Welcome to our first 'Friday Stash Day' post. Our inaugural post is provided by an old friend of mine from high school. Christina was crafty long before it was trendy. We're talking about quality craftiness, here. Today she gives us the story of her attempt at yo-yo quilting. I love the presence of her grandmother and mother in this story. They are only brief cameos, as it is Christina's story, but I love hearing about inspiration and skill being passed along. I give you Christina and her yo-yo quilt.
When I was 17, I had the idea to make a yoyo quilt. If you don’t know what that is, it is a quilt made from small, gathered circles that are sewn together. These quilts are used mainly as decorative pieces. This entire quilt also has to be done by hand. There is no way to cheat your way through making it. My mom had one hanging in the living room that was made by her grandmother. Granny, as she was affectionately called, had made it from scraps of left over fabric from other projects, like dress making. The quilt was not made into a set pattern but the disorganization of the colors and patterns made it beautiful. At least it was to me and Mom. I decided to carry on the family tradition of making a yoyo quilt. I would start off small, though, and only make a twin size.
When I announced to my mom that I was going to make a quilt one spring, I do not recall her ever discouraging me from attempting it. I think it was long after that particular summer I learned that queen size quilt hanging in my parent’s house took 2 years to make. If I had known that, I think I would have changed my mind from even starting. In any case, my ever encouraging Mom took me to the fabric store to look at prints and colors. Ironically, they had the exact fabric that matched the existing quilt on my bed. It was dark blue with pink and yellow flowers. It was as if I was destined to make this quilt. I picked a few more patterns to coordinate with the original because I decided mine was going to be an organized pattern. I hadn’t decided what that pattern was, but we purchased 1 yard each of 6 prints.
When we got home, mom preshrunk all of the fabric we purchased and I ironed them before starting off. Mom found some cardboard and we debated the size the yoyo should be. I believe we measured the yoyo on the original to get an idea of the “right” size. Decide too small and you will be quilting for 10 years; decide too big and it will look like a clown quilt. I went with a 2.5” diameter circle made from cardboard. I traced the circle on to the reverse side of the fabric and got about 50 circles cut out before my hand started cramping. Okay, that’s not true. I probably cut about 20 before my hand went numb. Did I mention I was starting this project in time for summer vacation? I was already staring longingly out the window and I had barely gotten started on the project.
After the hours I spent doing 20 yoyos on the first day, it took me a few days to get back to my project. Admittedly, I was enjoying my summer vacation but eventually decided to get back to work. I cut out several circles. I kept cutting even after extreme cramping had overtaken my hand. On the second day, I already wanted this project to be farther along than it was. I’m sure my mom heard many sighs from my bedroom that day. I persevered. I also was very impatient to get it done. Did I mention, even today, I’m not great at crafts that take a long time to accomplish? I am getting better with it but I’m admittedly, still not great.
I worked on the piece on and off all summer. I was taking it to the county fair as a self-determined project for 4-H, which meant it would be judged 4 weeks before the fair began. Without those 30 extra days, I knew I would never be able to finish a twin size quilt. Okay, who am I kidding? I admit the likelihood of me finishing a twin size quilt in one summer was incredibly slim. It probably would take me at least a year! The farther into summer it got, it became apparent I was not going to finish a piece of any great size in time for judging. I kept cutting, stitching and gathering. I also kept a mental block about how I still had to actually sew all of these circles together.
I found that I could no longer put off figuring out the pattern for the piece. I was cutting fabric at random so I didn’t have the same quantity of finished yoyos per pattern. I dumped the brown paper bag of them on my bed and sorted them by pattern. I noticed I had a lot more of one print than the others. I guess I should have been keeping better track of what I was making but hopefully I could get it to work in my favor. I decided on making a square print. I started with 4 of the same pattern in the center and went out from there. I used the same all-purpose thread to sew all of them together by hand. Knot, hold 2 yoyos faces together, stitch 5 or 6 invisible stitches, knot, cut thread and move to the next yoyo. It’s not tremendously difficult once you get the hang of it. It just takes a lot of time.
By judging, my quilted square was about 45” square. They gave me an A, mostly for effort, but honestly, it felt great to finish something well enough to submit it. I had enough left over pink yoyos to make a few loops to hang it from a rod in my bedroom. It hung there for many years above my bed, with the existing matching quilt.
If anyone asked me now what it was, I would say maybe a baby quilt!
Thank you, Christina, for sharing your quilting story. I love that we all experience a bit of 'fatigue' when it comes to execution and completion. But as I said at the beginning, this is quality craftiness, even when fatigued and improvised.
Christina will be back with a yo-yo quilt tutorial. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment