Update Dated Crochet Spread

Beautiful Crochet Piece

I acquired this piece of crochet so many years ago that I can't even remember where I got it. It is an unfinished bedspread which was beautifully crocheted with white crochet thread and a very small hook. I have used it over the years in my (formerly)all white lacy bedroom, the babies' rocking chair in their pink room, in the shabby guest room and then it was put away for awhile. I took it out a few months back and draped it over my sewing chair. Then I decided it should be orange.

White Crochet With Pillows

 

 

 

TANGENT ALERT! The pillows on my chair help my back. The flower one is a needlepoint pillow I picked up at Salvation Army for $1. I made the black plaid pillow from one of my sister's sweaters.

This Makes Gorgeous Orange

 

 

Did you know that the Pantone Color of the year 2012 is Tangerine?

Dyed Crochet Outside on Plastic

 I follow the directions on the RIT dye box. I use the salt and I simmer it on the stove. After the dying process, I rinse the piece with vinegar. I laid the spread to dry outside in the warm sunshine (this was done last summer). After it dried, I painted some areas with red and white dye paints, it's simple, use a paint brush to randomly add bits of color. After things all dried out, I heat set the dyes with a pressing cloth and an iron.

I painted the "bubbles"with red and white

The new spread is a gorgeous tangerine with deeper bits of red and lighter bits of pink (because of the white).

Dye Paint is Easy to Use

The dye paint keeps the spread from looking too flat with just one color. Also, where there were stains on the spread, the dye colors will "take" differently, so that is an added bonus.

I Love the Spread on My Trunk

So, here is where this spread is living,now, on top of my old steamer trunk. It adds a great color note in the living room.

Flea Market Finds: Oven Roaster

You know, sometimes you go out to the picking grounds and you just have a feeling that something will be there for you........then you find the extraordinary find! A Westinghouse Oven Roaster in pristine condition!

My second Oven!

I don't know who was more excited, Scot or me! For the low low price of $15 I now have a second oven.

Innards

The wire rack is removed, you heat up the oven, then put the food in the rack and lower the rack inside. We found this a few weeks before Thanksgiving and I cooked a whole chicken and then a roast in it to be sure it cooked at the right temperatures. Eureka! I was able to cook my turkey in this and make my bread in my regular oven at the same time, yay!

The lid lip

The lid hangs on to a special lip for it so I can baste things, it is so cool.

it was made in 1940!

Scot looked online and found the instruction manual. This model was made in 1940, so that makes it 72 years old. We figured someone bought it, used it twice and packed it away forever. Well, baby it is getting used, now, and my daughter Robby can't wait for me to pass it on.

Heywood Wakefield Table

Now, THIS! This was a find.....

Heywood Wakefield table

This table caught my eye at the flea market. Then it caught my heart when I saw the price tag at $5. It was mine. I brought it home and looked it up on the world wide web and saw that other people value this lovely design as well. My husband said to sell it. Then I said,"Who would want this five dollar table?"

Mixed Textiles

My mother in law gave us this rocking chair. Even though it had green velvet upholstery on it I liked the chair. It is a comfortable mom and baby chair. So, I had to make it my own by doing an upcycle.

Make a Comfy Spot with Mixed Textiles

I decided to wrap the cushion with an Indian batik.

Indian Batik from Thrift Store

Then I draped a utility quilt on the back.

The Sweet Potato Color is Warm and the rough grid gives this quilt great textural interest

It needed an outstanding pillow. I went into my treasure textile bin and found these South American cat molas. I made the pillow and..... Voila! You can see how I made this pillow on my design blog Taire Daire Designs

You will find out how I made this pillow on my other blog

My rocker is wrapped in a cozy mix of world textiles!

The Camel Saddle was $2 at a garage sale 30 years ago

The foot rest is a Camel Saddle that I found at a garage sale in Texas 30 years ago. Back then, I painted him dark green and put a flowery cushion on his back. My little ones played horsey with him for years. He has seen many changes (mostly the cushion and new glue and nails) over the years. This time I painted him purple and made a new cushion in golden yellow with buttons. Then, I adorned his neck with a bangle bracelet from India.

Upcycled Cozy Corner in Living Room

So, here is a cozy spot in the living room. I will tell you about the great end table in a future blog.....it's a pretty good story.

Chalkboard Door and Eraser

chalkboard door in stitch studio

My sister, Mary Ann gave me a can of Chalkboard Paint.....this is how things get started, ya know.......So, I have doors, windows and pass-throughs in my Stitch Studio, so I have to make every space count. I had a makeshift design area on the door, before, but it wasn't necessary. I painted it with the chalkboard paint and now, it is very useful. I write ideas and sometimes fast sketches on the board. Sometimes a two year old scribbles on the board....it's all good.

chalk eraser station

I had a little white plastic shelf (50 cents from Salvation Army Thrift Store) which I mounted on the wall in the little space between the door and my fabric shelves. The old cigar box (I rarely pay more than one American dollar for my boxes) was the perfect size to hold my chalk (dustless chalk is cool). I made the eraser by gluing wooden letter blocks together. Then I cut and hand stitched about 6 layers of wool felt together. I glued the wool to the blocks.

glue wool to bottom of blocks

Me: Before and After



Before: Mid-century Modern





 I found this picture of me when I was 4 years old and scanned it. I just wanted to save it and didn't really think about how I would use it. So, some friends and I were talking about our ages and I realized that I was mid-century modern, so now I am vintage.

