Yo Yo Quilts

I have never, ever wanted to make a yo yo quilt. Now, don't get me wrong. I think they're beautiful, and I admire anyone who has the patience to make enough yo yos, by hand, to craft an entire quilt out of them. Until this week, I could count on one hand the number of yo yos I've made in all my years as a quilter.

But, you see, it's still winter here in Illinois, and when it's cold I want to bake all the time. So, out of respect for my newly flat abs (the result of remodeling overwork, not working out), I thought I'd seek out a "comfort activity" that doesn't involve sugar, and decided to do a little handsewing.

I chose to make a few yo yos, after being inspired recently by Tess over at Made by Tess, and I must confess that I'm hooked and will be making more.

What will I do with these? Maybe use them as embellishments on a bag, or on a hat, or perhaps just let them continue to live in the sugar bowl on my desk (without sugar, of course). But I vow that I still never, ever want to make a quilt out of them!

Inspire Me Thursday - It's Hip To Be Square

Square is the prompt this week at Inspire Me Thursday. I love to use squares in my artwork, both as my format and as individual elements, but they are usually perfectly square. This time, I chose to use a rectangular "canvas" and add not-so-perfect squares to the mix. It's hard for me to not measure everything precisely, but I'm working at getting out of my comfort zone. Pictured above is a small quilt (approx. 12 x 9-1/2 inches) made from some more of my hand-dyed fabric. As usual, the pieces are fused to the background with Wonder-Under instead of stitched, then quilted by machine. I will probably do some more quilting on the background, then add a binding and prepare it for hanging. I had some scraps left over, so I made an ATC, below. Thanks to Judy Scott for inspiring me to get out my sewing machine again!

Ladder of Success

This is the small fused quilt I've been working on, although it's not yet quilted. It is constructed entirely with fusible web (no stitching here), and measures approximately 7-3/4" x 15". In the next few days, I'll be fusing it to cotton batting and quilting it by machine. I used some of my hard-to-part-with hand-dyed fabrics for this piece. I don't know why it's so hard for me to cut into those fabrics, because I can always make more. I think I'll call this one Ladder of Success.

My niece Tara is already climbing the ladder of success. She graduated from 5th grade today and received at least 7 awards (I stopped counting). Certificates nowadays are a lot prettier than when I was a kid! She was also the only graduate who made the A Honor Roll the entire year, which was a pretty big deal and earned her a big blue ribbon.