Buttons and Old Lace

old lace 1, originally uploaded by ivoryblushroses.

Yesterday I came across a box I had tucked away in the shed. Imagine my delight to find a box of old lace trims that I had collected over the years but "misplaced"! What fun to go through them!

When antiquing, I tend to look for old handmade lace and eschew the more modern polyester laces. These tiny trims may get used in crazy quilts or to adorn a baby dress or even edge the neckline or cuffs of a blouse or dress. I am in awe of the needleworkers who invested hours of time into these amazing trims!

Unusual lace is more to my liking than the more ordinary types. Like this lovely bobbin lace. Some of the threads used in it are different than what one usually sees.

This old bobbin lace has seen better days, but will be lovely used to trim a crazy quilt block. My closest friend in Colorado gifted me with the tiny white needlelace trim below it. I love the scalloped shape it forms!

This lace appears to be crocheted in two tones of cream and ecru and uses a picot edged cord that almost appears to be tatted. Such a feathery look to it!

While hunting for some buttons for one of the crazy quilt blocks I'm working on, I realized that I had a large number of "dark" mother of pearl buttons. So I picked through until I had a whole handful of them.
Many of them have a pinkish undertone along with the darker blues and grays. I suspect the larger ones might have been used on coats.

The button with the etched design looks like butterfly to me. I've set it aside to use on a crazy quilt block in the near future!