State of Yo....

For those of you who are too young or whose mother did not drag them to a Smother's Brothers concert when they were children, would not know about being in the "State of Yo" as the 'Yo-Yo Man' would get into prior to starting his yo-yo act. Well, I am in a state of yo with my new yo-yo maker and my new quilt adventure. I discovered this quilt on the cover of American Patchwork & Quilting (June 2011, Issue 110) and just HAD to make it.

Between the turquoise background in batik and the bright, fun colors of the yo's I was practically salivating before I made it to the checkout to buy the magazine. Now, let's take a step back here: (1) Have I ever made yo-yo's? No. (2) Have I ever worked with a batik fabric? No. and (3) Was I aware that this cute 'little' quilt required 409 of those a fore mentioned, never having done, yo-yo's? Uh, No. So, here I am at my first attempt of making them, and yes, I went with Clover's 60mm Extra Large Yo-Yo Maker template/tool because I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into.

After some trial and taking the first one apart, I finally got the hang of it. However I did consult a couple of tutorials and videos on-line prior to attempting this. As always, I decided to Mary Shelley (Frankenstein reference) a few of the tips together to form my own way of making them work. I took some from Heather Bailey's tutorial, some from Lazy Girl Designs, and some You Tube videos. Here is the finished product...

Now only 406 to go! (This is only a fourth of the stack that needs to be done)

I might have to recruit relatives with tequila to get this done (yes, mom I am talking to you).