- Check out what you have on today.

Do you have a button on your clothes?

Is it something you kind of take for granted?

After our show today, you will have more respect and more knowledge about buttons.

They have earned their place in history, and we have just the people to inform you about the world of buttons.

[bright music] ♪ Could you imagine a more clever object ♪ ♪ Warms the body, ignites the mind ♪ ♪ A child sleeps under mother's creation ♪ ♪ Together forever ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ ♪ Puts you to bed one day at a time ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ [bright music] - [Announcer] "Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel" is made possible in part by grants from Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of needlework and craft publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products, by VIP Fabrics, a division of Cranston Printworks Company, America's oldest textile printer.

Additional funding by Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler, and by Bernina, delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide.

- There is a button bonanza happening today.

How do you store your buttons?

Are they collected from the past, safely guarded, and sometimes sorted in tins and glass jars?

Well, they are more than a fashion accessory, more than jewelry or a fastener.

Now they adorn our quilts, just as I used buttons in this little wall hanging to become a vehicle to say exactly what was on my material mind.

As I explored the button interest today, it led to a museum in Ohio.

Meet David Warther.

Mr. Warther, I imagine your museum has put Dover, Ohio on the map.

May I call you Dave today?

- Absolutely, yes.

- [Georgia] We are so pleased to be here and anxious to hear about the history of this museum.

- Well, the history of the museum started when Pop was about five years old.

He found a knife and started to whittle.

Of course, whittling gave way to carving, and he became a world class carver.

Mother collected buttons, came from Switzerland as a young girl.

Along with the family treasure of those times was a box of buttons.

She made bracelets, necklaces, as little girls like to do.

Her designs that she's using her buttons come from when she the kid making drawings of the lace curtains, the fancy work in 'em, and the quilts in the house, and that's what's in her button frames today, and she was an artist in her own right.

Contrast of colors, her design layout, it's spectacular.

- [Georgia] And I understand those were mounted, but then something's changed with the mounting, you're redoing that.

- Oh yes, the material they were monitored on was Marlite, and it had chemical reaction with metals and plastics, the thread that she sewed them on with, deteriorating, so we're mounting 'em now on Corian, which has no chemical reaction to metals or plastics, putting 'em on with telephone wire, which is non-toxic too, and as we hope lasts for a lot longer.

- I'm certain.

When people come, what can they expect to find at your museum?

- The carvings as well as the grounds and the gardens and the collections.

The carvings are outstanding.

The works of art, Smithsonian Institution appraised as priceless.

They'd never been sold, refused fortunes for his carving, just never had a desire to sell.

You'll see works of art in ivory, ebony, walnut, and pearl.

And his reason for his material selection was found carving from tombs of Egypt 3,000 years old made up ivory, ebony, pearl are as good today as the day they were put in those tombs, so that's what something he wanted to last for eternity.

His life savings for all practical purpose are in the materials of his carvings.

And Mom bought buttons and traded, and did a lot of [indistinct], and Pop made knives.

Sometimes she would trade knives for buttons, which was okay.

- [Georgia] Tell me about that knife.

- Well, Dad made his own carving knives.

This is one of them.

He couldn't buy a knife that stayed sharp.

He got to be a late teenager, he made his carving knife, big handle, little blade kept in the handle.

Designed a make of his own, and little blade is all you need, and that was what he did.

- [Georgia] And so you've gone on to perfect knives of all kinds, carving knives and that you have available here.

- Well, Dad felt any knife would stay sharp cutting ivory hardwoods would stay sharp cutting food in the kitchen, so he started making kitchen knives to supplement his income, especially back in the Depression years when I was growing up.

So I picked up the art of hand making of knives.

My sons work in the business with me, and that's our living, knife making, and the museum that goes back into growth, and we get over 100,000 people a year through the museum, and things are going okay.

- [Georgia] Well, I know you're very proud, and we are very excited to be here and look forward to a tour.

Thank you so much for this opportunity.

- Thank you for coming.

[bright music] [bright music continues] - Joey Warther has the task of remounting these boards, and it is so intriguing to us to see how the patterns were developed to begin with.

How did Freida do that?

- Very carefully, actually.

These are her original boards.

She would take the board, draw the design on, those are all her original designs, with a pencil and a homemade compass.

This is a compass that she made.

After she had drawn the pattern out, she'd drill each of the holes where the buttons were to be placed, and then each of the buttons were sewn on one button at a time.

It took her 35 years just to meld all of her collection and a lifetime of collecting.

- [Georgia] And I noticed that you are redoing them because they disagree with the boards.

They buttons are not- - Exactly, the boards themselves have a pressed wood back.

They're absorbing moisture, they're warping, and the moisture is not good for the buttons either, so what we're doing is we're taking the buttons off the original boards.

We're placing them one button at a time onto styrofoam pieces.

We simply pin them right on and preserve her original designs, and then they're taken straight to the new boards and placed on back in their original pattern.

- Now, something happens in between.

There is a cleaning process, tell us about that.

- There is a cleaning process.

These buttons have been mounted on these boards for a long time, and they have accumulated a lot of dirt and dust.

These are all glass buttons on this particular board, and these have been cleaned with vinegar and water.

Some of the different materials require different cleaning processes.

The wood buttons, we use a furniture polish on, that works real well.

Plastic buttons, we use just warm soapy water.

Hard rubber buttons can't go in warm water, they'll disintegrate, and we have to use a mineral oil on them.

Metal buttons all have to be polished with a little polishing cloth, so it's a very- - [Georgia] Fascinating.

What is this that you're using then to mount these?

- This is a solid surface countertop material, and it is acid-free.

It won't warp, it won't discolor, so it's going to be a lot better for preserving the buttons.

- And then all the holes are drilled precisely.

- Right, to match.

The original board is laid right on top of this and drilled straight through, so we preserve her original design.

- Show us the process then.

- Okay, simply take a piece of wire.

This is a coated copper wire, and again, it will not rust, and it won't corrode the shanks of the buttons.

I place the button on there, and we just put it straight through that hole that we've drilled.

And then once I get it to the back, I'll bend those two wires apart, and that will hold the button into place, so one button at a time, they're placed on the new boards.

- [Georgia] Oh my, we were told at least maybe on one board, 1,400 buttons, so you have quite a job ahead of you.

- [Interviewee] Quite a job.

- The master plan is what, for five years?

- Five years if we do one board a month, and that's a pretty ambitious goal.

- Now, how many was that a day?

- How many buttons a day?

- Yes.

- [chuckles] That's very difficult to say.

[laughing] - Oh, we won't do that.

We're gonna let you get to work.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Talk about a button statement, Jacqueline Nouvo certainly makes a statement with this irreverent Baltimore wall hanging.

Just cast your eyes on how she has tilted the blocks, add a zipper for fun between the blocks, and more buttons.

[bright music] From Arizona, we get a letter.

Tell me about the button custom in England called pearly buttons.

How did it start, is it still active?

Well, guess what?

I'm not real sure.

I see it's still done, we even saw it in Alaska, and so I've tried just a hint of it here on a black wool Melton vest.

As you can see, just around the front and the collar area, and soon the arm holes, I've simply hand-stitched some buttons.

In fact, my mother's helping me with this one again, and guess what?

I think there's an easier way to do that.

Now, before I show you that, check out Anne Weaver's vest, recycled male vest with jet and silver buttons, very handsome indeed.

Many of our new machines today come with what we call a button sewing-on foot, and the reason that it's made that way is because I didn't realize that all buttons have a standard opening, no matter if it's a tiny button or a medium or a large, so that our new machines are equipped to sew on buttons.

If it doesn't work that your machine has that, you can use an all-purpose or a zigzag foot, as long as you lower the feed dogs, and then with your hand wheel, take the machine back and forth so you have that exact opening in your zigzag, and then you could sew on your own buttons.

With my machine, I simply take off one foot, put on my sew-on button foot, and then just indicate on my machine where I would sew on my button.

Now, I've put this in place with a little glue stick, and that's how I plan to do my my wool vest so I can get my design exactly the way I want it.

And if you notice on my foot, there is a little prong that sticks out, and that's very nice in that that [sewing machine clicking] builds in the slack that you need so that you can of course close your button.

Notice how it stopped and went up and down, so now my button's all sewn on.

And of course, if you have buttons with four openings, then you'd simply turn your button and do it again.

Well, these are pretty ordinary white buttons, but once I met Lois Pool, she made me realize buttons are one of America's most popular collectibles.

[bright music] Joining us is Lois Pool, a button collector and authority and secretary of The Button Society.

In the quilt world, we are seeing more and more buttons on quilts, and so that leads us to have more of an understanding of those that collect and the history behind it.

How did it all start?

Was there a beginning for button collecting?

- Yes, button collecting started years ago, but it became organized as The National Button Society in 1938 when Mr. Lightner of "Hobbies" magazine invited a group of button collectors, and it was then that it was organized in Chicago.

And the first state to have an organized button society was Michigan.

Now we have organized state societies in almost every state and many of the foreign countries, with new clubs just recently in Italy and also France.

- [Georgia] Well, now what are the benefits in joining this society?

- There are a great many benefits.

Learning is one, because buttons are really art in miniature.

And we've learned a lot about buttons by the study of statues in England, research that we do in books, famous paintings, sculpture, because buttons do exemplify fine enameling, engraving, stenciling, painting, all types of painting.

- [Georgia] Yeah.

- [Lois] So much to learn.

- [Georgia] And you get a bulletin five times a year.

- [Lois] We get a bulletin five times a year, and the February always has the classification with over 400 classifications for buttons by subject matter and clear and colored glass, black glass.

- Well, let's talk about buttons.

I understand first buttons were, I would imagine, bones, right?

- That is correct, they were like buttons like this.

These are old bone buttons that were worn, and we collect them not only by shape, but by the number of holes in them.

And this is a whistle button, one hole on top and two underneath, and then we have the two-hole button, and we have four-hole, five-hole, and there are even six and seven-hole, an assortment.

- I see, and the earliest buttons, I would imagine, are pretty valuable.

- Yes, they are, and little is known about the buttons until the 18th century, and these are 18th century Passimenterie buttons.

They were worn on the clothing, and this matched the fabric of the men's coats.

- And they're made out of cloth?

- Made out of cloth.

- All right.

- And this is a card of all 18th century buttons.

This is a sulfite, these are copper, and this is a bird with real feathers on it.

It's what we call habitat, painting on silk 18th century.

Steel, and this is brass, painting on ivory, and then these are Wedgewood, and this is enamel.

- [Georgia] Oh, they just glisten, yes, and what a variety of composition here.

- [Lois] This is a card that was made up because of various materials, animal life, and here, we have the silver tortoise shell.

And this is a Jacksonian, and this was worn during the time of Andrew Jackson's.

And this is hard rubber, and this is pewter, this is tin.

Tin buttons are hard to find, and this is toll, and two nice ivories, pearl, black glass, all with different animals on them.

- [Georgia] And you mentioned something special about this one.

- [Lois] This is a handkerchief corner.

The base is brass and the corners are folded over to look like a handkerchief.

- [Georgia] Quite an array, and now this, all about the same size, what makes these so special?

- This is part of our section of clear and colored glass, and these are called kaleidoscopes, and you will remember as a child having a kaleidoscope, and if you look down into these, you see the design.

There's a metal plate with colored foil on top of that plate with clear glass covering, and when you look at like this, you see the clear glass, but when you look into it, you see- - [Georgia] You see the design, - The design of the kaleidoscope, but look at all the quilt patterns that you would see in there.

- Oh, I see.

Now, would one of these be more valuable than the other?

- [Lois] Yes, this is a paperweight kaleidoscope, and that's very rare and hard to find.

- All right, and look at the the beauty in this entire collection here.

- These are enamels, and these are modern and old, and in national, we consider those buttons prior to 1918 as old and on this side of 1918 as modern, and these were made in France and in England.

And isn't this pretty with the steel trim around it?

- [Georgia] Yes.

- [Lois] You see it almost makes you think of diamonds.

- Yes, and what about this enormous button in the center, is that pearl or is that?

- That's pearl, and that's known as a coachman's button, and the driver of the coach in England would wear three on each side of his coat with a smaller ones on the sleeve, and then this is a [indistinct] shell, very thin.

This is a bird sitting on a branch looking in a mirror, and he can see himself in the- - [Georgia] Reflection.

- [Lois] In the reflection.

- [Georgia] How fine.

- [Lois] And that is gold on pearl.

- [Georgia] And then there are stories behind so many of the buttons tell, us here.

- These are diamonds, 32 little rosepoint diamonds with the blue enamel background mounted in gold and silver.

And then this is marcasite, and marcasite was made to imitate the diamonds, but it was very fragile.

And this is a smuggler's button, and this was made in the 1930s and early '40s, and it's to hold your rouge.

- Ah.

- And it came with a pink, white, and green top.

And then in our category of story buttons, this is Ole Bull, a famous violinist, and this is part of the nut from the tagua tree that's grown in South America, where the nut is gathered by the natives and it's shipped to the States, where it's peeled, sliced, dyed, and this is a whole card of vegetable ivory, or tagua buttons.

We collectors call it vegetable ivory, but it's made from the nut of that tree.

The most unusual one is the one with Jackie Coogan on it.

- [Georgia] Tell me about the mounting, Lois.

- We make our own designs and we have rules in national, and we must measure every button before it's mounted.

And these are small, and this particular card is small and medium, and we have to have at least 15 of those two sizes with free choices.

Then we draw our circles or squares, make them ourselves.

Then we use a wire that is plastic coated to attach them, because that will eliminate corrosion.

- We see blue ribbons in the quilt world every once in a while, and now I'm seeing one here in the button world.

I would imagine you're proud of this, tell me about this.

