Jenniffier’s Sometimes Creative Life – Yo-Yo Mini Quilt

This post is part of the A Season by Hand series. Find the schedule here.
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Our next guest is Jenniffier from Jenniffier’s Sometimes Creative Life!  Today she’s making a tutorial with one of the handmade things I love but always forget about: yo-yos!  If you’ve never made yo-yos before, beware, you may not be able to stop once you start.  Kind of like English Paper Piecing, yo-yos have been around for a long time, and I’ve even seen entire quilts made of just yo-yos sewn together.

I’ve known Jenniffier since she was one of the participants of the Embroidery 101 :: Stitch & Quilt Along, which took place here when I moved to California.  So, enjoy Jenniffier’s post, she always makes such fun things, and her projects today do not disappoint!

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Hi all, I am Jenniffier. I blog about my random adventures over at Jenniffier’s Sometimes Creative Life. Most of the time I blog about quilting; however, there are times when I actually sew, cook, garden, and go places.  Since I like to share about all of that too, you might catch me rambling about something like that. I am super excited to have been invited to share a project that you can create by hand. My favorite time to create by hand is in the summer. During the summer, when my air conditioning  is struggling to keep up with the days that can get to over 100 degree here in California, I often feel it is just too hot to be sitting under a quilt or in a room with the iron on. On these types of days I feel that it is best to just pick up my hand projects and move to living room. In addition to working on hand projects while watching TV, I also like to bring hand projects with me on trips. I hate sitting still so I like to have something to work on for the quite times between activities and adventures. It really took awhile to think of something to make by hand other than hexagons Or my embroidery 101 project to share with you. Which, by the way, is something that I have been working on since the quilt along was first started on this (clover & violet) blog back in 2011. Then I remembered how much I liked to make Yo Yos. Yo Yos were one of the first things I learned how to make when I just started learning how to quilt. I had bought a pattern that used little mini Yo Yos as flowers. I never did finish that project, but I sure enjoyed making the yo yos. Yo Yos are a perfect hand project because they are super portable.  All my supplies fit in this little pouch that was made for me by one of my bee-mates.

Plus it is so fun when you pull the string and watch the adorable little Yo Yo come to life. For a little handmade inspiration for you, I came up with this Yo Yo mini quilt. I had a very fuzzy idea in my head from a project I had seen in a magazine a few years back. However, that pattern used giant yo yos and makes a very large quilt. I really loved the project, but it would have taken a lot of work. I already have too many UFOs sitting around to start another larger project. So instead I downsized it a whole bunch. When I made these Yo Yos, I decided to use the Yo Yo maker by clover. Mostly because I hate prep work and the thought of cutting out lots of little circles just wasn’t high on my list of things to do.  To tell you the truth I avoid this project for quite a bit until I remembered about the Yo Yo maker. The great thing is that when you use the Clover Quick Yo Yo maker you start by using a square and then cutting around the guide to make the circles. That sounded like more of my style. Plus the large Yo Yo maker called for a 4 and something inch square… It was very close to 5 inches which made me think “Charm Pack!”. From there all I had to was collect some supplies I already had in my sewing room and I was set. If you are interested in trying your hand at making a Yo Yo or two I have created a two part tutorial for you. Part one will shows you how to use this Yo Yo maker with a charm square while saving as much of the fabric you can. Part two will be published tomorrow and will be on how to make the mini quilt. You will be able to find both on my blog. Have fun with all of your hand projects this season. I know there has already been so much inspiration with these post so far. I know I am personally looking forward to the rest of the A Season by Hand posts and hopefully I can finish another project  and participate in the link up at the end of July.