A Tin Collection

A few days back there was a discussion on one of my on-line sewing groups about tins and what we use them for. The girl that started the discussion was using hers to keep lollies and chocolate in, close by to her sewing machine so she could snack on sweet treats while she sewed. In my book that is a no-no, eating anything while sewing will give sticky and dirty fingers that might get on good fabric. I like to keep my sewing clean.

It got me thinking about my tins and what I use them for, so I went trough and dug them all out, photographed them, and was amazed at just how many I have. I would even call it a collection. Most are in use. I will endeavour to show them off over the next little while.

This first one is one I inherited from my Mother after she passed away. It was my Mother's button tin, and I remembered it from when I was a child, and I do sew. I had to fight for it, as male member of the family 'might want to sew a button on one day'. I didn't get it at first, but some months later it was handed to me.

I was more interested in the contents than the tin itself. When I brought it home I couldn't wait to see what treasures were inside. Mostly the buttons were men's trouser buttons, or shirt buttons. There were a few odd ones in bright colours which were plastic and probably date back to the 60's or 70's. It wasn't really the treasure trove that I was expecting. I have my suspicion that someone else was allowed to go through it and  take what they wanted, it wasn't as full as I remembered.

To this day this tin still holds buttons, just practical, serviceable buttons, nothing fancy. But I now think the real treasure is the tin it'self. When I photographed it, I turned it upside down looking for markings. Buried deep in the rusty bottom, was an indent that I had to take into good light to read. It simply said 'MacRobertson's'. So off to ask Mr Google I went.

So what did I find? My button tin hails from 1910 ! My Mother wan't even born then! So I have my suspicions that this tin was actually my Grandmother's! My Nanny was a dressmaker too, so now I feel even more privileged that I have it. There was one similar on eBay selling for a considerable sum! Mine is not quite the same. The size is, and so it the design on the lid, but the one on eBay has writing on the side that says it contained 'Opera Jubes', whatever they were. Obviously lollies of some sort, probably a jelly jube. My tin has no writing on the side, just on the bottom.

I was surprised at how much the seller was asking for this tin. To me now, my tin has much more value, knowing now that it came from my Grandmother, and her hands touched this tin nearly every day.

More Dorset Buttons

I have been playing with more Dorset Buttons. There were four rings in the packet so now I have finished all four. They will all get some felt & a brooch clip applied to the back & be sold on our sales table later in the year. With these two I have combined wrapping with needleweaving & In one some surface stitching.

I still have another packet of rings, that's another four buttons. Come back to see what I do with those.

Dorset Buttons

 

Last Monday I had the pleasure to be a part of a Dorset Button workshop with Judith Langdon. What a pleasurable day, & what a pleasure it was to be in Judith's class. I have wanted to make these little gems for some time. I could have figured them out for myself but by being in the class there were other hidden gems to nut out, which may not have happened if I had been on my own. I can be "that student" when I am in a class, asking all the hard & tricky questions, but this didn't phase Judith at all. We spent some memorable time together nutting out how to produce a high top version.

The top pic is my first ever Dorset button, while the one below is my second one. There will be more to come, including some experiments with making a high top version.

 

Colour & Shade

This was the page that I created for a book called "Colour & Shade". Corrugated cardboard pages were provided for us to use, & I seem to remember there were various colours to choose from.

I used a frangipanni shape, overlapped, traced the outline, then mirror imaged. The lines were then digitized. Purple satin was overlayed with hand dyed cotton, the lines stitched, fabric cut away, then more layering with net, more stitching & more cutting away. The final touch were the buttons stitched on with beads, all over yellow felt.

I know I had trouble with this page, everything was always dull. I think I was trying to keep the "shade " part going with the use of shades of purple & it wasn't quite working. Hence the introduction of yellow. Much better.

Loops Of Life - A TIF Challenge for February

I finished the February TIF Challenge today. I must admit I found this colour scheme a little dull

to work with. A few years ago I would have loved it but my friends from Stitchers Plus have drawn me out from my comfort zone & taught me to add sparks. To me this still needs a spark in some way, shape or form.

My thinking on this piece can be read here, and my stitching went like this. I started with a blue piece of poly cotton, then added my digitized design of circles. This was made by creating a background in a candlewick stitch, cutting circles in this background with my "cut holes" tool, digitizing satin stitched circles, cutting, pasting & re-sizeing them to where I felt they looked OK, then added a row of stem stitch to tie them all together. Once stitched, I then added some buttons to continue the circle theme, add more texture & interest. The pink button has given a little life to the piece but not enough in my opinion. I'd be interested to hear opinions of others.

January TIF Challenge

I finished my January TIF challenge today. It has been half finished for a while, just waiting for a few extra bits & pieces to be added. I think it fits in with the given colour scheme as well as following my thoughts on people I admire.

I started with a purple background that was interfaced well. I then set to looking for letter "R"s" to digitize. In the process I found a symbol which I think must be the one used in the Greek Alphabet for "R". It looked interesting so I digitized it, then set it as a pattern in my digitizing program. I then used it as a fill stitch for a background on my purple fabric in darker green thread. I then digitized a fancy "R", copy & pasted, resized & changed colours until I got something I liked. This was then sent to the machine to be stitched out. It looked like it was missing something so a play in my button, ribbon, & thread stash completed the picture.

A tribute to everyone with the letter "R" in their name.