Books, Music, Podcasts

Buttons

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I just wanted to randomly post about one of my guilty pleasures in life – buttons!

I did not to intend to collect buttons, my button collection just sort of crept up on me…

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Trying to be organized with my button collection

I am not sure how it began but I remember as a little girl playing with my grandmother’s button jar and being fascinated.

Then, many years later, my love of buttons was rekindled when I started making miniature kimono wallhangings and wanted to embellish them with interesting buttons.

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Miniature Kimono with an antique button

I began picking up interesting buttons here and there – from craft shows, from shift shops, antique shops, and from a bookstore.

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Card of antique buttons picked up at a used bookstore

I was even lucky enough to have a friend who let me raid her old button collection in search of cool buttons for miniature kimonos.

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A couple of these buttons were raided from my friend’s antique button collection

This past May, my friend Dana, who was my “secret quilt sister” at our annual quilting retreat, surprised me with an “Vintage Button Jar” as part of my gift.

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The jar contained lots of fun buttons such as the ones below:

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Some cool large buttons courtesy of my friend Dana

Upon returning home from the retreat I attempted to cram my entire button collection into my new “Vintage Button Jar” but my collection was overflowing from the jar.

So now I keep the jar in my sewing studio to hold small packages and cards of special buttons.

img_2975Anyone else have an issue with buttons? Any secret (or not so secret) collectors?

Postscript

In an earlier post this week, Revisiting Traditional Piecing: The Blocks Part I, I shared I recently listened to The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz.

Well I am working on incorporating first of the four agreements into my life:

  1. Be impeccable with your word

I am not challenged in general of keeping my word to other and keeping my commitments to other people; but I do struggle with being on time to appointments with other people. So in essence I am not being impeccable with my word (that I will arrive at a specific time).

I am easily distracted and I struggle with getting out of the house and to appointments on time. I was very pleased with myself when on Monday I was early to meeting my friend at the coffee shop. I am tired an embarrassed that I appear to be “chronically late”.

Another area I struggle in regards to being impeccable with my word is is in keeping my word to myself! Keep my “self” commitments.

So  I am starting small (like going to bed on time, being sure to get out each day and go on a walk, making healthy food choices) to work on becoming impeccable with my word to myself. I plan to build up to the bigger commitments to myself which I hope include to do some sewing each day!

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

18 thoughts on “Buttons”

  1. Getting out of the house just takes longer than it should! Especially frustrating when you are bringing food to an event. So I will join you in doing better there.

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  2. T: I remember playing with an old coffee can filled with antique buttons when I was growing up on the farm. I wonder what ever happened to them — maybe sister Cindy knows? One of my favorite books as a young girl was “All of a Kind Family” by Sydney Taylor. The sisters in the story are motivated to clean the house for their mother when she hides buttons for them to find. I loved that button story! At a recent garage sale event, I indulged in jar of buttons for less than $1 — heaven. I guess I’m a not-so-secret collector now too.

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    1. Yes! That is how my grandmother stored them too! Your memory brought make more details of mine. It is as buttons are a type of currency! That sounds like a sweet story – I would have cleaned the house to find buttons! A jar of buttons for less than $1 – that does sound dreamy! Thanks for your comments my “Button Sister” 🙂

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    1. I see I am not alone and you are another “Button Sister”! Maybe I should come up with a new business idea – BUTTON RETREATS. Instead of quilting retreats, the button lovers get together and…hmm…a whole weekend of just looking at and playing with buttons…okay let me rethink this idea – ha! 🙂

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  4. True Confessions time–I am a button hoarder! I have a giant jar filled with buttons in my sewing room. Mom and Sandy bought a screw top lamp kit for me and the giant button jar now doubles as a lamp! I have buttons on my closet shelf (when I cut the extras off new shirts, etc.), I have buttons in my makeup tray (not sure where they came from) and I have buttons in my kitchen “junk drawer”! I also have buttons in the console of my car. It’s just hard to throw a good button away PLUS I might find its siblings some day! LUV the teapot button BTW!

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    1. Yay! Another “Button Sister”! Well you can never have me over your house as I would be busy staring and coveting your giant jar of buttons! That is so cool it is lamp too! Thanks for your comments and I found the teapot button at some craft fair or something. Not sure what I am going to use it for but being the obsessive tea drinker I am, I had to have it 🙂

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  5. Getting out regularly/on time is definitely a challenge for me as well. Is this a crafter’s dilemma? (so many neat things to make and do… indoors). Buttons are a little bit of magic, aren’t they? Love your collection! Thanks for sharing it.

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    1. Thanks for your comment! I swear as I am trying to leave the house and be on time, and suddenly some fabric wants me to look at or the design wall wants me to stop there for a bit, it or something – ha!

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  7. FYI, I have an Etsy shop, PracticleThings, where I sell both supplies and fused glass. 2 of the things I make are dyed cloth and fused glass buttons–I also sell both at quilt shows. My shop is currently in complete disarray due to an excess of foster dogs (5 currently). There are also craft books. When my friend passed away, there were boxes of books, some in areas I have no interest in–she was a great bookmaker and had an art major. I have kept more books than I can possibly use–do I really need 15 silk ribbomn embroidery books? I am down to 3 boxes, and have some more to list.

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  9. Your buttons look like fun! However, I have discovered that my possessions actually own me rather than the other way around, since they take up space and time in my life. So, while I love buttons, I am trying (with varied success!) to use what I have and buy only if I need a button for a specific purpose. I am NOT suggesting you should do the same! Enjoy your passion for buttons!

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