Yo-Yo Pillows & Quilts.

On one of my trips to the resale and little antique shops in town, I bought a rectangular-shaped pillow that was designed to look like the American flag.... blue/white in the upper left corner on a background of red and white stripes. I spotted the pillow from across the room, but it wasn't till I got close to it that I could see how it was made-- it looked like pressed-flat round flower shapes, and the fabrics had all sorts of designs. On the price tag, the dealer had marked it "Yo-Yo Pillow."

I bought that pillow for one of the beds up in the guest rooms of The Barn. Everything in The Barn is in a Texas, red/white/blue theme, and that pillow looks great on the blue and white quilt on the bed up there. As with everything "crafty" that I buy, I look at it closely and either determine that it's too complicated to make and I'm thrilled that someone else had the talent and the time to do it..... or I decide that it's easy enough to do and would be something I'd want to try.

I did a Google search on Yo-Yo quilts and found a pattern and instructions. Easy as pie. All you need is some 100% cotton fabric (very inexpensive in the thrift and resale shops), and of course it takes time to make all those yo-yo pieces. The fabric needs to be cut into circles, four inches in diameter. When you measure out the four inches, the instructions said to cut 1/4" past your pencil mark on the fabric. I found a plastic container lid that was exactly the right size and it's been easy and fast to measure out the circles. (You make the pencil marks on the "wrong" side of the fabric.) I found that the best thing to do was to first measure out all the circles, then cut out all the circles-- then you can just relax and take your time with the sewing because the fabric is all ready for you when you're ready to sit down and sew.

I tried to sew the circles while sitting at the table in the breakfast room. That didn't work, because either ShadowBaby or Mickey Kitty jumped up there with me and tried to capture the needle and thread (dangerous for cats, to say the least), or they were playing with the circles I had already cut. When they had settled down and decided to let me sew, one or both of them made themselves comfy and sprawled out on their backs and looked at me upside-down with that "just look at how cute I am" expression on their whiskered faces. Too much of a distraction, not to mention the fact that I don't want them up on the table. ("And why not?" say the cats.) Plus, whenever I sew anything, it just seems more comfortable to have everything in your lap so your arms aren't raised up to a table. About the most I really sew is a button here and there, or a hem, or sewing up the pockets on white slacks, but for whatever reason, sewing these little fabric circles just appealed to me.

The best way to sew the hem around the perimeter of the circles is to be in a really comfy chair and have the fabric resting on your lap, and you just sew a hem around the circle with a loose basting stitch. You hold the fabric right side down, so when you're looking down at that circle, you are seeing the "wrong" side of it. Then you just fold over a little hem (folding fabric towards you), following the pencil mark that you have made, and keep folding and using that basting stitch till you get to the other end and your circle has a complete hem all around the edges.

Now comes the magic part..... you pull the thread and the circle will start closing up into a ruffled flower-shape. I tend to keep my finger in the center of the circle while doing this, because you want to leave a small hole in the center of that flower. As the circle closes and ruffles-up, you spread out the shape so it's symmetrical and nicely shaped, then you use your needle and thread to make a couple of knots so it holds its shape.

When you're done, you have a cute little round pressed-flower shape, or yo-yo, as they call it. The finished flower is about half the size of the circle that you started out with-- I can only imagine how many of those you would need to stitch together a quilt. According to Google, these Yo-Yo Quilts were made in the 1940s, and now they're getting popular again. The pillows would be faster and easier to make.... the little yo-yos can be sewn right onto a plain pillow of any color or shape..... and the variety of fabrics that you use will determine the design of your finished pillow. The fabric circle you begin with changes dramatically when you're finished with the hem and you pull that thread to make it ruffle up and get smaller.

I don't know why they called them yo-yos, though...... it's round like a yo-yo, but that's about it for the similarity. Maybe they thought a "Yo-Yo Quilt" was a snappier name than "Ruffled Round Flower Quilt." Whatever you call it, I'm glad I started this. It's fun to find different fabrics, it will be interesting to see what kind of design I can come up with when I have enough of the completed yo-yos, and if I keep on making these, I can probably finish up a couple of pillows before the holidays and give them as gifts.

Re-reading the above, checking for spelling mistakes, I found an abundance of run-on sentences. Also an abundance of........ It is what it is. What comes out of the brain goes straight to the keyboard at times.