Yoyo headbands

I love opening boxes I have not seen in a few years.  Quiet often I find half done projects and things I have even forgotten I have made.  This is one of those items.  Years ago I made some garlands out of fabric yoyos.  I never got around to hanging the garlands other than in photos.  So after a while I started to dismantle them and use the yoyos for other things.  This was one of those other things.  I made headbands.  There is an elastic at the nape of the neck so they can stretch and fit snuggly.

Video: Fabric Yo-yo tutorial

One of my  friends wants to teach her children some beginning sewing so she asked me to make a tutorial for her.  So that she and her children can learn this and are able to review it several times.  These are  fabric yo-yos also known a Suffolk's puffs and Buttons in USA during the 1930'sand 1940's.





Other useful info on my blog: If you just want to see some examples here are all the posts on my blog about yo-yos  alot of them.   In these examples you will find how to lay them out what some ideas are for things I have used them in.  Also there are tools out there if you want fancier ones.  Some talk about other people that do yo-yos, examples of vintage yo-yos, there is a lot of info on here.  Have fun searching through it all.  Also good luck teaching the girls you will need to let me know how it goes.

Book sneak peak

Here is the badge I was given to show the new book"Countdown Calendars" I am in coming out in June. I love the photo the photographer too of my project in front of a window with the light streaming through it so cool.  You can pre order this book by going here you will not be charged till it ships in June.

Because of this book and my contract with the publisher certain items have been removed from my blog.  I will replace them and re -post those posts with new projects with a similar concept but different  than the book.  I will update when I have done that and give a link.

Grandma Harbaugh's yo-yos

When my husbands grandmother died she had some sewing supplies.  They have since been divided among my sister-laws who sew and myself.  In the the items I chose was a small bunch of yo-yos that had been made but not sewn to anything.  So I sewed them together and framed them today I just love them so sweet and it is nice to have something from grandma, especially yo-yos.

She had a few more (3 and 1) in two different sizes which I will frame some time in the future.  Those are kind of fun as the paper template is still with one cut out from a newspaper with the date and all.

This is the entry way from my front room into my kitchen I think it goes well with the embroidery that I got from my old neighbor.

On the top shelf is the rocking horse my children used when they where just tikes but they have since out grown it so now it is a decoration.  The doll house is "The Littles" from when I was a kid.  It is a pretty cool little doll house has cast metal furniture that functions meaning drop leaf tables actually work.  This is sort of where childhood gets remembered on that shelf.  I have a few more things to put up there but I have to find them first in storage still working on that.

Remember that yoyo quilt

I while back I posted about a quilt a lady showed when teaching a class at the local quilt guild fair, her daughters quilt is shown above.  I wasn't very excited about the class but the work shown was lovely as you can see from the quilt shown above.

 

Well the other day I found two of those store bought quilts (on clearance)  sort of like the one pictured  above that the teacher's daughter did, but a tad bit different.  Mine don't have a scalloped edge and are not white on white.  Mine are white on one side and colored on the other  and the quilting is colored.  One is bright orange and one is medium blue.  As for the colored seam binging well that is something the teacher's daughter added.

 

So I am thinking I will make two of these one brightly colored and one more subdued.  I think the white yoyos the girls have been making with the big blue yoyo tool might be just the ticket for the subdued one, using the blue quilt.  I will probably make a little tutorial to go with this so other people can do it too.  The bright one I may add a quilt too it that I was making a while back that I want a little stronger and a little bigger.  the nice thing about doing this type of thing is it makes the yoyo quilt stronger and it also makes it a warm quilt not just a summer coverlet on a guest bed.

New Yoyo tool

Over Easter break we had a road trip.  My sister wanted to pick up making yoyos so I took a yoyo tool ( the jumbo blue one) and some other stuff so she could see how to do it by hand  with just a needle and thread and with the tool.  She liked by hand better as do I.

 

During which time I tried to entertain my children with having them work with the  jumbo blue clover yoyo tool.  It is always amazing to me how big the tool is and how the size of the yoyo compares to it.  I have wanted a tone on tone yoyo coverlet for a while so this just may be the start of that project.

Also yesterday while running errands I purchased the newest clover yoyo tool the one for making ovals.  I have yet to play with it but my 12 year old did and she said it was easy to work with.  Once again the size difference but it seemed much more obvious with the oval tool as opposed to the round tool.

