This is not your yo-yo, ma

After numerous holidays of watching my mother put together yo-yos with her scrap fabrics, I decided that I too could make a yo-yo out of fabric. I jumped online and purchased a yo-yo maker and settled down to create my first yo-yo, which actually remind me of Angela's fleurettes from Season 3 of Project Runway. I was determined to make a string of yo-yos long enough to act as a garland for my Christmas tree.

Well, I was not successful starting with the smaller yo-yo maker template for a couple of reasons (according to my mother). First, I used cheap thread. When you have completed your yo-yo, you have to pull the thread through the fabric. My thread was not strong enough to make it through the pull. Secondly, I started with the smaller template. This prevented me from being able to fit my large fingers into the yo-yo to pull out the first thread.

I moved to the extra large template (2 ^3/8 inch final product) after several failed attempts.

Armed with stronger thread and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring playing on the TV in the background, I proceeded to follow the step-by-step instructions listed in the included instruction manual. The instructions were perfect. I used my mom's suggestion of putting my finger in the middle as I tightened the thread in the yo-yo to pull it all together. 

  Within a couple hours, I had produced several yo-yos. 

(several weeks later... time passes...)

I put together about 250 yo-yos. I decided to string them together in a rainbow pattern for my Christmas tree. Since I cannot sew with a machine yet, I stitched them together by hand (after failed attempted with safety pins and ribbon). 

I am still debating whether I could do that for an entire quilt...