A cast iron metamorphosis

Oh the things pinterest will make me do! Well not make exactly but you know what I mean. Suddenly because you saw a pretty pin about flower arranging, or cake pops or sewing your own panty liners, those things suddenly become feasible things for you to try despite the fact that they had never even been a blip on your radar beforehand. So it was with cast iron.

I saw a pin a while ago showing a grody cast iron skillet transformed into gleaming black magnificence. Then I found a grody cast iron skillet for $6 at a thrift store. It was meant to be. Following the pin took me to this series of blog posts explaining the science behind cleaning and seasoning cast iron, and with zero trepidation I dove right in.

The pan was in pretty rough shape when I got it. The inside was both covered in crud and rusty where the seasoning had worn away, but there weren't any really obvious flaws in the casting. I sprayed it liberally with oven cleaner, sealed it up in a garbage bag and left it in a corner for two days. The sludge that came off was too gross to photograph, but after a quick rinse and scrub I was down to bare iron and rust.

Since I didn't have any wire wool and the rust wasn't coming off with my scrubbing sponge, I decided to risk a vinegar bath (50% with water). Vinegar can damage the underlying iron so I was a little bit worried and didn't leave the pan in very long, maybe two hours, then scrubbed again and the pan was ready for seasoning.

According the posts I linked to above, flax seed oil is the best option for seasoning. I ordered a bottle from Amazon and in the meantime started seasoning using coconut oil as suggested in the comments. Coconut oil didn't seem to be giving me anywhere close the the finish I was expecting after four cycles of high heat treatment. The pan remained gray and didn't feel like it was becoming any slicker. However, once my flax seed oil arrived, the first coat turned the pan a WONDERFUL dark glossy black. I'm not sure if the coconut oil pre-seasoning helped with creating the illusive "black rust" people aim for with cast iron but damn, the pan was starting to look amazing.

Three coats of oil, three times heating to past 500F for an hour and I now have a thing of beauty to use in my kitchen. Behold... the skillet!

Wedding Quilt Finished

After debating for a while over which of two vintage sheets to use as the backing, I experimented with 505 spray baste (LOVE IT) and quilted simple straight lines to echo the piecing and accentuate the sashing. Then I trimmed and bound using some leftover Sip of Summer fabric from my previous quilt.

 

It's really quite pretty and crinkly even without having been washed, which it will be in due course. During the making a whole heap of concrete dust got into my apartment due to construction on the exterior walls on my building. It's been a bit, shall we say, gray in my apartment.

Since the recipients are "related" to me through the lab, I thought it would be fun to take a few shots of the quilt by my bench.

 

The back lighting lets you see the backing fabric just a little, a vintage pink floral bed sheet purchased from Abby Hare Vintage on Etsy.

 

And because everyone is always telling me to do this and I never do, I added a small quilt label on the back. I embroidered over my own hand writing, applied it to the quilt with fusible interfacing then embroidered around the edge. I'm not sure this is going to hold up in the washing machine so if anyone has any hints as to a better method, please let me know!