Button Bracelets

The Endowment Committee of the Edmonton and District Quilters' Guild met on Wednesday night (April 4) at Sparrow Studioz.  After a very brief business meeting, our very good friend Karen O gave us a very brief tutorial on making a button bracelets.  Every crochet skill level was in attendance, but enthusiasm was the main ingredient.  Regrets that Marg Landon and Kathy Logan de Chavez couldn't be there.

Start with 60 of your favourite shank buttons laid out in three rows of 20.  Place your feature buttons in the middle of your second row. Please be sure to have your buttons vetted by a button enthusiast  to identify the celluloid, veggie ivory and glass buttons.  For instance Karen O gave us an aside tutorial on how to clean the mold off your metal buttons using a HB pencil.

Carole Hunter stringing her buttons onto the two strands of elastic thread.

 we have every crochet skill level...the ideal hands belong to the "do not know how to crochet" end of the skill level scale.  Our instructor Karen O giving a one on one tutorial.

Sharon Rubuliak concentrating on refreshing her crochet skills.

make a chain of stitches long enough to fit your wrist and then do two rows of single crochet into the back of the stitch.

keep pulling your buttons back down along the thread so that you always have enough thread to keep working with

Margie Davidson has some great buttons and charms to add to her bracelet.

If you wish to keep your thread(s) from becoming hopelessly tangled, you must put them into a glass or jar.

I mentioned we were meeting at Sparrow Studioz, and while we were stringing buttons, Kim Caskey was quilting a beautiful filigree onto my "Fresh Fruit Salad" quilt. I love the tension, stitch length and the orange thread.  Going to be my June quilt.  You do change your quilts every month too?

Lou Punko, master crafts-person of every thing but crochet, but always brings a heap of enthusiasm and joy to the gathering.

and this is what we woke to on Thursday morning...a foot of heavy wet snow and still falling.  Not sure what the total accumulation was, but oh was a sloppy mess once the sun came out.  Most of the paved surfaces were dry by 5 pm when I came home after work.

To sum up...I was going great on my own bracelet.  Until I brought it home and then it became hopelessly entangled when Bob jumped into my lap and ...well you know it all went down hill from there.  I am starting over. Will have pics to post very soon and the finished bracelet as a donated button item to our Button Challenge Raffle in support of the EDQG Founders Graduate Scholarship at the University of Alberta.

Rainbow Challenge(s)

I think I will try to get caught up with my friend Cathy Tomm and those linked up with SoScrappy and the Rainbow Challenge.

For January it was the colour red. Well, red with a tint of white is pink.

In one failed attempt to tidy the studio I came across a bag of pink scraps that I had inherited from my friend Judy Hatt. I hauled out all the scraps onto the table, did a quick assessment..."looks like the beginnings of an irregular log cabin" I mused. (wish I had taken a picture at that point) What to do, but get sewing, and sewing, pressing, trimming and sewing, add some more of my pinks, florals, grapes, oranges, limes, melon (this is no ordinary fruit salad).


What if I add this bold stripe and a centre of melon? (melon dyed fabric from Margie Davidson)


Viola, a disappearing nine-patch. I am quite happy with the results. I have several hours of sewing ahead of me to create this double sized "Fruit Salad".

Now for the month of February it is GREEN. Hummmmm where is this going to take me.