Buttons, Buttons, and Cats

Well, here is an actual, completed project using some of the myriad of buttons I have been acquiring.  Yea!

This little piece has a story.  Of course.  My friend Gloria gave me her mom's button box.  Her mom was a super accomplished seamstress, with tons of various skills and talents.  I decided right away that I needed to make some sort of memorial piece for Gloria, to celebrate her mom and her love of sewing.

I dug out this adorable cat print panel from my stash of vintage quilt repair fabrics.  I'd bought it for repairing quilts with that kind of murky yellow.  Gloria's mom loved cats.  Gloria loves cats.  And being old, I'm thinking 1940s-ish, the fabric could have been being used in the era when Gloria's mom was starting to put all her skills to good use in her homemaking.  So choosing this fabric was really a no-brainer.  It must have been made as a table topper or some such thing.  It had been edged with a red bias binding.  I liked the added touch of the little cut corners, too.  It is 35" x 28".

I layered in a piece of flannel for some extra weight, and backed it with a new, solid red cotton.  I picked one special button to decorate the knot on each kitty's bow.  I chalked in wandering lines between the cats, and then had a great time stitching on the buttons.  The sewing goes through all three layers.  I picked the buttons randomly, but with an eye to keeping the sizes and colors balanced.

There are two kitties right at the bottom edge who seem to be really fascinated by something.  I decided to put two little ladybug buttons on the binding for them to look at.

Since I like cats and buttons and sewing, too, this was a great treat to work on.