Yo Yo Mama

It has been a weekend of odds and ends sandwiched in between real life things.

I did string the leftover yo yo's into a garland. Yo yo's must be the quilting equivalent of potato chips--can't stop at just one! They are so insanely, mindlessly easy to make. Just take a few stitches, draw up, tie off, and you're done. Now I am thinking about going back and buying some more of the red and white material to make more. I keep thinking how dramatic the red and white will look next to the dark green of the Christmas tree.






I also finished the turkey mat. This is a paper piecing project I began one dark, rainy October afternoon. I finished the turkey and started quilting it the same night. You can't see it that well in this little photo, but the binding material looks like wood grain which I think sets off the mat just right. This is only my second paper piecing project.


I found the pattern on-line. This might be the first time I have ever finished a holiday project before the actual holiday it was meant for. Except for the yo yo's above!


I'm not sure how much I like paper piecing. All I can say for it is that it goes quickly and you can see the results right away. It did push me to actually use my sewing machine, which I am afraid gets a little lonely shut up in its black box most of the time.

The third thing I worked on are these granny flowers. I had many, many hexagons cut out and ready for sewing at our retreat weekend, but I spent nearly all of my time making the log cabin squares, so these have just been sitting in the bin waiting for me. I bought the material as part of a kit at a quilt show several years ago. Unfortunately (or not, depending on how you look at it) I don't have the instructions any more. It was supposed to be some sort of baby quilt--there was about a yard and a half of muslin and six fat quarters of depression prints.

My plan now is to make the flowers just as you see them, and float them on a sea of muslin with some fancy hand quilting on the white blocks. The hexagons finish off at 1-1/2 inches. I guess I'll just keep at it until I run out of muslin. This particular muslin is a creamy off-white which I am sure I will never be able to find again. I'll worry about the border, etc. when I get to it.

This is pretty much how I make most of my quilts. I just find material or a quilt block that I like and then keep sewing until I run out of material or energy. As I said, most things I make are pretty small to keep them manageable. I do have some bed-sized quilts, but just tops. Hand-quilting a bed-sized quilt by oneself takes soooooo long!