Sweet River Studios

After painting the wrought iron, I degreased the nuts and bolts and painted them black. Just don't paint the threads on the screws, just the parts that will show so that everything matches. Assembly Now that everything is done (at least to my ability), it was time to reassemble the base and top. Remember, I took the top apart last year and the base apart in April and even though I took pictures I was pretty sure I wasn't going to remember how this went back together. Thankfully, my husband came to the rescue! I won't lie. He did it all by looking at a picture of one off of the internet. Bless him! First, he started by putting the legs and pedal out on the floor in the right positions then he just kept adding on to that.  We did discover later (of course) that we should not have put these two items together first. This is the leg base and the table top. We should've put the curved drawer on the table top first, then the base. The holes for the curved drawer on closest to...

 After using the Restore A Finish on the wood, it was time to tackle the iron parts of the treadle. The black wrought iron was kinda tricky. Given that I don't have a way to sand blast all the bits to remove all the clear coat and black paint, I had to figure out what I could do.  The iron parts were in pretty good shape but a good scrub with soap and water and a wire brush was needed. As I was cleaning the parts, I realized there was a bit of rust on the wheels and on the underside of the pedal and a few other places. I also realized that during this scrub the pitman rod on my machine was actually wood and not iron. It was completely black and I had no idea. So when it started to turn a rusty brown color I thought rust until it looked more brown and I realized it was wood.  So I had to take the entire thing a part, which I was trying to avoid, but it was necessary. I cleaned up the wood rod and used the Howard products on it to match the cabinet.  I also discovered ...

After cleaning the treadle, the table top and drawers, I washed all the pieces. I was worried that all the Gojo wasn't completely off the wood and before going any further, I decided to wash everything with soap and water.  Now, that the weather is getting warmer, I can take some pieces outside and use the Restor-A-Finish product by Howard. The directions indicate it should be applied with either a soft cloth or 0000 steel wool and then wiped off with a clean cloth. I'll apply it in small areas until everything is finished and then apply the Feed & Wax which is a wood polish and conditioner also by Howard to maintain it.  I chose Mahogany color of the Restor-A-Finish color line. I took one of the treadle pieces that appeared to be the closest to the original color and it was more of a reddish brown. I was concerned because of the the wood didn't seem to have any finish on it all and was still raw wood and I didn't know how much color it was going to absorb and anoth...

I worked on the treadle desk for a week or two before working on the sewing machine. So I turned the machine to the underside and got busy. I took a soft painters brush and cleaned out the heavy bits of dust first but a lot was still stuck because it was plastered in sewing machine oil but I did my best.  Next, up I slathered it in Gojo and let it sit for a while, then started the process of wiping it off, reapplying and repeat, repeat and repeat it again. I used a lot of shop towels, Q-tips and scotch brite pads. Below is some before and after pictures of the underside.                                                                                Before                       ...

After watching dozens of videos on YouTube, I got the general idea on how to clean a treadle sewing machine and what not to do, I felt confident I could begin. Now, a lot of the people who know what they're doing, take the entire treadle apart to clean it. And perhaps they're machine was so bad they had to but I'm not that confident and besides, I simply don't have enough room to do that and I'm more likely to loose important bits and wouldn't be able to put humpty dumpty back together again. So I'm taking it slow and doing one bit at a time. First, I simply took the drawers out and took a soft bristled painting brush and knocked all the heavy dirt off first. The bristles get into all the small nooks and crannies of the desk design. Then I got Murphy's oil soap and some shop towels and Q-tips and started wiping everything down.  The oil soap got a lot of grime off but not the really ground in stuff. So onto deep cleaning. I used Gojo original hand cleane...

What feels like a hundred years ago, which in reality was 2016, I took a 30 week French cooking class at The Seasoned Farmhouse in Columbus. I met a lot of people all different ages and backgrounds but what we all had in common was we liked to cook, wanted to learn different things in the kitchen and of course eat. During those weeks, our Chef Tricia, threw in a day of cooking cajun recipes, which I certainly didn't have a lot of exposure to living in Ohio.  We cooked a Chicken & Andouille Smoked Sausage Gumbo from the book of Paul Preudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen. We also made a cajun meatloaf and a shrimp etouffe but I enjoyed the gumbo the most and I decided to dust off the recipe we made and make it again in 2023. I admit I didn't stick closely to the recipe, which most southerners who know how to make gumbo would know doubt have something to say about that and I know. I'm not trying to be them. I'm just trying to make a tasty soup.  To make this tasty gumbo y...

Last fall, I decided to try my hand at refurbishing something over the winter. Something I had never done before and I didn't really have anything in mind. So, after some internet surfing and going down the YouTube rabbit hole, I found myself watching video's on how to restore vintage singer sewing machines. And the more I watched, the more interested I became in these old machines. After all, I sew and quilt so it peaked my interest. I started digging into the history of the sewing machine, which I will not get into here, and realized that the actual technique for machine sewing really hasn't changed all that much in the last 100 years or so, which I thought was pretty interesting.  And I thought, maybe I could find an old treadle sewing machine and restore that over the winter. I've never done anything like that and some of those old machines are pretty cool. I also knew that they are fairly common and not that expensive and I thought it would be a nice affordable pro...