- Yes, I am, I entered that in a national competition, and that's the first prize on ivoroids, and I was told that one of the reasons I won is because I had that nice square near the top, and then at the very top center they said that's the most unusual color for ivory, sort of a peachy shade.

- It's fascinating, I think we've opened up some new doors to a lot of people, and I know that I'm going to look at my button collection in a little different manner, and hopefully maybe I could find just one of the kind that you have.

Thank you so much for sharing with us, Lois.

- Well, it's nice to be here.

It's a wonderful hobby.

[bright music] - Buttons even printed on fabric, it turned out to be the perfect background for a little mini bulletin board.

Now let me tell you what you'll need for this bulletin board, some ribbon, of course, 20 odd buttons, any size you want, some foam core, you'll have to go to your art supply store for that, 18 inches by 24.

Cut your fabric 13 inches by 25, and press under a little hem about a half an inch all the way round.

And then you can even secure the corners with those pins.

So once you have the ribbon in place and the pins in place and a heavy duty needle on your machine, you can just stick this underneath, and then I'm ready to position it, and I'm ready to put my button on.

I like the way it sews in place, [sewing machine clicking] and when it's done, it's done.

The quilt world now has a button person, she's from Jerusalem, meet Rachel Rogal.

And how did all this get started, and how did this become so crazy and just get outta hand?

Tell me about your interest in buttons.

- First of all, I wanna tell you that I'm thinking of putting B as a middle name for Rachel Button Rogal, but seriously, I started out, my son was turning into 10 and he wanted a quilt, a full-size quilt, and I was thinking, how shall I write the letters?

Came out to do the buttons, and I wrote the song, "Think Too Much" with 2,200 buttons, something like this, and it's about how he will go to sleep.

And at the bottom of the quilt, there are 10 different sheeps that he need to count before he go to sleep.

One of them is missing a button, and if he still can see that it's missing a button, that mean he's still awake.

- [Georgia] Rachel, where do you get all these buttons?

- Now I can tell you where I get my buttons, I just walk the aisle, and people are just chasing me with bags of buttons.

[Georgia laughing] They met me before, they remember it, so they just bring me their buttons, and it's just a wonderful gift for me.

It's from the bottom of their heart and the bottom of their collection too, and I just enjoy that.

There is a factory in Israel that is using old clothing for making carpets.

It's recycling old clothing.

So they take the rows of the buttons, which will probably ruin their machinery, and I just get this, it just like going with two garbage bags and 70 pound, and if you cut the buttons, you get something like 10 pounds of buttons, and it's like a gold mine.

I never met them before.

I live in Jerusalem, and this is the 3,000th year celebration for Jerusalem, and I was thinking to make a quilt that involve other people who wants to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem but cannot do that physically or for some other reason, and I said, it was done via internet.

I asked on the internet, "Quilters, would you like to make a virtual pilgrimage?

If you would like to, please send your signature over a three and a half inch block fabric, blue fabric, attach a blue button on it in the center and sign your name, and just mail it to me with white buttons."

What I did, I did a three parts quilt, [speaking foreign language], and the quilt that you saw downstairs is about the European pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

It has in the center a maze that by following this maze, you're actually making imaginary pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

And this maze is found in France in Chartres Cathedral, and it's from the medieval day.

And then there is all the signature of people from the internet that came, so the buttons were a sign of people who want to come to Jerusalem, and with these people who wanted to come to Jerusalem with their buttons, I made another way to come to Jerusalem by the maze.

- [Georgia] What's ahead in the button world for you?

What's next?

- What's next?

I'm planning to make just like the quilt behind me, whole cloth signature buttoned quilt.

People will sign their name, choose their buttons, and it's gonna be, the whole design is gonna get with the signature and the buttons and plain muslin or off-white colors at the back.

Then pilgrimage is gonna be like the story for the next year at least, but I'm thinking more and more into the internet, I do the internet.

Cooperate quilters from all over the world and buttons, this is gonna be the thing for me now.

- [Georgia] Yes, from France to Arizona to Ohio, they are putting buttons center stage onto quilts.

Take some time out of your busy schedule and see if you can design a button quilt.

Tune in next time to our show entitled, "Quilts: Here, There, and Everywhere."

[bright music] ♪ Could you imagine a more clever object ♪ ♪ Warms the body, ignites the mind ♪ ♪ A child sleeps under mother's creation ♪ ♪ Together forever ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ ♪ Puts you to bed one day at a time ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ [bright music] - [Announcer] "Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel" is made possible in part by grants from Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of needlework and craft publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products, by VIP Fabrics, a division of Cranston Printworks Company, America's oldest textile printer.

Additional funding by Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler, and by Bernina, delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide.