Organized Randomness ...

A while back, in another post about little quilts, I posted about the fun randomness of my yo-yo quilt project. 

Progress is happening, and I've found a way to organize the randomness just a little. 

Just enough to give it some consistency.

Oddly, if my calculations are correct, putting green yo-yos between each of the 16-patches will make the quilt take more green yo-yos than colored ones. I've got lots of green, though, thanks to a couple of great upcycled bed sheets that were recently given to me for my quilt projects ... Nice!

Another view of the same yo-yos ... 

Yeah, this project is going to take a while. 

Enjoying it, though!

I'm linking this post to this week's Little Quilt Monday at Pieceful Life. Take a look at some other fun little quilt projects happening over there!

Little Quilt Progress ...

Lots of progress is happening on my English Paper Piecing!

Eleven stars are done! (That's more than double last week's total. The "doubled in a week" statistic is not likely to happen again!)

(Not sewing the stars to each other just yet.)

Here's another look at the same stars ...

And, in other handsewing news, I have not forgotten about the yo-yos that have been in progress for such a long time ... Here is the latest group of yo-yos ... Long-term project ...

I almost feel like I should mute the colors on this yo-yo photo, after the delicate rainbows of the vintage-y diamonds! The random look of this yo-yo project is fun. It's kind of relaxing to get to put colors together that DON'T coordinate or "look good together". (My oldest daughter laughs at that statement.) 

It's nice to have several handwork/armchair projects going, for those times when it's not convenient to be at the sewing machine. I'm trying to remember to work the yo-yos into the mix, in between the vintage diamonds, the mini hexagons, and the sock-knitting... 

Pieceful Life has a "Little Quilt Monday" link-party every week. Since this is a little quilt in progress, I'm linking this post there. Check out the other neat projects at this week's Little Quilt Monday!

Take Your Time Tuesdays are a fun place to see hand-stitched work at So Happy To Sew!
I'll be linking this post to this week's Take Your Time Tuesday!

Blue Yo-yo Bits ...

Not long ago, I mentioned my quilty yo-yos in all different colors. I also mentioned that I was working on some blue ones.

When I started these, I was going to use them single-file on a wide border of a small project that never took off ... so, they're sewn in little rows of 3. Now that I'm thinking about sewing tons of them together, I'm thinking I might not want them looking this organized ... but when I get a few more blue yo-yos made, I can figure out whether or not to disassemble my little rows of 3 ...

I could add these to my random yo-yo stack, but I'm liking the just-blue look. Maybe it's to balance out the uncharacteristic randomness of the other yo-yo project, but I'm thinking it'll be fun to ALSO work on a mostly-blue yo-yo quilt.

So, here's a question for my fellow-quilters: How do you like yo-yo quilts assembled? 

• JUST the yo-yos sewn to each other, as a "coverlet"?
• The yo-yos stitched to something lightweight, like a sheet, to give it some stability?
• Yo-yos assembled and sewn onto a "traditional" quilt with batting?
• Something different, like yo-yos stitched onto fleece?

I realize that the possibilities are endless, so I'd love to hear from some folks who've made yo-yo quilts (or loved yo-yo quilts!), to give me ideas as I consider what to look toward in a finished product.

Random Yo-Yos ...

A couple of years ago, a friend mentioned that she'd love to learn how to make old-fashioned yo-yo quilts ... neither she nor I had ever made a yo-yo, but we both thought it would be fun. As it turns out, each of us went home and searched Google for the how-to details!

I recently rediscovered my stack of little yo-yos, and I'm once again delighted with the fun randomness of these. Even though I usually like an "organized" feel to my quilting, I'm loving the non-organized look here.

Lots of these fabrics make me smile, because they remind me of what else I made with that fabric, or where that fabric came from ... I love the colors and the circles and the spaces between ...

Since the Christmas Hexagons are just about done, I needed some hand-work to put in my favorite bag-to-grab-when-I'm-going-somewhere ... Recently, I pulled out the fun, random yo-yos and worked a little while.

One of the fun things about sewing when other people are around (which is all the time unless everybody's asleep) is that sometimes, somebody wants to learn "how you do that". That's neat, because usually they discover that it's not hard, and it's pretty fun! My middle daughter sat with me and made a couple of yo-yos ...

Right now, I'm sewing the random yo-yos in groups of 16, so that they're partially assembled, with some flexibility in how I eventually work the layout.

I also have some blue yo-yos happening in another project-bag ....
Maybe I'll blog about those another day ...

Take Your Time Tuesday at So Happy is a fun spot to mention hand-stitching work like this ... So I'm planning to link this post to this week's Take Your Time Tuesday ...

Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory is another fun place to see fabric projects of all kinds, and I'm linking this post to this week's Fabric Tuesday, as well. (Click the button below for the most recent Fabric Tuesday).