 

These would work well with the round smaller size yoyos to make a sort of cathedral windows look.  I may have to make a sample of that to explain what I mean.  It wouldn't look exactly like a cathedral windows quilt but similar in feel with the shapes used arches in other words.

Oval yoyo maker

It looks like Clover is coming out with a new yoyo maker in an oval shape. I don't know when it will be available. But it looks like it will be another nice shape to add to projects.

14+ yards of garland

I had tons of green yoyos sitting around and about 1 year ago I made short garlands out of them. Well yesterday I decided that they are not very useful in short lengths so I joined them all together to make this one very long garland that is over 14 yards in length. Now to figure out where to hang it for the holidays and hey it would work for St. Patricks day too.

Here is a cute Christmas tree made out of yoyos and some Easter eggs too.

It's near advent...

Click on the image to go to the tutorial on how to make an advent wreath using yoyos. Now the posts will be in reverse order with the first one being last in the list and visa versa. I am pretty sure everyone can handle that.

Please if you make any of these items I would love to see them added to the flickr pool all about this. Thanks and happy crafting.

Fall yoyo pilllow

Remember that pile of yarn I have to work my way through for a special order. Well I get to keep the scraps from the projects. I had this pillow in my house that I made when I was 16 years old it had seen better days. I removed the fabric cover made a new liner and covered it with crochet yoyos for the fall season. There wasn't much of this yarn left when I had finished making the customer's items but not much is needed for such a little project. Which has been true of all the yarns. I also have a new neck warmer from scraps from one of the other projects too. I forgot to post it maybe later I will remember and post that. There are a few more projects to do for this order then I will be back to normal posting.

New yoyo tools coming out

I was looking on Clover's sight and they have new yoyo makers coming out in November in the shape of butterflies and four leaf clovers. I will definitely have to get them especially the butterfly ones for my butterfly girl. The funny thing is when I buy these types of things I always have to buy more than one set as my kids always want to try them too. The image in this post I captured from the clover sight it is not my photo I just wanted to be able to show you what I saw there. If you like yoyos this should be a cool new tool. I have been making clovers already but I used hearts to make them. I have also already been making butterflys by just doing a few extra stitches in a normal round yoyo but this looks nicer than what I came up with. Doesn't look like it is able to be ordered yet hopefully soon.

Halloween Yoyos

I am in a Halloween yoyo swap and here are the ones I have received thus far. There are a few more that are to come in the mail yet. I will add them to my Halloween yoyo blanket.

Look what I found

When going through stuff to pack things up I found this half done dress size 24 mos 2t. That I was making out of sheer fabric and yarn. Sort of yoyo crochet but not in the way of the yoyo crochet tutorial. I hope to work on this this week end maybe getting the skirt done and a few more yoyos on the bodice. It would be nice to get this done. I have so many half done project it is ridiculous. I am one of those people that if I get an idea it bugs me till I start it. I always finish things just not always right after I start them. If I am making them for someone else or for a deadline then they are done fast. But if it is just for fun it kicks around for a while like this piece. Look at the size of the cone of yarn. Can we see a lot of pink whit things being made in the future and I mean a lot there is more on that cone than was on the yellow one. The dress still needs sleeves, neck line, and hem finished as well as 4 more yoyos.

Yoyos (class at Quilt Fair)

There was a second class I went to during the quilt fair and wished I had not. The class was titled "What to do with all those yoyos". So I thought hey might be fun to see someone else's ideas other than my own. The booklet stated that the teacher had been making yoyos since she was six years old, she is in her 70's or 80's. At the start of class, I was early for this one, I asked if I could take photos while they set up. The lady at that time said" oh I remember you, you are who we thought of when we decided to make this lecture but didn't know how to get a hold of you". So they asked someone else. I was good with that I wasn't into the teaching mode I was in the hang out with daughters and have fun at the fair mode.

