yoyo quilt - how much time does it take?
 

I have been wanting to make a yoyo quilt. When I was much much younger I made a whole shoebox full but they got lost at mother's house.

Has anyone made one that could estimate the time requires? Is it somthing that would consume the next 3 years?

I saw this pattern and was intriqued. Anyone make anything like this before? It's so wild and crazy that I love it! http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/pdfs/Bloom_Quilt.pdf

To me it isn't a matter of time. That is because I can do yo-yos when I couldn't be doing much of anything else. If I have the material cut and a threaded needle I can make my yo-yos at various meetings, events, and waiting for appointments [whether mine of someone else's.] I can talk while I mae yo-yos ... but I don't talk while reading.

ali

what size are most yoyos. I know there isn't an exact size, but what works well for you?

My wonderful neighbor in FL made a yo-yo baby quilt for my baby granddaughter when she was born. It is gorgeous, although nothing like the one in the Amy Butler picture. Hers is baby quilt sized, has scalloped edges, and all of the yo-yos are sewn together in strips and rows. She started working on making the yo-yos (about 600 of them) when DD found out she was having a girl, and it was delivered via Fed Ex when little Lila was 6 days old. So, it took her about 5 months.

If you cut all of your circles out first (INMHO, the MOST time consuming part), you can stitch while watching tv. Put a bunch in a ziplock bag with a couple needles, a spool of thread and a pair of snips and you can stitch while waiting at appts, etc. I think you can get the circles cut faster if you go to a scapbook store and use their die cutter (for a small fee but worth the time you save) or if your LQS has an AccuQuilt cutter you can use.

It depends on how much time you're going to put into the quilt top each week. I've made shoe boxes full of yo-yos while relaxing watching tv, at meetings, at doctors offices, while having visitors over. It's easy to do and yet still pay attention...at least while using the Clover YoYo Makers...I HIGHLY recommend them. Well worth the $5-8 they cost.

They're available all over but here's a website I found that has prices when I googled Clover YoYo http://www.sewthankful.com/CloverYoYoMakers.html

Otherwise search yoyo or clover on the QB and you'll get lots of topics which endorse the plastic template.

Forgot to add...and then couldn't edit my post ;(....

I use 5" charms to make my Clover YoYos. I just put the 5" square into the plastic template and then trim the fabric around the template, leaving about 1/3" seam...enough for the fabric to be caught by my stitch. EasyPeasy!

My friend just showed me how to do these again. She doesn't even cut out circles. She cuts out squares, crops the 4 corners off, and sews. She has lots and lots of shortcuts, and this is a good one, because who can tell if it was a perfect circle or not when it it all sewn up!!
Nancy

I made the Amy Butler one for my daughter. The yo-yo's took the longest to make but I worked on them when I was riding in the car or watching tv. I got it done in about 8 months but I didn't work on it very hard so prolly could have been done sooner. Some of the yo-yo's are quite large. I does take alot of fabric though. But my daughter loves it and thats what it's all about right!

ahh, ha! What a good idea, just nip of the corners with a rotary cutter, using 5" charms. . . My mind loves this idea.

and Van in Il, I like the idea of having a baggie all ready to sew, no gathering up stuff, then loosing the moment.