This magazine may look familiar, and that's because it's part of my first Christmas Giveaway (now open Worldwide!). Including it in the contest loot brought to mind the very reason that I had bought this magazine in the first place, way back in December 2000. And that's the two rustic "package trims" at the bottom left!
These were the first "primitive" type of designs that I had seen, and I thought they were funky and fun. And I absolutely loved that they used buttons! Buttons are a tradition in my family; it's a subject worthy of later exploration, in fact, because it is such a Thing. The point is that we all have our button bins, or cans, or baskets, or such and I had a lot of fancy, sparkly buttons in mind when I chose to stitch these.
And yet, once I actually had them stitched, those pretty fanciful buttons looked completely wrong! With the rustic style, and the rustic looking Oatmeal Aida I chose to stitch them on (which I don't regret at all), they looked out of place and silly. So I went for simpler buttons. Which turned out well in one instance, and not the best in the other. But let me show you what I mean:
Here is the magazine model for the first project, Tis The Season:
And here is my interpretation:
I'm actually really happy with this one. Both pieces were designed by Alice Okon, and featured French knots, my Stitchy Foe, on the lettering. Naturally, I omitted them; I considered beads, but again they didn't really go with the rustic feel.
All three buttons are pearlescent, and the large coral button on the bottom was a serendipitous find. When I intended to stitch these, I had all my fancy buttons pulled out, the ones with the rhinestones and gold filigree. When I put them on the finished work and saw how terrible that combination actually was, I had to scramble to find replacements. So it was happy coincidence that this button happened to match the two tones of coral in the heart perfectly. I also like my alternate button placement; all three were supposed to be tacked to the green checkerboard, but I thought it a shame to cover up all that solid stitching!
And here is the model for the second project, Joy:
And here is my interpretation:
For obvious reasons, I'm not so thrilled with this one. I have a ton of green buttons in my stash, and not a single one of them matched the green of the tree, which is how that horrid mint-green button ended up in the middle of the star. I'm sure I had a good reason at the time, but I can't imagine what that might've been now, LOL :)
The black-and-silver button was worn enough to look rustic, and I meant it to pick up the black of the lettering. And the little white one I chose for the shape, if I can remember correctly. The reason that these wound up in My Stitchy Can Of UFOs (Unfinished Objects) is because I was never happy with this second one. But since I've made a few additions to my Button Can in recent years, I may go back and try to find something that works a little bit better. The fact that all three have different finishes, and are made with different materials, was supposed to make it look exotic - like using mismatched china - but just looks chaotic instead.
Anyway, these are a quick, simple stitch, easily finished in an afternoon or two, especially when you leave off the French knots like I did. If you fancy them, then be sure to enter my Giveaway, and you could be stitching them for yourself this holiday season! (Click on the graphic at the top of my sidebar at right to enter, or here)
I'm not keen on how the model projects were finished (and there are instructions for that method with the patterns), so I'm going to have to put on my little-used Funky Finishing Fedora and figure out what I'd like to do with these!
As usual, any suggestions are gratefully welcomed :)
