Monday, January 17, 2011

Buttons, Sheep and Football

This past weekend was full of hockey and football and craziness.

I live in Steeler country, you see.  In Steeler country on a Steeler football day, if you aren’t wearing a black & gold football jersey, you are an outcast.

On a Steeler football day, like this past Saturday, if you need to go to the grocery store to purchase a gallon of milk, make sure you allow plenty of time because parking places are difficult to find and the checkout lines are impossibly long.  That’s because everyone is doing their junk food shopping right before the game.

The best time to go shopping is DURING the football game because the stores are empty.  You won’t miss the events of the game though because instead of music, the game is turned on loud so that everyone can hear what is happening.

This particular Saturday was worse than usual though.  That’s because the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Steelers, and Pitt Basketball were all playing the same day. 

Going into that grocery store was like going to the game.  It was a celebratory, exciting atmosphere, packed full of black & gold jersey clad fans buying their food to gorge on while watching a day full of sports.

I was a bit frazzled after leaving the store.

I don’t know how far away from Pittsburgh one has to go before getting out of Steeler country, but we live about 20 miles away and it’s pretty ridiculous.   This next week will be pure craziness everywhere and if the Steelers win and make it to the Super Bowl, it will only get worse.   

That is part of living in the Steeler nation though.  Simply put;  If you live here and don’t like football, then you shouldn’t live here.

So while we watched hockey and multiple playoff football games this weekend, I was able to get some stitching done.

My newest pattern, “Love For Ewes” is shown made with woolen wheels.

It looks quite nice with woolen wheels but I wanted to show how nice it looks using buttons for the wheels instead …

100_4872 I have quite an extensive collection of buttons, so it was pretty easy to find sets of 8 buttons to use for this. 

You can see that I’ve stacked the buttons to create the wheels.

Just one large button would work nicely too, but I like the look of stacked buttons.  Different colors or even a larger sized bottom button would look just as nice so think outside the box with this.

100_4868 Here’s a close up of the wheels.

and here’s a picture of the woolen wheels ….

100_4839croppedYou can see, both ways look really nice, it’s just up to you and your button collection to decide which way you want yours to look.

There used to be a time when women would snip all the buttons off of old clothing before they were discarded.  Most women back then had a collection of buttons.

Oh, the button collections I have found at estate sales!  Beautiful buttons of all sizes and shapes and colors.  I love them all so much that sometimes I find it difficult to actually use them on my finished things that I plan to sell.

How many times have I snipped buttons off of old clothes before I’ve discarded them?  Umm …. Zero!

Does anyone do that anymore??

Should I be saving the buttons from my old clothing so that my daughters may pass them down to the next generations to use?

hahaha … that just made me laugh.  My daughters would chuck those buttons into the trash so fast after I was gone and then make fun of me while they did it!

 

Happy Day everyone!

6 comments:

Sheila said...

Sounds like you had plenty of action going on this weekend! Your latest penny design is so die for! LOVE it! Your work is beautiful for sure.
Have a great week~
Sheila

Lois--Huckleberry Lady said...

Uhhhhhhh, here I am....I cut off my buttons of clothes I'm discarding!!!! lol Old habit I guess. Will be in the same boat as you, those kids will have them in the garbage soooo fast, the garbageman won't know what hit him!!! lol
Very nice candlemat.
Go Steelers.
Lois

Denise * KKL Primitives said...

LOL your last comment was too funny Cath. :P
Love your new penny design - I think my fave is using the buttons for the wheels - love it!!

janice said...

I too know the craziness of living in football country. Everyone one here is a Chicago Bear fan. And we live 3 hours from chicago.

I am so surprised that you don't cut buttons off old clothing. I do if they are decorative and not just the run of the mill old plastic shirt buttons. I have all my buttons sorted by color and displayed in old jelly canning jars in a old cupboard.

Anonymous said...

Do you still store the buttons in Mom's cookie tin? That was the prettiest tin. You will have to show it to me the next time I visit.

I remember seeing the old purple pin keeper on you shelf the other day. One of us made it for Mom as a gift. I think the gold border around it is an old mason jar rim. Isn't it strange that something that looks so tacky can have so many good memories.

Casserole Carol

Anonymous said...

P.S. GO STILLERS!!!

For those of you who don't live around here. When we say "Go Steelers" It comes out sounding like Stillers.

So when we win this next game, I am going to have to decorate my shop window with black and gold "Stiller stuff" to get ready for the Super Bowl..

I also have to change my email signature and add "Go Steelers" onto it. (I have to do the correct spelling since it is my formal business signature! LOL

Casserole Carol