time to show you the completed tables.

This is a good example of how well the Annie Sloan colors coordinate with each other.  We have Old Violet and a custom mix of Coco and Olive on the tables, with my Aubusson buffet in the background.

I didn't take any photos of the tables before I painted them, so you will have to use your imagination to picture what they looked like before their transformation.

Imagine this first table with a damaged-beyond-repair veneer top.  I removed the veneer and its underlayment, revealing the rough, pieced base of the top.  I scraped off the glue with my Bahco scraper, then used my orbital palm sander to sand it smooth.  The base of the table and the contrasting edge of the top is painted with Annie Sloan's 'Old Violet'.  The design on the top used 'Country Grey', 'Scandinavian Pink', and 'Chateau Grey'.

The base is lightly distressed and finished with clear wax.  The top received two coats of Minwax oil-based wipe-on polyurethane, for durability.  (I don't like living with waxed tops on furniture, and I don't think the people who buy my pieces should have to either.)

The left leg is waxed and buffed, and the right leg is next.

This table has a drawer.  I cleaned it up and lined it with some Waverly wallpaper that coordinates with the Scandinavian Pink on the top.  The original handle is in great shape, so all it needed was a quick wash and wipe before I reinstalled it.

Now let's look at the second table.  This one is held together with screws and bolts, and it was quick to disassemble it to make working on it easier.  The top came apart into two pieces, which meant that I didn't have to carefully cut in as I painted around the edge of the center contrasting part.

Notice how the compass point lines up with the applique on the side of the tabletop.

No 'Before' photo of this table either ... you'll have to imagine it with a big melted spot in the finish on top, where it looked like someone had set a leaky bottle of nail polish remover.  (That sanded out easily and you'll never find where it used to be.)  The base of the table and the outer portion of the top are painted with a custom mix of Annie Sloan's 'Coco' and 'Olive'.  The compass on top uses 'Country Grey', 'Old Violet', and 'Chateau Grey'.

Just like I did with the first table, the base of this one is lightly distressed and clear waxed, and the top is sealed with polyurethane.

These two tables are now part of the hoarder's stash of stuff being stored in my living room ... destined for the Luckett's Spring Market in May.

I hope these inspire you to take a second look at those less-than-perfect thrift store items you run across ... and I want you to think about other colors to use when remaking your own pieces.  There is a LOT more out there besides white, grey, and turquoise.

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On another subject .... I have told you before about our friends Jim and Dan in Maryland.  Today, Jim has a timely guest post on the Washington Gardener Blog about the Washington DC cherry trees.  Click HERE to read Jim's post ... and enjoy!