Button Love

I am a collector.

Actually,  let me correct that.  I am a hoarder.

I hoard fabric, zippers, shoes, food (remind me to show you my pantries some day), books, jewellery...Let me sum it up by saying that if a certain class of objects gives me pleasure, you can be sure that I will buy a wide assortment.

This holds true with buttons as well.  I love buttons.  I love the shapes, the colours and the simple (but powerful) utilitarian nature of buttons.  

My earliest and fondest memory of buttons is probably one that is not unique to me.  My maternal grandmother had a tin, full of buttons.  There were dozens of buttons that had been removed from discarded articles of clothing.  She often gave me this tin to play with - dumping out buttons, putting in buttons, organizing buttons into little piles, feeling the smoothness of some and the roughness of others.  I loved that button tin (and the late grandmother that is so intimately associated with that memory).  To this day the sound of buttons rattling around in a old tin evokes such strong emotion in me.

So, I hoard buttons.

I store all my buttons in small plastic bags.  Each plastic bag holds a different set of buttons.  I so enjoy going through these buttons to find just the perfect match for a new garment that is hot off the machines.  It stirs up fond memories every time I open the button drawer in my sewing room.