I had to smile when I read this comment from an Amazon.com reviewer, about Crochet Bouquet.
And why are so many decorated with buttons? No, no, no, no, no.
Truth be told, we are fortunate that there were so relatively few buttons in Crochet Bouquet. I held back on the buttons. I restrained myself. It wasn’t easy. Like I said, we’re lucky there weren’t more.
Why?
Because I love, love, love, love, LOVE buttons! They make me feel rich! They add interest and weight to my designs! They are cool to the touch when you run your fingers through them, and they make a nice, soft, clicking-clattering noise when you pour them out of the button jar. They come in so many varieties, it seems one will never run out of buttony options.
You can see for yourself the buttons that embellish some of the flowers in Crochet Bouquet. (There will be a few button embellishments in my new book, Crochet Garden, too.) Let me show you some of my other buttony creations.
The heart wall hanging above is my “Newspaper Valentine.”(Three guesses as to why it is called that–think back to your childhood.) In addition to the many buttons used as trim and hidden in the background, I created stylized flowers on the heart using black and white buttons. (Thank you Sharon, for the buttons!) Bandanna designs inspired these button flowers. If I remember correctly, “Newspaper Valentine” has over 200 buttons on it.
My friend Kipling McFarland and I are working on a project together, and this is one of the designs I made for it. It’s called “Money Tree.” Remember how I said that buttons make me feel rich?
The black buttons on the ladybug wall hanging were meant to echo the spots on a ladybug’s carapace. I think there are nearly 90 buttons on this wall hanging, and I was very disappointed at the time that the level of buttons in our button jar didn’t seem to be affected by the loss.
I make buttons, too. This is the button cloth I created to take to my button workshops. It is knitted on my trusty Ultimate Sweater Machine, added to batting and a fabric backing, and machine-quilted. I sewed a sample of each different kind of polymer clay button I have made onto the button cloth.
There’s oh, so much more. If you are interested, you can find more buttony projects throughout my blog and website.
I’ll close with this happy thought: I can love buttons and use them on everything, and you can choose
- to cover everything with buttons, like me (yes, yes, yes, yes, yes),
- to use a moderate number of buttons (yes, yes, maybe, no, no),
- to use buttons sparingly (yes, maybe, no, no, no),
- or never to use buttons at all (no, no, no, no, no).
It’s a win-win situation!
