C & G Suffolk Puffs (or Yo-yo's)

If you're one of my readers who speaks "British English", you will have heard of Suffolk Puffs. If you are, like me, an American English speaker, you will know these as Yo-yo's. Either way, they're fun to make and even more fun to use to create something pretty!Suffolk Puffs are likely to have originated in the county of Suffolk in the UK. The first written record of them is in the early 1600's. They were used to make quilts, and sometimes the gathered circles of fabric were stuffed with wool to make the quilt warmer. In the USA, they're known as yo-yo's, although the technique is exactly the same.Making them is easy and quick and can be done while watching a good movie or listening to an audio book. Simply cut a circle of fabric, stitch a running stitch around the outside edge, gather the fabric in and, voila!, you have a Suffolk Puff. For more complete instructions, check out "YouTube" where you will find loads of videos showing you how to make them!In a quilt, the Suffolk Puffs don't have buttons in the centre. Ouch! It would be a very uncomfortable quilt with buttons! But for my C & G project, I decided to see what was in my button box. You can imagine how pleased I was to find an assortment of extra buttons from articles of clothing that worked with the fabric I used from my stash!We were to arrange the Suffolk Puffs on a piece of background fabric in a group. As I played around with the puffs, the ideas of meadow flowers popped into my head, so I decided to create a mini Suffolk Puff garden on a piece of red boiled wool.Well, flowers need stems so I threaded my needle with various bits of Appleton's wool and stitched stems on every flower. (Linear stitching happening here!) It took just one rainy afternoon to complete, start to finish and it's pretty!Am I pleased with the result? You bet I am!