A Tale of Two Yo-Yos

The Yo-yo story started a couple of years ago when Lori said she wanted to use her huge collection of fabric nickels and expressed interest in something to do with yo-yos. She is a sucker for handwork which I generally loathe.

I slipped some Clover Quick Yo-yo Makers into our regular order from the wholesaler. At the time I ordered the extra-large size (because making less is better right?) and of course the end product was larger than I had expected, requiring a larger than 5" square of  fabric. Strike one ...

Then there was a magazine, this one,  American Patchwork & Quilting, June 2011. I dropped heavy hints to no avail, even took the magazine to South Dakota on my summer trip, but there was no divine turquoise yo-yo lap quilt in my Christmas box. I can't find the magazine but seem to remember it is made by stitching the yo-yos onto 3" strips.
Last week I re-ordered and got the right size, large, which makes the traditional almost 2" yo-yo from a 4-1/2" square. Yay!

When the box arrived Lori was literally hovering. Since then I know she has made more than 200. I am impressed that the ugliest of fabric looks nice scrunched into a yo-yo.

The Yo-Yo Makers are fiendishly clever. A stupendously simple idea, you sandwich the fabric between the two plastic pieces of the template, trim around the edges and stitch in the holes. After popping out the template you pull on the thread to gather the fabric, knot, bury the thread and it is done. Quite amazing.

Lori wants to make a queen sized quilt.

She is going to make a plain white wholecloth quilt, quilt it and then stitch 'blocks' of yo-yos to make a medallion on top. I think she told me she would need a couple of thousand yo-yos.

The thought of that makes my mind spin wheelies and feel quite hysterical. I think I shall make a small pillow. Maybe.

The two yo-yos? Well obviously Lori (2000 of them!) and me because I am making them too.

Y'all come back!