Buttons, buttons

I promise I won't be going on and on about these buttons, but here is one last look before they get tucked away. I had a brainwave about how to clean them the other night as I was preparing dinner: the salad spinner! It's like a little washing machine with it's own spin cycle and all! I just poured the buttons into the basket, filled the bowl with water and washing-up liquid and plunged the basket in. Some agitating by hand and a few spins with the lid on, a couple of changes of water and a thorough rinsing to finish them off and that's it. I spread them all on a towel in the sun to dry off before I had a proper look at them. Not surprisingly there are a lot of black, white and brown ones, but also some really nice bright coloured ones, like the round green ones that look like little peas - my mum remembered them from a blouse my gran had. She also recognized several from outfits she had worn in the 50s and 60s, so there's a bit of family history in there too. It will be fun to find some use for these. I remember seeing a quilt with rows of buttons around the border and in the sashing - maybe something like that? I would need a rather sturdy batting or backing though, because it would be very heavy. Well, we'll see.
I thought I'd spend some time sewing today, but before I'm off I thought I'd show you my attempts at making fabricpaper, inspired by this book by Beryl Taylor. I've been having a bit of fun experimenting with this technique. What you do is that you brush a piece of muslin with a 50/50 solution of PVA-glue and water, place pieces of pretty paper on it, more glue and then cover it all with a layer of tissue paper before you add paint or ink - all when it is still wet.
When it's dry, you can use it as part of a quilt, to make cards or whatever. These were my first attempts, and I might have been a bit heavyhanded on the glue side, because it is a bit stiff (but I don't really know what it is going to be like, though - do I? ) On the green piece I should have diluted the paint more, because you can't really more than glimpse the papers through the paint, so it was a bit dull at first. I added some stamped motifs once it was dry, and I must say I like it better after I did.
On the peachy piece I added more water, and here you can glimpse the pieces of old maps and floorplans of the V&A through the paper. I really like the effect, and I'm going to try stitching through it and see what it is like to work with. As if I didn't have enough plans for things to make already! But you know us girls, we just wanna have fun!