Today, I am sharing the second section of Block #1. I have not yet name this quilt and frankly, it may not become a quilt. I am still pondering this.
Button Clusters!
I am a big fan of button clusters and like many of you, I have a collection of buttons. Most came from a friend (thank you Pat) who had a HUGE stash, many of which were vintage. When I started crazy quilting, I learned a lot from Sharron Boggon, an Australian crazy quilter who is a fabulous resource. Her blog is Pintangle and well worth the visit. She introduced me to button clusters and I like to use them in all my crazy quilts.
Always choose an odd number of elements in my clusters. For instance, 5,7,9 etc. In this cluster, I have five buttons in varying sizes, colours and textures. I added a small brass charm and a butterfly sequin. I felt it needed a bit more so added some French knots.
At this point, it is a great idea to add fabrics that are patterned when you are sewing your blocks. I have shown an example of this with the circular cotton fabric. This gives the stitcher an opportunity to enhance the existing pattern which I did by adding backstitch around some of the circles using a size 8 perle cotton, Colour Complements Colour #37.
The seam treatment below this started with using a circle template and tracing on half circles. I stitched these with silk perle. The centers are accented with a detached chain in a perle cotton and straight stitches on either size in a fine rayon thread. This is finished with adding a flower sequin stitched in place with a seed bead in the center.
Overall, I am happy with this section of the block. Once you see the entire block, you can see how it all works. Remember, you can review all my crazy quilting if you check in Categories in the right sidebar.
Stay tuned for the next section of this block.
