Present and Past project

The Dresden Plate exercise proved fruitful, and like the tube quilting, addictive. I find it unusual that none of the numerous magazine articles about addiction fail to mention craft addiction. Does that mean it is harmless?

Having sorted through my fabrics for colours that would be suitable on an indoor/outdoor chair as a cushion, I chose a golden yellow, a pale beige paisley, and a colourful blue/green for the dresden plate; and a simple square of calico for the background. In the beginning I had no idea what exactly I was making, nor how it would turn out. The dresden plate looked bare on the calico; needing some extra embellishment.

Over a period of three or four years I have attempted to make Suffolk Puffs. They look simple! No matter how many instructions I followed, or how careful I was, they were disasters; akin to my attempts at sponge cake making. [My first two sponges ended up in the bin, the next two were turned into a trifle, and no more have been made. I am speaking of those beautifully light and airy sponges consisting mainly of egg and sugar and a great quantity of air.]

Determined to not let a Suffolk Puff come between me and success I tried again. But this time I had back-up. I used Google! There were several postings on how to. One proved to be my saviour. One set of directions included the phrase, pull and twiggle it into the correct shape. Aha!! I had never attempted that! Before I had simply sewn, tried to tighten the cotton only to end up with a shapeless shape. This time it worked! Because? I pulled and twiggled it into shape. I made four Suffolk Puffs to represent flowers, and concocted eight leaves as colour and to accentuate the flower corners. The photo shows the partially completed cushion cover top, that I will get back to in the later part of next week.

While I have attached all the leaves, and one flower, I have been taken off that path for a couple of days, as I am making more hearts.

On the subject of hearts, just before last Christmas I made felt hearts, which were effective as decorations for the tree.