My holiday celebrations were great. Christmas, New Year’s, and King’s Day were peaceful, manageable, and inspirational. I spent much of my time cooking, cleaning, baking, entertaining, taking in the holiday sights, and lastly, I spent a lot of time preparing for upcoming art events. It was all good…..
Many people ask, “What is your New Year’s resolution?” My answer is always the same—to get my act together by becoming more organized. That always hovers at the top of my self-improvement goals because when I put my organizational skills into practice, my life runs a little bit smoother. Also, a recurring goal for me has always been to make a conscious effort to make time to do things that enhance my life. Along that vein, but less serious, will be my focus this year on the enhancement of my art quilts. I intend to accomplish this goal with the many items that I’ve collected over the years.
One of the many collections in my storehouse is my button collection. My mother started me on this path. She used to take beautiful buttons from clothes that she no longer wore and store them in her button can for rainy day projects. When that rainy day came, she would replace the bland buttons on her new garments, like sweaters, jackets, cuffs, collars, and etc. with more decorative buttons from her favorite castaways. I learned from the best and have hundreds of buttons to add another design element to my quilted artwork.
Now that I’ve completed major projects at the top of my priority list,
I have time to go back to some of the other things that I’ve been itching to bring to a close.
Below is a small wall art quilt that I just finished. You can see how the small buttons that I added really enhance the dotted fabrics that were used throughout this quilt.
I have plenty of buttons; I know that I will be embellishing future quilts with them. Taking them out of their storage containers aligns with my principle of “Use what you have on hand.”
Check me out next month to see what I do with a few more buttons.
Until then, stay warm, stay strong, button up, practice healthy living, keep the faith, and keep creating…
Artfully yours,
Chris