fun and games with quilting and buttons

Today someone at work asked me how my Christmas shopping was going. Christmas? Already? I'm really not ready for thinking about gifts yet ... But then again, there are only 46 days till Christmas (or only 3988873 seconds, according to this overly eager site), and if I want to make gifts this year, I should at least start planning, I guess...

I came across one cute gift idea today that's great for crafters in several respects:

• It uses up small scraps of leftover fabric.
  
• It puts those buttons you've been hoarding to good use. (Yes, we all know about your stash.)
  
• It's cute.
  
• It's fun to play with.

Take a look at the quilted checkers set that Little Birds created. She makes it sound really easy to make:

It's a 16 inch square of canvas with two inch wool hounds-tooth squares [...] appliqued with fusible web and then machine-stitched. The pieces are black and red vintage buttons [...]

I think the result is pretty stunning - and fun, to boot.