Buttons and Patches

 There has been rather a lot of rattling of the big button jar here this week, as some of the projects i'm working on include an array of buttons....and so did these little projects .....two nine patch pincushions.....

 .... my elder daughter needed a pincushion so i stitched her one, embroidering on her initials and a few little flowers in her favourite colours too to make it special to her.....

 ....and then i made one for me too....with some tiny pieces of the gorgeous ruby fabric that i haven't decided what to use for yet, and some grey spotted fabric left over from one of my earlier book projects....i love the combination of grey with spots and florals.....

 ........lovely colourful buttons....so many to choose from.....the perfect one is lurking there somewhere....

 .......ck buttons still on the card but not for long as i have a special project in mind for these......and a little covered button with an initial cross stitched on.... i have just been given a button making kit by my younger daughter when we visited her last weekend so i will be making more of these very soon.......i will also be making a pincushion for my younger daughter too of course :-)

.....here is the back of my pincushion with an extra stitched heart, tag and button, next to the big button jar.....

 .....thank you  for all the crochet love in my last post, i was so delighted to hear from so many of you and as a novice crocheter it was very heartwarming that you liked the projects.....the spotty red and white crochet hook that many of you asked about was made for me by my lovely blog friend Robin at my nest of yarn and buttons here...just pop over and visit her and choose a spotty hook too.....

...thank you for visiting me on this cool but bright morning.....it's lovely to see you......wishing you a happy week, with sweet spring flowers (or summer ones if you live on the other side of the world) to brighten your days...and plenty of sunshine too.......back soon xxxxx

A Crafty Heart

My little shabby chic heart returned yesterday from its recent photoshoot for Sew Magazine which I design projects for sometimes.

This heart was a treat to make because I could play around with some favourite fabrics, patchwork, applique, a bit of cross stitch, embroidery, ribbons and buttons - all things I love to create with.



I decided to hang it on the bed post in the refurbished and newly painted spare bedroom. So now our home has another heart.

Also yesterday a fabric and buttons order arrived from the wonderful Sew and So and I just had to take a picture of these buttons from Just Another Button Company - birdhouses and hearts....Lovely.

P.S. To those who kindly enquired about my knitting in the last post - I will be showing pictures of my two latest knits and giving pattern information very soon. Have a happy weekend! x

Button Love

Bright buttons, pictured together with a project I made for a magazine, and part of my button collection looking like sweets in a colourful, shiny tantalising way. I became hooked on using buttons with my cross stitch years ago when I first discovered Mill Hill buttons which were hard to get in the UK at the time. Now I also love to use tiny pretty Just Another Button Company buttons to highlight a theme in my stitching, or to make a colour accent. Both makes of button are now easy to buy in the UK and many other firms produce similar ones too.

I also like to use good old plain buttons, in pretty colours, which you can get in big packs from crafts shops. Someone once gave me a relative's old needlework box which had lots of antique linen-covered shirt buttons and an ancient lozenge tin of mixed old buttons that were so evocative of the past and other people's lives.

The little cross stitch design features tiny rose buttons - it is from my book Cross Stitch Keepsakes which has plenty of buttoned projects.