Those of you who downloaded and listened to my first experiment in podcasting – The Wandering Maker – will already be familiar with my interest in Various Buttons and my fascination with the buttons found at the bottom of the Thames by the Thames Mudlarks.

I love the idea of this eclectic mix of buttons and I think it is what prompted me to buy some button-themed fabric in Wallingford’s Village Fabrics shop last Friday, and to spend much time photographing the buttons on sale in Masons of Abingdon.

Village Fabrics was one of several material/wool shops visited last Friday by me, Emmylou and Ruth.

Apparently Abingdon was once a major player in the UK’s woollen trade and I am sure I read somewhere that this grand town hall was once used as a wool exchange where fleeces and wool were traded.

In Abingdon Ruth and Emmylou purchased actual buttons, while I photographed the buttons on sale in Masons and compared the effect of all those real buttons on the wall with the printed buttons on my fabric.

The idea is to use this fabric to line a Maud which I have desired to make ever since a. finding some slightly moth-eaten pieces of Harris Tweed on ebay for 99p and b. seeing this amazing photo on Kate’s blog of the shepherd holding a lamb in his Maud.