I decided to describe my makeover.





After: Vintage!









First, I grew taller because I was too short for my purpose. At the same time, I worked on experience and gaining knowledge. The experience and knowledge added a patina for that aged look. Finally,I added several coats of paint and some embellishments to dress up the look.....you know, kind of shabby chic, especially because I've gotten a little chippy and distressed over the years.

I ended up being a rather versatile piece that works pretty well in just about any room in the house.

Enhance Your Quilts- Embellish!.....My New Book...yaaaay...

Enhance Your Quilts-Embellish!

Here is my third book all about embellishment techniques...and they can be used on many projects besides quilts...decorate pillows, make art boxes, altered books, clothing (especially for wearable art) and anything that you would embellish.

I am talking to the person with an embellishmentality. It took me three years to make this book which contains years of design, ideas, collecting and experimenting.....and I finally have it all in one volume to share with everybody...and I can relax now...I finally got it out of my system....yay...

Blue and White Back Porch Makeover



Bluebird Vignette On Fleamarket Tray





When I decided to redo the back porch...Again... I needed a little inspiration. It came in the form of this little ceramic bluebird....blue and white and natural! I had been gathering fleamarket chairs and tables, ideas, aluminum trays, etc. I was ready.





Before Pic Back Porch

Fleamarket Things Gathered and Ready

The wooden pallets will not be painted...I use these for too many things to fancy them up. They were just moved. 



Table Legs are Big Candleholders

The creamy table was constructed from wood..salvaged from a retail store redo... four $1 thrift store wooden candleholders...and molding purchased at a fleamarket...cheep cheeep cheeeep! Maybe the little bird inspired me just then. Scot used really big bolts and screws to put the legs on, then he made a lovely edge with the molding. I got out my gallon of ooops! creamy white paint (3.99) and gave it several coats.



All the Chairs are Thrift Finds!!!



 The four directors chairs had a terrible brown print  fabric for the seat and back pieces. Scot suggested I just dye the pieces dark blue....he is so smart...it was perfect and fast and I love RIT dye!!!!!!





The View from the Porch..unstaged

The backyard is kind of a mess, but you can see the pool and part of my garden. I built steps and some of the garden spaces on the slopes with my trusty shovel.





Butterfly Crayon Stand

99 cents thrift find

Before And After!

I believe that this butterfly stand was meant as a votive candle holder. I picked it up at my thrift store for 99 cents and had absolutely no idea what the end use would be.

I was painting some fabric for an unrelated project and thought that this stand would be pretty painted in the same colors and the same way as the fabric.

Yellow paint helps to blend green and orange

I painted the stand in these colors of craft paint, blending the colors as I went along.

Painted Crayon Stand

 As you can see, I concentrated some areas of green and orange and used the yellow to blend the colors.

Painted Butterfly Crayon Stand

I found the glass cups and added the crayons. My little grandchildren love to color using this little stand.

Antonio, My Pizza Guy

Scores from my Salvation Army Thrift Store

Sometimes, I go junking and very little comes home with me......and sometimes, I SCORE big time!

This pizza guy was just 99 cents!
The metal magazine rack with an end missing was 99cents!
The drafting table was $3.99!
The office desk top file was $1.99!
So, this day cost me 8 bucks!....yay!

The Pizza Guy will go in my kitchen.
The magazine rack will go on my back porch.
The drafting table will go in my art studio.
The metal file rack will go in my office.

This was a good day!

Antonio, the Pizza Guy, in my kitchen

I have a little work to do on Antonio, but I've already placed him in the kitchen.

He is loved by all.

Upcycled Ironing Station

BEFORE

I picked up this sad little stand at our local Salvation Army Thrift Store for $6. The two baskets came with the stand and I found the handled basket on a shelf....and it fit perfectly. I needed an ironing station to hold my pressing cloths, hobby irons, spray starch, lint rollers, etc.

Now, to make it worthy of my studio!


 





  I painted the stand with putty colored paint. It is sort of a grey/brown.
                                                                          

  
I cut black foam core boards into panels. I picked up the foam core boards for 40 cents apiece at our local flea market (score!).

Then, I covered the boards with a gold colored African fabric with turtles on it. The fabric was waiting for the perfect use! I used rubber cement to glue the fabric to the foam core and also to glue the panels to the sides of the stand to cover up the heart shaped holes.

   

To cover the heart shaped holes on the insides of the stand, I cut squares from a small gold and yellow print( I used my big good Havel's Rotary Cutter for this process). I fused the squares to fusible (iron on) heavy interfacing and used rubber cement to adhere the squares to the inside of the stand.  

The next step was to paint the baskets yellow. Then, I used a Guatemalan Ikat fabric to line the baskets.                   

AFTER

     The last step was to glue some black flat wooden circles to cover the screws.                                              


                                                                            


  I like my new ironing station. It is lightweight and the handles make it easy to move it when needed. Hope you liked the makeover!


                     

This one is new!

My hobby became my job...so, I have another hobby that has been a part of me since I was brand new! My Grandma Blanche introduced us to the flea market and tag sale world when we were small. My mother was always painting and fixing things up. We are a family of artists and there was never a second thought about using things as canvases for our art work.