Button projects???
 

Hello all... I'm working on a quilt in which I'm hand blanket-stitching flannel snowflakes (about 6" diameter) to flannel blocks... 8" or so... They've all been fused. It is a pattern I found in a quilt magazine years ago... my sweet DIL chose it for her quilt. The pattern calls for a button to be placed in the center of each snowflake as part of the quilting.

I mentioned the project to a dear friend recently and she offered her mother's button box (the one labeled "browns and golds"... those are colors of the buttons I'd mentioned. She is not a crafter at all, but still had her mother's buttons and a few other things. She insists it will make her so happy that I'll be using these buttons on this quilt and I'm going to do just that! I found 16 really wonderful buttons that will be perfect! (I need 49... now have 28, so a few more to go!! ha ha)

Here's my question.... I want to make something for her out of at least some of the buttons left, in particular one that she picked out as her favorite.. a button she's always loved... but I'm not a designer-type creator of things.. I can follow an image or a pattern, but I just don't "see" wonderful things to make in my head! soooooo HELP? I'm thinking a small wall hanging, maybe a "welcome" or "fall"... something she could use either as a wall hanging or on a table or bookshelf? But I'm open to ANY suggestions!!! or wonderful sites where you've seen creations using buttons???

Oh... and there are many that appear to have come off of a military uniform... I'll find out about her father... he would have served in WWII if these are from his uniform(s)... I want to do something with them, too! Or something with both of them! HELP PLEASE!!!!!!! And THANK YOU!!!!!!

How about doing a Christmas wall hanging and letting the buttons be the bells along the side of the sleigh? That could be really cute!

Or a Christmas tree with the buttons as ornaments.

I think maybe if you could get your hands on a picture of the person it would be very nice to use a copy and kind of make a picture with their picture and small items like lace or a uniform patch and your button. That way if you use a shadow box, some other things could be preserved in the picture as well. I think they used to call these memorabilia boxes., even though they were like a shadow box filled frame. Things like postcards from a place they had vacationed at or lived while he was in the service. Tickets, cards, old costume jewelry. You get the picture.

But a memory pillow is pretty cool and it could include things like daisy's (or whatever her favorite flower) some lace, the button and any other images that would be of her era. Likewise for the gentleman. I used to have a pattern somewhere, but, it was a little pillow say 7 by 12 and only the front had the objects on it.

The other idea was to copy a picture of her and put it into a tiny frame and glue onto it the button. Then put a ribbon on for a hanger. I have pictures like this on my Christmas tree to celebrate the people I have lost in my life. Hallmark is where I bought my mirrored ones and I love seeing them on my tree during the holiday's.

Here is a link to some. I love seeing these type pictures.

http://www.google.com/search?q=memor...w=1680&bih=870

Oh my gosh! I've got it! Go to the bead shop and see if they have one of those glass round holders that you put items in! You could make a holder for it and put it onto an inexpensive necklace chain for her. I have seen some people use unused round glasses for this too. You just pop out the glass and use the foil they use for stained glass to close it with. If you glue a wire into it, that would be the hanger.

Oh friends... these are all wonderful ideas!!! I never NEVER would have thought of any of these!!! THANK YOU!!!!!

How about the initial of her first name made up of buttons and framed? Here are some ideas from Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=Button+initial

what about make a small quilt like the big one you are working on. or maybe a wall hunging