Buttons at Russell, Bay of Islands, NZ

Found these beautiful tea pot buttons in the op shop at Russell, a short ferry ride across the bay from Paihia. WMBM just shook his head ... I think they are gorgeous!

Dear Little Sister



Isle of Man buttons rule my textile world!

 Dear little sister,
More of your beautiful buttons (left hand side of picture) - they are truly wonderful and the top left, with bubbles, is fenced off (should that be "ranched off"?) while the lower left button had flow marks that matched the indigo dyed fabric - this is the piece I scrunched and twisted around a piece of down pipe at Ankie's. Much fun!  I particularly love the multiple holed buttons, the ones with five holes for example, and the imprecise but perfectly imperfect square shapes.  Can't wait to see the next generation of IoM buttons ... what will we call them on your return to Oz? Much love, Ali

State of the Art Quilt 2011 (SotAQ11) progress ...

The buttoned  'burbs join ploughed fields

Thanks to some very savvy friends and a few quick emails I got the message that the State of the Art Quilt 2011 submission deadline has been pushed back a month - for those affected by the recent floods. 1 March is fast approaching so, where has the year gone already? I've been spending a bit of time being quiet over the past couple of weeks and that meant some long blocks of time for hand-stitching and embellishing. When I started this piece I nearly undid it all after a few days - it wasn't "doing anything" for me. A wise colleague in art quilting suggested I just get on with it ... and let it flow ... so I did. Some of the buttons from the Isle of Man reminded me of the beautifully ploughed fields north of Nashville - all pale and golden and quite a contrast to the dark chocolate soils of Tarome. The final quilting is currently taking place and in keeping with the altitude theme, I'm looking at landscape and contours for some topographical inspiration.

Beautiful buttons from Isle of Man

Sue's hand thrown buttons

My sister makes buttons. Beautiful buttons. These were made on the Isle of Man and are exquisitely different from the ones she made me in Vietnam. Sometimes two holes, sometimes five ... they are real treasures. Thank you.