Selfish Buttons

Anyone who knows me in real life or reads this blog or even casually passes me on the street probably knows at least one thing about me -- I have a button obsession. I think it's because they're so compact and inexpensive (usually) and varied. Or maybe it's something else. But, any way you look at it, I almost had a heart attack when, in the course of helping my friend (the antique dealer) to clean out a house recently, I uncovered a whole bread bag packed full of buttons at the bottom of a hidden compartment in a sewing table.

My friend (both fortunately and unfortunately for me) deals in buttons so he wanted to take them but he generously gave me first pick on which ones I might want to keep.

I thought I might use this ornate one for a pincushion center.

This wooden one is my very favorite. Although I'm quite partial to that blue silk one next to it as well.

Below are a few button cards I found at a hidden gem of an antique store recently. I thought I'd include them while I'm going on about buttons so as not to wind up with a whole series of posts on buttons (I easily could).

They were quite a bargain so I had to buy two. (Did I mention that I have a problem?)

Junk Sales!

It's been so long since I've lived in a place where there are actually inexpensive flea markets / garage sales / random little ladies selling sewing supplies out of their garages, that it's about my favorite thing about this summer so far. I've not bought a whole lot but, to me, I found some treasures.

I love the little embroidery of the barn especially. There was one like it at a store in Brooklyn but it was already embroidered and they wouldn't sell it so it was great fun to finally get a little barn embroidery and to get to work it myself!

In case you can't tell those dogs are cross-stitch patterns. They're in a crazy embroidery manual from 1967 which is fun to look at but I will actually stitch some of those dogs.

We're using the big old crock as a compost cannister. It's too bad that it doesn't still have its handle but I think it's cool anyway.

And all of this is not to mention all of the good stuff left behind in our house (most of the things left behind were horrible, like piles of Reader's Digest Magazines from 1994 and a very very old hospital bed). But that's for another post.

Doll Quilts

I am so very excited to be a part of Doll Quilt Swap 9. When I read about it on the Fat Quarterly blog, I didn't know that I would have to actually apply and be accepted. But as soon as I found out I crossed all of my fingers and feel so lucky to have been accepted. I also had no idea that the "secret partner" aspect of it would be quite so much fun. Every time I log on to flickr I can't wait to see what new quilts are in the pool and to try to guess which might be mine. Here are a few of my favorites so far.

This quilt is the one I'm working on for my swap partner. She has a lot of white space, aqua, and red in her inspiration mosaic so I'm hoping that this is her kind of thing. It will have a sailboat appliqued to the top portion (she suggested that she'd like a nautical theme) and then the top will be complete.

Further in the spirit of Doll-Quilt-Palooza, I couldn't be expected not to notice the quilts on antique expeditions. This is the only one I've bought so far. It isn't acutally quilted, seems to have polyester batting inside, and looks to me to be from the eighties, but I love the fabrics and colors.

Shopping Fun

I know I've been bad about writing here regularly (already!) but I have a bit of an excuse this time — I've been in jury duty for the last 2 days! So in the interest of something entirely for fun, here are a couple of purchases from an extended shopping spree of the last week or so.

A bizarre bird jewelry dish from the ever-wonderful anthropologie (he's looking at me with a weird expression. . .)


My new friend Maggie from MummySam (thanks Sammi!! She's perfect! I love the way the print in the piece of fabric peeking out of her jacket looks like a tie.). . .

An addition to my fledgling salt and pepper collection (I know that I said I'd only have strange figural ones but I thought that these were just too cute to not get an exception — and they are pearlized — PEARLIZED!).

I'm completely spoiled but I'll say that it's all in the name of my birthday in a few weeks (although I know I'll be getting more great things to play with then too. . .)

Brooklyn Flea

The new Brooklyn Flea Market in Fort Greene every Sunday turns out to be a great flea market! It's in the style of the old Chelsea Flea Market with lots of vintage ephemera, records, clothes, and furniture with the added bonus of some craft fair regulars like Jezebel thrown in. And, like all of the best flea markets, the vendors are completely willing to haggle. I got this sugar and creamer last week and am loving them. They're much more silver than they look in the photos and so are in with my small collection of silver-colored objects.