The Button Box Project

I was excited about this project that we started back in September at “In the stitch zone”. Alex had come up with the idea of experimenting with ways of attaching buttons and extending our stitch knowledge.

I’ve loved buttons as far back as I can remember, and spent many happy hours rifling through my nanna’s button box on a Saturday afternoon, also my mum’s tin of buttons which I still have. An old neighbour from when my mum was a child worked in a button factory, and many came from “Aunty Jan”. Lots of mother of pearl buttons in various sizes, and belt buckles, one of which was used on a favourite dress that I made as a teenager. I used to sort them in to colours, sizes and patterns, as well as trying to find enough of the right size for cardigans that my mum knitted, and sewing projects of nanna’s and later my own. Mum also used to take the buttons off anything that was only fit for rags or dusters; so do I. It’s very rarely that I have ever needed to buy a button or buttons for a specific project.

But Alex suggested we used the boring “odd” buttons, as it was more about the attachment than the buttons themselves. Still difficult to decide, but I didn’t give myself much time to deliberate and picked a jar of dull, brown toned buttons…….

…….and amongst them found a wooden one, and then a few more, which I thought would be a good starting point. There were a few unusual shapes. Alex suggested a plain or small patterned fabric.

I settled on this yellow small print, which I thought wouldn’t distract too much from the buttons and stitching, and started with a simple running stitch in brown perlé around the button…….

……..which I whipped and then got carried away with the stitching using yellows, golds and browns.

I found more buttons at home, some of which are made from coconut shells. I linked these back to the long straight stitches with feather stitch.

Also more threads in oranges and yellows, my go-to autumn colours.

I did more feather stitches from the buttons on the right, back up to the chain stitched button at the top. This is the way up that I envisaged it.

I got carried away with the feather stitch, layering shades of orange and browns. At class someone (Carol?) had asked about orientation and, after much turning and assessing, the general consensus was that it worked better this way. It’s more or less gathered here, but only resting on an old pine clock base.

I used several layers of wadding over the glass dome that went over the clock face, and laced it across the back.

The pine had three holes where pegs had attached the glass over the face, and I have used these to thread fishing line through to attach the stitched piece to the wood frame. It was the perfect size for the stitching. I only found it when looking for something else, and it was good to use up something we already had, even though it barely made a dent in the button collection!

So, why were we keeping a clock that didn’t work? Just in case! Its time would come…..

Colour play canvas work 6

I’ve attached the chiffon and felt flower (from the Great Scunthorpe Embroidery Challenge) to the painted pink fabric on the top right, after adding a few more longer strands of beads. They are subtle, and you need to be up fairly close to see them through the chiffon.

I went on a search for suitable backing fabric, having decided that my original idea of a mount and a frame wasn’t going to work. In the end, I settled on a piece of burgundy velvet. It feels wonderfully luxurious; the pink canvas edge will be turned under, and the stitching will be the edge.

I laced it over a piece of mount board, having zigzagged the raw edges first. It’s the first time that I’ve worked across on the diagonal and mitred the corners on anything this large.

At this stage, you can still see creases on the front, but they disappeared once I’d laced horizontally and vertically, which stretched the fabric.

While searching for a bias binding gadget (for another project) I found another unfinished project. A machine stitched pansy that I think was a workshop with Corrine Young years ago. I’ve not found the instructions yet, but it just happens to be the perfect colour with the canvas work and the velvet.

I’ve also put some more strands of beads on the top left, just above the metal flowers. I want to put some more French knots bottom left, and Colin thinks that I need something at the top of the central velvet to balance it, but I’m not convinced. I don’t want to take it off the frame until I’ve finished, so I’m leaving it where I can see it, propped up on the velvet background to assess. It’s even nearer there, and I’ve done the lacing which I tend to procrastinate about.

Lincolnshire Textiles / Lincolnshire Poacher

I’d almost finished my “Lincolnshire Poacher” piece last week before our Ukrainian “Sunflowers” arrived. In fact on Friday morning I started the last bit, the mounting, so I could blog about it, but things went slightly awry, so in the end I didn’t even get to do my blog until Monday!

Earlier in the week I started the “cheese-making”, using the template that I’d cut to the right size to cut a piece of wool / cotton wadding, which was a scrap left over from my stained glass window quilt, then a slightly larger piece of the yellow to cover it. I loosely tacked it through the wadding, making sure not to go through to the right side.

Just checking the scale.

I then added the “rind” with the textured stretchy fabric, after working out where it needed to go, and putting a long line of thread to define the wedge.

The “cheese” was attached with tiny stitching.

The grapes were stitched in the same way over the wadding, and placed in front of the cheese; no photo of this stage.

Then, after trying various rigid circular things (a DVD was not quite big enough, the lettering touched the edge), a lid off the large bucket of Lidl Greek yogurt was found to be the perfect size. DVDs filled the inside, to raise it level with the top. Next I did running stitches around the edge of the circle to gather it up, and the blue soluble pen was removed.

The “plate of cheese, lettuce and grapes” ready to attach to the 6 inch piece of mount board.

The piece of calico had a really deep crease that wouldn’t iron out, so I blocked it.

A piece of felt was stuck to the mount board to soften it all, and all set to go last Friday morning. We knew the “Sunflowers” were due to dock at Dover at 1 o’clock lunchtime, so there was time to finish the mounting and do my blog before the last-minute preparations for when they arrived.

I attached the “plate” to the backing fabric, then put a couple of pins to hold it in place, even having remembered to sign it with my logo initials.

I started mitreing the corners, and had almost finished the fourth one, feeling quite proud of myself, when I suddenly realised that the felt was facing me, not softening the right side. I could hear my mum’s voice in my head saying “pride comes before a fall”.

And having looked at it before I took it apart again, I realised the lettering was closer to the edge on one side, so laced across the back with it still partly attached to the backing fabric.

I then set to re-mounting it, mitred corners, lacing across the back, thinking I was still alright for time, called Colin through to see if it looked OK….. only for him to say the whole thing looked wrong and the lettering was in the wrong place.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked properly. I hadn’t re-checked the alignment after lacing the back of the “plate” and it had moved on the few stitches holding it down. More haste less speed, another of my mum’s favourite quotes to me.

So, off it came again. Breathe, calm down and slow down. Finally, third time lucky and it was done. It just needed a felt backing to cover the lacing, which I cut ready. But by now I had not only run out of patience, but also of time to do my blog.

I ended up quietly stitching it on once I’d got to the meeting on Saturday morning, and it was handed in and positioned amongst the rest of the pieces. Four more are yet to be added, but all is in hand.

I’ve also handed in my finished shard, so all is ready for the exhibition at Lincoln Cathedral.