buttons with meaning

I've acquired some great buttons in the past few weeks...and not only are they pretty to look at, but they're buttons with meaning because they came from people I care about and they feel like they have a little bit of personal history. Sometimes this makes them harder to use...so I have to remember, that's what they are meant for. I'd love to make a few special things out of them related to their history.

I have one idea:
Some of these buttons were given to my mom from a lifelong friend to pass on to my sis and I. It just so happens, that the buttons belonged to her mother. Well, this lifelong friend of my mom's, happens to have a daughter, who is a lifelong friend of mine. confused yet? well, she's having a baby and I really want to include some of the buttons in her gift for a keepsake for the baby. I'm still not sure how I'll do this....but I'm thinking a framed piece of artwork for the babe's room with a few of the buttons involved. I also really want to make her a quilt {something I always WANT to do, but it's tough to find the time to make, especially when you are a bit sewing handicapped as myself.} Anyhow, that was the second thought, including a few of the buttons somewhere on the quilt. If you feel like commenting with an opinion, let me know what you think....I'm still working this out in my head!

Other buttons came from my awesome aunt sharon who you probably know if you read this because she is my uber-supporter! She passed them on to my sis and I recently and they belonged to my grandma & great grandma. I would love to make aunt sharon something incredible using some of the buttons, but nothing amazing enough enough has come to my head. Great Grandma was hilarious. She was Polish and had this amazing Polish accent. We would always make fun of her for making us the silliest things at Christmas. For some reason she liked me the most, and when she passed away she left me more $ than everyone else {sorry sis.}. We never really figured this out, but we think it was maybe because I wanted to be a tap dancer for a small period of time. I think it might be because I loved the little shorts she would sew to go under my dresses so I could hang upside down on the bars at school and my underwear wouldn't show. It's too bad we don't all get the chance to talk with our grandparents when we're older.

Yet another special batch of amazing buttons were just passed on to me by my mother in law. Her mom {nana} used to do quite a bit of sewing and had some amazing buttons. I never really got to know nana, so these feel super special and I'm not sure yet how I'll be able to use them. Maybe the "family" buttons from the grandma's and great grandma's need to stay in the family. Used, just used in a way we can appreciate them.

Funny how something so tiny & ordinary can be so precious.