Friday 11 November 2016

Button Love ....










Buttons & Threads with cold winds blowing
My day is not complete unless I am sewing!






Well today is a strange one as I am not working all day but indeed heading to friends this afternoon and very much looking forward to the rest.

My husband and our friends husband are off to a classic car show on Saturday which is fabulous because as you know my husband goes to all the vintage fairs with me and this Saturday it is all about
what he loves ... and it is well deserved I can tell you.  I am taking a book I am reading and some stitching as it is going to be a relaxing one for us ladies.. If we want to go out we will, if it is blowing a hoolie we can stay in by the open fire and chat catch up or indeed sit and do our own thing but in each others company ... You know then when you are with a good friend when that is easy to do!

Yesterday when I was sorting my project baskets I had to go into my button drawer and I have to say I have some beauties ......





Collecting over several years and all for use I may add, I could not but help take some photos for you to look at whilst I was admiring the beauty that is antique carved mother of pearl ..

I actually have six of these flower buttons and they really are stunners  In fact I love the stars and hearts too and can not chose a favourite as it is impossible to do for me!

When I buy mother of pearl buttons I do clean them ( this is another one of those ' two camps' of thoughts thing) I use a very mild detergent - in fact it is the rose and cedar washing liquid I use to was my vintage fabrics and quilts.  I put in about a five pence piece amount to a half filled butler sink full of warm water and swish it about to make a mild cleaner.



Then I take each button separately and with a clean cloth I wipe over each button and they all get a
clean non detergent wipe over with warm water before I dry each one.  It brings back their lustre and makes them shine! .. its the magpie in me, what can I say!

These antique mother of pearl doves are amongst my most precious and they are used in either baby or Christmas samplers amongst other bits that I have designed.  I bought eight, which was the whole vintage hoard that a lady in the States had after clearing a very old haberdashery stash of her mothers ... the stars and hearts came from her as well and I am so glad I bought them.

It is a pleasure for me to get them out and photograph them .. one day I must get all my unusual one out and take photos of them all for you to look at.  I equally love the plain mother of pearl buttons and when they are stitched together in say a heart shape they look magnificent, and as any magpie will tell you they shine like treasure when the light catches them.

One of these beauties (doves) is going to be used in a commission sampler piece which is for a family Christmas heirloom picture, I have stitched one onto our Christmas sampler picture as well, this is unusual for me to stitch any button on to anything until it is finished but I just had to in this case ...

Well I really must away as lots to do before lunchtime, although I am packed ;; hooray!

Have a fabulous weekend and as always Happy Stitching! XX











2 comments:

  1. I love buttons. I have pearl buttons that my grandmother who was born in 1904 used to collect for Henry Croft a gentleman she knew as a child.

    Julie xxxxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a wonderful treasure Julie! XX

    ReplyDelete