Cross-stitched buttons

Woo hoo! It's time to reveal the gift I mailed to my friend BP earlier this week. For a while I have been admiring the embroidered buttons that I've seen around on Flickr and on various blogs, so I thought this would be a perfect time to figure out how to make them.

BP is a big fan of Glee (a "Gleek"), so first I drew and stitched up a little Glee logo design. In this photo, you can see the purple "disappearing ink" that I used to draw the outline of the button form:

Next, I stitched a running stitch around the edge:

Then I pulled the stitches to gather the material around the button form:

And here's the final result!

I glued a magnet on the back:

I made two other button companions to go with the Glee button. "ASAM" is a word coined by our friend Maureen's amazing nephew -- it's a common-sense spelling of "awesome," of course!

And since BP and her husband are a couple of pool hall junkies, I included this billiard ball:

Here's the trio together:

And here they are in their little tin. (I don't mind mentioning that I had to consume ALL of the "cocoa nibs enrobed in dark chocolate" that were previously in this tin in order to free it up for these magnets. The life of a cross-stitcher really is full of sacrifice.)

Enjoy, B!