Monday, February 20, 2012

Return of the Yoyos

Those of you who have been reading since the beginning may have wondered whatever happened to those 409 yoyos?  Well, I had a few challenges to sort out with them, but now they are back on track:


I spent a couple of weeks waiting for the new binding fabric, because I wanted to make some yoyos from it as well.  Then it took me a while to cut the background strips, and a while longer to make the template and mark the yoyo positions.  But the biggest challenge was figuring out the best way to sew the yoyos down.

I made five samples before I was happy with my method.  I really wanted to preserve the nice pleats that the Clover yoyo maker produces, and I didn't want to flatten the edges too much.  But they also needed to be relatively firmly attached.  The instructions called for a running stitch around the edge.  The method that worked best for me was to take a very short tack stitch inside each groove of the yoyo, quite close to the edge:



This is a surprisingly strong way to sew them down, and with the short stitches on the front the thread will not be exposed to much wear.  And, it is going very quickly now!  I am 1/4 of the way done with only a few days of work.  I am choosing the yoyos completely randomly by closing my eyes and sticking my hand in the box.  So it is fun and very motivating to see which one will be next.  The only time I throw one back is if I get two consecutive ones in the same fabric.  Otherwise, anything goes!

In the end, though, I don't think this will be the most practical quilt.  The yoyos are quite lumpy, so if you were making a bed quilt for a young person it would not be very comfortable to sit or play on.  Mine will probably be a sofa throw.  I have a feeling that it will spend most of its time folded at one end of the sofa, and only used if I am cold.  But it certainly is a fun project!

2 comments:

  1. Looks brilliant. I seen one ages ago on the front of an american quilt magazine which had them sewn onto bottle green (memory) fabric and it looked amazing. Not sure I would enjoy making all those yoyos LOL but a table centre would be quite achievable for me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are right, Katherine, it was just less than a year ago since the pattern was published. If you go back to my first yoyo post (click the yoyo label on the right side) you'll see it.

    I cannot recommend the Clover yoyo maker enough. It is so easy - great for tv watching.

    ReplyDelete

I'm told Blogger has been bouncing some comments, so if it happens to you I'm sorry! But the settings look right so I can't explain it. In any case, thanks for reading!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...