Yo-Yos and More Yo-Yos

If you have a JoAnn Fabrics store near you and you are signed up on their mailing list, you are never without a coupon to use there.  Awhile back I had a 40% off coupon so I wandered the store for awhile and found a yo-yo maker.  This was about the time that the issue of American Patchwork & Quilting had the turquoise strip quilt with yo-yos on the front cover.  So I bought the magazine and the 60 mm yo-yo maker, came home and looked at them for awhile, and then away they went into a drawer.

Then I was blog surfing and saw a yo-yo along at sewtakeahike blog.    I have several other hand projects going, but I already have the yo-yo maker and plenty of fabric.  So I've grabbed her button and started making yo-yos.
I don't know how many yo-yos I'll make, but they are a great take along project or something that you can take outside to work on.

First I traced a 5 1/2" circle onto a piece of sturdy cardboard (in this case a frozen pizza box).  Then I grabbed a stack of fabrics from my stash and while watching TV I traced circles using this template and then cut them out.  I'm using polyester thread.  I feel like it is thinner than my cotton thread and better sinks into the folds of the yo-yo when it is gathered.

NOTE: I tried to use a smaller diameter circle so that I could use charm squares, but it was just too hard to get it all centered to have enough around the yo-yo maker to stitch through.   


I thought this project would end up better if I found a container of some kind to keep everything in so it would all stay together, and I found a new photo box in the top of the closet so I'm using that. 

I'm off to a good start.

I'm using lots of bright fabrics.

Dots and plaids.......

And I've even added some of my Kaffe and Brandon fabrics.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and finding some time to do a little stitching.

Thanks for visiting!