Miss Sandy of Quill Cottage is hosting an “I Remember Laura” blogathon on Mondays through the month of June in memory of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author if the “Little House” series of books. There will also be an art swap going on each week in connection with the theme: Click on the picture for more information.

Also throughout the month (I believe on Wednesdays) she will be sharing parts of an interview with Laura Ingalls Gunn of Decor to Adore, a descendant of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Part I of that very interesting interview is here.

This week we will be sharing button collections, button identification and care, as well as button stories. Did you have a favorite dress with special buttons? Did you play in your grandmothers button box? There are many descriptions of the buttons used on clothing in the Little House books, from the plain and serviceable ones for the work shirts Laura made button holes for, the bright and beautiful like the ones that looked like berries on Ma’s dress that she wore to the sugaring off party, to the fabric covered ones for Laura’s best brown dress. Tell us about your button tales!

I don’t remember for sure if my grandmother had a button box: she may have. Somewhere and somehow I developed a love for beauitful and unique buttons, and I seem to have a vague memory of sifting through a collection of them. Though I haven’t sewn clothes in a while, one of my favorite parts of the planning process was shopping for buttons.

Long time readers will probably be getting tired of this picture, but this is my all-time favorite craft I have ever done with buttons, inspired by this one and this one.

I love the vintage look, even though the buttons aren’t vintage: Michael’s sells packets of vintage-looking buttons as well as other kinds. To make it, I googled “heart shape” to find a pattern, cut the pattern out of a lightweight cardboard (which I think was white: if it hadn’t been, I would have painted it white). Then I glued the flat and plain buttons on the base and added the more decorative ones on top. I didn’t make the plaque below it: I just wanted to show the area where the wreath hung. But it is an idea that could be used to showcase special buttons.

Here is another little button craft: a Christmas ornament, made the same way.

Here are some soft trees for which I used buttons, inspired by this one and this one (pattern is at this one as well):

This was a tray I used as a decoration around Valentine’s Day which includes many heart-shaped buttons.

Here are parts of my button collection.

Some in that one are more like charms or jewelry pieces, but they work well in crafting.

In addition, a while back I had a post about various button crafts here: I would add to that this button board I just recently saw here. There is also a Flickr group of Button Wreaths and Button Wreaths, Trees, Balls and Flowers as well as Soft Trees. They are all feasts for the eyes, imagination, and creative juices!