More Button-Mania...

 

Well, out came the button collection once again. A local sewing group expressed interest in making the button bouquets like those shown in my November post, Behold the Humble Button. I'm never one to turn down more button fun, so we had a little workshop and members learned to make bouquets like this one. This is my demo project and I gave it as a gift to the wife of a local musician. They spent some time in Nashville, so when I saw this cute little collectible pitcher in a thrift shop, it seemed the perfect one for a tiny button bouquet.

I learned something at our gathering, too. One member brought a button bouquet similar to the ones we were making. She'd purchased it at a vintage market and the maker used the holes in the top of a salt shaker to support the wire stems. I bought a pair of shakers at the local dollar store and filled one with glass marbles. It really does the trick! This is a project in progress. But I sure liked the idea.

I'm pretty sure every quilter has a tin or jar of buttons- some old, some new. We shared the bounty as you can see! To the left of the pink vase bouquet that I brought as our sample, you can see the vintage silver salt shaker mentioned above.

Nothing but smiles all around the table when working on our bouquets. 

A pair of wire cutters, assorted buttons, and floral wire (plus a pretty vase with some filler of course) are all the supplies needed to created these pretty and whimsical flowers- guaranteed not to fade.

I dislike sewing buttons onto clothing, but never balk at sewing them onto projects. Why is that?? More buttons traveled with me to our Fiber Art Bee work session where we made these wise guys... oh, I mean wise old owls. Three of us led a small group of members through making these cute pin cushions filled with fiber-fil and crushed walnut shells.  This is a display of my table member's work. Here's a link to a video tutorial and free pattern so you can make one, just in case you find them irresistible, too.

And, with apologies for the blurry image, here is part of the owl graduating class, below.