Do you love buttons?

I can’t bring myself to get rid of all these containers of buttons that are donated to the quilt guild.  Shoe boxes, metal tins, ziplock bags, all full of buttons.  Hundreds and hundreds!    I am guessing I have over 20,000 buttons around, waiting for someone to love them!

They are HARD TO SELL at the meetings, because everyone seems to have a bin “just like it” at home. I’ve had “notion” sales at the guild meeting and the buttons sell here and there, but not a lot at a time.

And not all Quilters are crafters!  (I am the first to raise my hand and pronounce I am ‘not crafty’)

I was in Old Town Alexandria Virginia in January and saw “VINTAGE BUTTONS” for sale.

There were many on cards, and I thought hmmm…..maybe I am underpricing my carded buttons.  I can’t give them away for 50 cents for 6 buttons or 10 cents for 3 buttons. Maybe I should RAISE the price…..

I’ve sorted and bagged matching buttons. I’ve got 4 cupcake tins full of sorted buttons right now to bag up.  Talk about labor intensive.  The more I sort, the more I love the buttons!  Should I raise the price and rebrand them as “vintage”.  Surely they are!  The metal buttons are my favorite!

  What to do???

My 2nd Time Around Co-chair and I have been pondering the question!  How to get people excited about buttons and ways to use them, beyond your typical garment sewing. How to sell them?   We are getting ready for the  Ocean Waves Quilt Guild Show   on April 26 & April 27, 2019.  My 2nd Time Around committee is going to have a huge booth with lots of fabric for sale.  We are also going to SELL these buttons!  But before they sell, we have to INSPIRE people to buy them!

We’ve been looking at ideas  for crafting with buttons on Pinterest – and I have a “few pins” – Button Fun!

We made a few projects and I wrote about them here Feeling a little crafty   and here Fun with buttons and More!

Carole at  From My Carolina Home  has a great blog post today called Buttonmania Strikes Again !!  Over the years she has posted some very clever projects using buttons.  Oh, yes, she has a Pinterest board too and gives you “fair warning” about going down that rabbit hole!  (I have to set a 20 minute timer when I start on Pinterest).

So, all that said, there is no lack of creative ways to USE these buttons!

We have decided to sell the loose buttons at the show in a “fill a bag” manner.  A big bin of buttons to look through and square snack bags to load up with your treasures for $1.  We are going to display our “sewing room wreaths” to inspire others, and between now and then perhaps make a few more “button crafts”.

The other fun thing we are going to do is make “wreath kits”. Quart size bag full of assorted threads and notions, buttons and lace so you can build your “own” wreath.  We will make just a limited number and see if there is an interest.

Do you have a button box?  What do you save them for?  Have you done any button crafting?  Would you share your ideas?

Don’t forget to hop over to Carole’s blog post and when you comment, tell her I sent you there!

Happy crafting with buttons!

Be sure to check out the  OWQG SHOW  page.  Victoria Findlay Wolfe  is coming and has a special exhibit and lecture and trunk show! She is a spectacular quilter and teacher!  Check out her website –  https://vfwquilts.com/                                     

 

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Fun with buttons and more

A week or so ago, I had some creative people at my house.  They got busy working in the box of sewing room cast offs.  Old spools of thread, odd pieces of ribbon and lace, discarded tape measures, buttons, seam rippers were all put to use.  The creative idea was borrowed from a photo I saw on Facebook and shared with my friends.

They arrived with empty wreath forms in hand and stuff from their sewing rooms. They dove right in and got busy wrapping wire wreaths with ribbon or lace to give the hot glue or white glue a place to “stick”.  White glue was a safer choice for my grandchildren to use, while the adults used hot glue.  In just over 2 hours many awesome wreaths were created.

It was fun to see what everyone came up with.  NOTE – all the thread spools are considered OLD and not worth using for sewing. I had a great time watching the creative process. I really appreciated my friends willingness to work alongside 3 grandchildren. I’m not sure who had the most fun.

I shared the wreath I made right before my last cruise, simply as an example of what was possible.

After everyone left, I started to play in the bins of buttons and came up with this little project done on a 4×6 canvas with hot glue.

Have you taken a different approach to crafts lately?

Note…learning to type again while the long finger is splinted….tough for an old bird who learned to touch type at 14!. Hunting and pecking with the right hand for 6-8 weeks. Improving daily, but have been banging the end inadvertently and that isn’t any fun!  UPDATE – the knitted mitten has been completed. Can’t wait to try it. It will off a little extra protection when I am doing things I shouldn’t.  🙂