6/13/14

BUTTONS...Basic To Human Psyche

In the last few years, I have agonized over downsizing my collections. Although it has been painful to let go, it has also been liberating. I was sure I could not live without the yards and yards of my 'Fabric Stash', but I have, and the upside of that has been twofold...dollars and space.

On the 'Liberation Front', enough time has passed that I can confess to being beyond my 20 year 'Longarm Addiction'.  Yep, 'QuiltALottie' has left the Studio' for a new home and a new owner with LotsAQuilts to quilt.

Talk about making SPACE...the studio space has doubled with the selling of the longarm quilting machine.  So LIBERATING!  Now I have room to spread out the 'BUTTON COLLECTION'. 

I know, it's swapping one addiction for another, but honestly, I have been a 'ButtonAholic' since childhood.  I've learned that it's in my DNA since discovering my grandmother Minnie's 'Button Collection' mixed in with my Mother's 'Button Collection'.

According to the National Button Society, households have long followed the practice of snipping buttons from clothing headed for the rag bag.
 "The impulse to collect is a basic part of the human psyche."
I can not tell you how LIBERATING that statement is to my psyche.  To know that it is not an addiction, but a normal thing to scrounge through ragbags, to rifle through thrift store clothes racks with snippers and be tempted to snatch and run when spying collectible buttons on strangers shirts.  I have no problem with people I know...I just snip and say..."You will just love the necklace and earrings I'll make from these buttons."  Then I give them a handful of safety pins.

Did you know a BEAD COLLECTION is a 'basic part of the human psyche', too?

5 comments:

  1. Hi Sue!
    My granny had a button box and we did, too. I like buttons, but I don't really collect them. Yours are lovely! Good makes!

    ReplyDelete
  2. very interesting. My family has been a very non-saving group of people. No collections handed down. And I'm a clean the cupboards, clear it out person. Books are probably my vice, but even then I take piles to 1/2 Price books. Have a good weekend

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love this post! I am a button fiend!!! Love them all and I use them alot in my creations. But mostly, I just love to run my fingers through them. Aloha

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am absolutely in love with buttons. I've been snipping off buttons for years. At rummage sales I'd buy shirts or dressed just for the buttons. Just like beads, you can never have too many buttons!

    Yellow and blue are such a wonderful combination, blue sky and sunshine. GREAT necklace!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I wish I had all the buttons from my grandmothers collections but at the time I had no idea what it would have meant to me today.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your visit & comment. I'd love to return the visit...please leave your LINK or click on over and comment on Where Bluebonnets Grow.