Buttons

I love buttons.  I have early memories of playing with my maternal grandmother Dede's (short for Dorothy Drew) buttons.  I loved their colors and textures then and do to this day.  I inherited a button box from my other grandmother who was trained as a Home Economics teacher and who saved buttons and have added to it with my own purchased buttons and even buttons from old garments.  I love button blankets created by the Coast Salish tribes.  The buttons were mostly created from shells are shiny white against the black and red background of the blankets.

I have used buttons on quilts to embellish and recently added buttons to a collage I created.

This sweet little piece (about 8 1/2 x 11 inches) was created for a challenge at a local quilt shop and it won a 2nd place viewer's choice prize.  I had to use the speckled fabric that you see in the number 25. I commemorated our 25th wedding anniversary in 2009 with the numbers and surrounded it with 25 hearts and 25 buttons.  It remains a piece that makes me smile.  The edges are simply finished with zig zag stitching, raw edge finished and it serves well because I was able to take the design to the edge of the quilt.

My latest use of buttons emerged out of a collage and printmaking class that I took at Creative Arts Eliot.  Mike and I had a lovely time at Seabeck Conference Center this month and I came away with a new appreciate for paper creations.

I enjoy thinking about all the metaphors around buttons.  What images are called to mind when you think about buttons and the acts of buttoning and unbuttoning?  Buttons are a venerable way of closing garments and I am glad for the rich variety they bring to clothing and other adornments.  I also appreciate them as an embellishment for art and am glad to have a large range of buttons to use.

Thanks for reading.