I asked a few questions and discovered the only things the teacher had made was the pillow when she was six years old a small yoyo quilt (very pretty I might add) and had 2 half done projects one the quilt with the baskets full of yoyo flowers and the other was a kids t-shirt with five yoyos pinned to it. To look like balloons so she told us as she had not sewn down the yoyos yet or embroidered the balloon strings yet. So it just looked like a bunch of yoyos with pins in them on a red tee. I am not trying to be critical of the lady she is a very nice and a dear friend of mine. But it was not her day nothing came out the way she wanted too she even messed up showing us how to make a yoyo she forgot to fold in her seam allowances, nerves. It got worse from there I so wanted to rescue her nothing like going down in front of a 70 woman who all know how to make yoyo's. How do I know we all knew how to make yoyos the teacher asked who had made yoyos before pretty much everyone raised their hands. Then asked why are you here then we all answered this isn't supposed to be a class on how to make yoyos but how to use them as embellishments. I think that was the start of the down fall and the second was the oops on the yoyo demo a few moments later. I so wanted to rescue her. Bless her heart she did her best she stood in front of everyone for an hour trying to get through her demo from loosing her needle to breaking her thread and with 3 or 4 ladies falling asleep in the back of the room and snoring. I have never seen a person try so hard to get through a demo as she did. I think she should get an award for perseverance.

This one was made by the teacher about the size nickles

This one is made by Seiko Higgins

This was made by the friend of the teacher and my friend too Seiko Higgins. She is the person who taught me how to make yoyos years and years ago. I have a mini quilt made by her too, mine is in purples and blues. I don't have a size reference in the photo but those are smaller than a dime and she did them by hand with out clovers tools.

Made by teacher, her brother, and unknown person

One yoyo clown was made by the teachers brother,the one with the cloth head and missing an arm. It was made when the teacher was a little girl. The other was found thrift shopping. The pillow she said she made when she was 6 years, when she had rheumatic fever. Those are not reproduction feed sack material those are the real thing this was made when that was new.

Small wall quilt

This one was made by the teacher it is 1/2 done.

Store bought quilt with yoyos added

This one was made by the teachers daughter. She bought a 20 dollar quilt at TJ Max a place like Ross's and embellished it with the yoyos. Cute idea and quick. I love that she went back and added her own seam binding to the already bound quilt to pull it together. It is a nice finishing touch. Oh and I love the colors.

Vintage quilt made by the teachers mother I think I am not sure on this one but I know the teacher didn't make it.

Sewn onto a white cloth backing to reinforce it and make it stronger. I love the colors in this one too. A very nice collection of vintage feed-sack material could look at it for hours just to find out how many fabrics are in it.

Make a Shamrock from yoyo hearts

A while back I posted about making shamrocks from penny's hearts. You can either use her heart pattern or make real sweet little ones with the yoyo heart templates made by clover; either way you still have plenty of time to make some before St. Patrick's day.

found a new blog

Well, it is new to me anyway. In case you want to find this new-to-me blog, it has a lot of tutorials on things I like, and she has a neat spin on things. Check her out and tell me what you think.

Saturday yoyos and Betty Boop

My kids are watching a marathon of Betty Boop CD videos today and working on our yoyo quilt. I think more watching is happening than sewing. Not all of them sew equally well, but for this type of quilt the 7-year-old's stitches will work just fine. The oldest is smirking because she was supposed to be sewing more than watching TV and knows she just got caught in the last photo.

Can you tell it is Saturday? They went to sleep with wet hair, and now they look like little street urchins, at least their hair does!

Revisiting the Advent Calendar

Last year I posted an ornament a day or so 'till there were enough to make an advent calendar. If you would like to make one for this year, there is still time to get started and completed. You, of course, do not have to make a yoyo tree; any tree will work to place the ornaments on.

halloween Yoyos and new tools

My friend buttercup who lives in Japan sent me these new yoyo tools. My kids just love these tools they really help little kids who do not have the coordination to do it on their own yet. I still like the old way but it is useful to have these for my kids. I do have to admit the flowers are easier to make on the tool than by hand. It was so much fun getting this in the mail and looking at all the Japanese newspapers that it was wrapped in.

I put a sample of a yoyo with coins for a reference for those of you who want to know how big the yoyos are with the big jumbo yoyo maker.

All these yoyos are for the Halloween yoyo quilt I started last year. I have been making these while commuting lately. Don't think I have given up on the lace yet as I am still doing it too finished seven yards of the yellow now on to a few more laces will post latter.

I think I will add the yoyos my daughter made (pictured below) to the edge when I am done to give it a sort of scalloped feel. She has 39 made and enough fabric to make 80 total.

New yoyo tool coming out by clover

If you are into the yoyo tools made by clover, (my children are), there is a new one coming out soon. It is a jumbo circle yoyo maker. I know you can pre-order them, just not sure when they will ship. This one is supposed to make a 3 1/2 inch (90mm) yoyo.