Who's Got the Button?

Long ago and far away my grandmother would give me her button jar to play with - obviously I was an easily amused child.  I enjoyed everything about them, sorting and counting kept me busy, and the button jar allowed me the luxury of staying in the kitchen with 'the women.'  

Today one of my favorite collections is my button collection. It reminds me of my grandmother and now I can appreciate the art and durability of these amazing little workhorses. 

Many of these are glass and, except for the "JOY" button, I found them in Germany. 

When I first started collecting buttons they were just the extras from my clothes. I would pop them into a small jar that I kept on a shelf in my bedroom.  Then I started to really notice buttons - pearl, shell, plastic, wooden, metal, and glass.  For a while I was buying sewing kits at garage sales, keeping the buttons, and giving away the rest of the sewing items.

About a decade ago, I realized my collection was getting out of hand so I told myself I would use buttons on my sewing projects.  Of course, many of my pieces are baby quilts and table runners, not really suited for buttons.  My button collection continued to swell.  Eventually, I stopped buying buttons and, by and by, started to give some away.  Then (surprise) friends started to give me more buttons. Several months ago Patti showed up at my door with this box.

Gift Box

When I peeked inside I was thrilled.  Then I put the box on my 'button' shelf in my sewing room. 

Button Shelf

As you can see from the picture above it's not very glamorous.  Even worse, you can't see most of the buttons.  The Texas Star Jar was a Christmas present.  The other tall jar was a $1 garage sale find.  After that, I sort of got lost, I couldn't figure out how to store and display my collection, I used whatever I had on hand - old tins, candy and shoe boxes - even ugly plastic (ugh!). 

I think it's time to make a change.  I'm thinking that maybe if I really like my buttons I should give them a better place than on a shelf inside old boxes.

Here's a peek inside Patti's box, a few little boxes, a lot of buttons.

Notice I have poured them out on an old sheet because I don't want to scratch the table top...

...you never know what you'll find in a box of old buttons.

One woman's trash, another woman's treasure.

I'm on the look out for a way to display my treasures. 

Any suggestions?

It's Thursday, so I'm taking my buttons over to Vintage Thingie Thursday with Colorado Lady.  Just use her button to join us.