There are many more and you may have some that you’d like to add.  However, here are some you might like to check out.

Antique & Collectible Buttons (Identification & Values) by Debra J. Wisniewski

Button Button (Identification & Price Guide) by Peggy Ann Osborne

The Button Sampler by Lillian Smith Albert and Jane Ford Adams (This is the book given me by my friend Miss Ida, who first interested me in buttons as something more than a utilitarian object.)

The Collector’s Encyclopedia of Buttons by Sally C. Luscomb

Buttons  (The Collector’s Guide to Selecting, Restoring, and Enjoying New and Vintage Buttons) b6 Nancy Fink and Maryalice Ditzler

The National Button Bulletin, a magazine of the National Button Society

Do you have any favorite button books to share with us?

Post from: Blisstree

Favorite Button Books for Quilters

They have shared how they store buttons, how they collect buttons, who started them collecting, and nostalgic memories of buttons and button collecting.  The topic of buttons has evoked such a great response, that I’ll periodically post about buttons…something I enjoy collecting and researching.

I used to think of buttons as simply a utilitarian object to hold clothing together.  Eventually I realized they could have a decorative effect on clothing.  When I began doing dressmaking and alterations for Miss Morrison many years ago, she introduced me to the hobby of button collecting.

She had pictures hanging on her wall that caught my attention when I stopped by to fit her.  (Ida was an invalid so couldn’t travel to my home for fittings as my other customers did.)  We chatted about the buttons, she mentioned the history of some, then loaned me books about button collecting.  Ida had jars of buttons and even gave some to my then 5-year old daughter to play with.  I began to realize this was a facsinating topic.

Since my daughter Beth, now a mom and art quilt designer and exhibitor,with her Meandering Threads blog, began using buttons on some of her work, I’ve realized another dimension of buttons.  Decorating art quilts with these as embellishments is fun and gives one an excuse for accumulating buttons.

How are you using buttons in your quilting and art work?  How do you store them?  Do you use them interchangeable with beads?  I love to hear how you’re collecting and using buttons.

Post from: Blisstree

Buttons & Quilting…Favorite Topics, It Seems

I’ve always enjoyed collecting buttons, ever since I explored my grandmother’s and mother’s button jars.  In days ago, ladies didn’t run to the store for buttons.  They saved them from worn clothing relegated to the rag bag.  They cut the buttons off and put them  into a jar or tin.

When my daughter was small and we lived in a distant city while my husband attended airline pilot training school, I made friends with a lady who operated a used clothing store.  Anything that wasn’t salable, or had been in the store too long, was fair game for the button jar.  She cut them off and sold me buttons for a minimal amount.

Buttons are great playthings for youngsters, once they’ve passed the “everything-into-the-mouth” stage.  They sort by color, make designs, and even practice sewing with buttons.

Noreen at Hankering for Yarn tells about using buttons for a crocheted Butterfly Bag.  She also has another post, Button Reveries: Evoking Memories, Inspiring Creativity,  relating the role of buttons in her life and her creations.

My daughter and I collected so many buttons we had to sort some out and sell them at our yard sales.  Now that I’m seeing them used as embelishments more and more, I may have to accumulate some more!

Post from: Blisstree

Button! Button! Quilters Are Using More Buttons

Another quilter browsed through the packages of buttons my daughter had culled from her collection.  “I use buttons on my quilt projects,” she explained when her husband joked about all the many buttons she bought.  She said she decorated quilt hangings with unusual buttons, just as my daughter does.

The previous year, a quilter bought my daughter’s whole button offering at that yard sale.  She makes patchwork Christmas stockings for sale at craft fairs and decorates them with buttons.

So quilters, in addition to collecting fabric, often become button enthusiasts, too. This then can lead into the interesting history of various buttons and how they were made.

Post from: Blisstree

Using Buttons for Enhancing Quilts