How to make a Yo-Yo Quilt
Yo-Yo quilts are not really quilts, they are a coverlet. These were made using small pieces of fabric left over from clothing after they had worn out and could no longer be repaired. They were very popular back in the 1920s and 19030s.
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Things You'll Need
- Fabric (amount will depend on size of quilt you want to make)
- Scissors
- Hand quilting thread (extra strong)
- Circle cutter or template
- Quilting needles
- Beeswax (to coat thread to keep it from tangling up on you)
Instructions
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1
You want to determine the size of the quilt you want to make. I have a queen sized bed and wanted my quilt to hang over enough to cover the matress. I took my tape measure and measured the length and width of the bed. I made my quilt 108" x 108". Once you decide on how big you want your quilt to be, decide how big you want to make your yo-yos. (I used 2" yo-yos for my quilt, and 4" yo-yos for my daughter's quilts.) Divide your size quilt by the size yo-yos you will use; i.e. 108 divided by 2 equals 54. In other words, you will need 54 yo-yos across and 54 yo-yos down to make a quilt 108" x 108". That works out to be a total of 2,916 2" yo-yos. (54 times 54 equals 2,916.)
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2
Prewash your fabrics. Do not use fabric softener. Iron any fabric that comes out wrinkled. Set your circle cutter or template on your fabric and cut your circles. (A 4 1/2" circle will make a 2" yo-yo when finished.) Once you get all your circles cut out, you can start sewing.
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With the wrong sude of the fabric circle up, turn a 1/4" over and begin sewing a running stitch all the way around the circle. Pull the thread taunt and your fabric should pull up into a smaller circle. Tie the thread off. You can do this either on the top or the botton (flat side) of the yo-yo. I personally find it works better to tie the yo-yo on the back.
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4
Once you have all your yo-yos made, you just simply sew each of the yo-yos together, side by side. I work in "blocks" to make sewing the quilt easier. It can be very bulky if you sew all the yo-yos together row-by-row. Blocks can be sewn to a desired size, and then sew the blocks together.
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Comments
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I have a pattern that says to use a few small slip stitches, to put the yoyos together. My question is how do you close them off and still have 3 stitches.
