Showing posts with label buttons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label buttons. Show all posts

Monday, January 14, 2019

CQJP 2019 - January Block

I have January's block with a lady from the 1910s completed and excited to get started on February's 1920s lady.  After thorough research my process begins by sketching out the lady, concentrating on her pose.  Next I will size her similar to my previous paintings, work out details and transfer the image to watercolor paper.  After the painting is transferred I will choose fabrics appropriate in color and pattern for that particular time period, make my color choices and begin painting.  Once the artwork is complete I will transfer it to printable fabric and begin my piecing.

Here is the January block completed along with some close-ups of details.
This style is from the mid 1910's around the time WWI began.


The styles had become more practical and less frilly by about 1915 although still heavily embellished with embroidery.  Colors as well had become darker.  The skirt length became shorter and lace up or button up boots were fashionable.



Spider webs are a symbol of good luck on crazy quilts so I like to use them when I can.


Hats were still a fashion necessity and even though the rims became narrower feathers were still popular as decoration and used on the majority of women's hats.


I like to use dragonflies and/or butterflies on my blocks.


The zipper was invented near the end of this decade but not yet used in women's clothing, buttons were used so I wanted to add some vintage buttons on this block.


Now to do a little more research for my February block.  

Monday, January 7, 2019

Button Storage

I was looking for buttons for my crazy quilt block and was sort of wishing I had something else I could store them in.  I had them in spice jars that were on a turntable.  That didn't work too bad as they were sorted by color but I had to dump them out if I was trying to find a nice mix.  It dawned on me I had bought this nice photo storage box at Hobby Lobby awhile back.  It consisted of smaller acid free boxes made to hold a group of standard sized photos.  Those 16 boxes fit neatly into a larger box that latched and had a handle for carrying.


I started dumping the buttons into the boxes according to color, including a box for clear buttons, silver and gold.  I had a lot of black buttons so did one box for large black buttons and another for small black buttons.


They fit!


The only ones that didn't fit were my white buttons.  I ended up putting them in another plastic box I had.  I think it was for pencils or school supplies or something.


This was my old button storage.  These spice jar turntables were at the dollar store and I sort of went crazy buying all I could find since a few years ago they were only about $5 as I recall.


Other uses I found for them were for jewelry findings, some pearls and chip beads...





Now to get back to stitching on my January block and avoid getting distracted, but I keep thinking of things I can put into the spice jars I just emptied.