You can't take it with you!

We've all heard the saying, "Whoever dies with the most fabric wins!" right? Well, if the saying were, "Whoever dies with the most buttons wins!", I think I know who could have won that prize!

I shared a bit in my last post about how I "inherited" (or garbage picked, but "inherited" sounds more polite) a bunch of sewing goodies from someone down the block (you can read all about it right here). After sorting out all the goodies and searching through cigar boxes, old Sucrets tins and plastic baggies, I found what looked like the largest singe button stash I have ever seen, over 5,000 buttons! I spent the past week carefully sorting and cleaning through it all to find beautiful buttons of every imaginable kind - wood, leather, bone, shell, plastic and glass. I have to admit, I love the variety of the plastic buttons most of all.

Great right? Okay, but seriously, I happened to already have just about as many buttons in my own stash as this great seamstress did! And I do LOVE me some buttons! So that got me to thinking - since you really can't take it with you, does it do any good to stash all these beautiful buttons away?

Although it would be seem cool to hoard keep them all, I think it would be far better to see them enjoyed and actually used. After all, wouldn't the seamstress who spent her life collecting and loving these buttons want to see them passed on and used? Yes, I think so!

And so, after picking a few choice buttons to add to my own collection, I did some more button sorting to come up with some very sweet little button gift bags. I'm passing these along to friends and family who craft and sew in hopes that they will use and enjoy them.

But after making about 20 gift bags I still had tons of buttons to pass on, so after further sorting put together these little button grab bags (each with about 85 buttons inside) finished off with one of my little "button business cards" inside. I'm passing these out as gifts to folks who sew, hopefully as a little inspiration!

And yes, I even want to share some with YOU! I'm going to post a little button bag giveaway in the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled! Yay! Just remember, you can't take it with you...