Wanna See My Yo-Yo

Wanna see my yo-yo?

The left half looks ok. The right half gets an OMG. By the way, that's the only one that survived my yo-yo making marathon back in early June. The others, like the "WTF is that?"one below, all had to be put out of their misery.

Some of them were even scarier than this. And, I swear alcohol was not a factor. Well, the yo-yo might have been really sloshed but I was totally sober. Which makes it all even more frightening.

Obviously, I need to work on my pulling-the-thread-really-tight skills.

Hello Kitty Has No Mouth, But She Always Eats Her Vegetables

Just in time for Christmas: A Christmas Story re-enacted out by bunnies. I haven't been back to Angry Alien Productions since August 2004. (I know that because I had a link to the Jaws bunny movie on my old blog then.) There's a ton of bunny movies there now. I think my favorite is Pulp Fiction but they're all worth watching.

For months, I have been clicking the link on Sis Boom Day Dreams to get to Jennifer Paganelli's video tutorials on Country Living but could never find them on the site until last night. Jennifer shows you how to make a Holiday Pin Tree here (I love these!) and there's a video for making yo-yos here. Well, I officially hate the Country Living website now. It looks like you need to go here and then click the yo-yo tutorial from the list on the left (it's the fifth one down). I absolutely hate when you can't directly link to something.

Be sure to check out the Sis Boom website if you haven't been there yet. There's so much gorgeous stuff there.

Oldie but goodie link: Hello Kitty Has No Mouth

Redwork Pillow

Redwork Pillow
Originally uploaded by PipStitch

Shortly after I got out of the hospital, Suzan of Bombshell's Panorama, sent me this wonderful redwork pillow. She is such a sweetheart! (I still need to post a picture of the apron she made me.) I love the embroidery and the different red fabrics around it. The back is all red gingham. It's a perfect gift from a generous friend. Thank you so much, Suzan!

I'm so far behind with my blog reading these days. I was just at Sunshine's Creations for the first time in awhile and saw she has a tutorial for making square yo-yos.

Carol of X-Calibre Designs has written a great article about the different kinds of cross stitch fabric that I think would be helpful to new stitchers. Actually, I found it pretty helpful too.

Van Halen Reunites

Wow! Sarah at kniting-and.com finished her yo-yo quilt. She made 1600 yo-yos for it using a Clover Quick Yo-Yo Maker. Color me impressed.

And, if you're keeping track of my yo-yo making, I have yet to do a single one.

Pat Cummings has put her Just For Fun Redwork Book of old patterns online. Designs include a pig, horse, dog, cat, owls, children, flowers, birds and a somewhat disturbing one (to me) of a little boy in short pants riding on the back of a rabbit, plus a bunch of others. Thanks for sharing them, Pat!

How's about making slippers from an old wool blanket? There's a tutorial here. [link via Craft Leftovers]

I know the title has nothing to do with what I've written but I have a hard time naming these things. Who had that blog where all her titles were song lyrics?

I couldn't think of a name

Hey, look what I found as a draft post. I don't know why I didn't finish it. Oh yes, I do. See the title.

There are some finished biscornu here (yeah. I'm a tad obsessed with the suckers). I like this one that came from a free pattern that can be found here at Debbie Draper Designs.

After reading the latest Stitch School post and clicking all the links, I really want to go monogram something ... a hankie, a towel, the drapes, the dog ...

There's a gallery here of some great vintage apron patterns (click the pics to see them larger).

I remember having a yo-yo clown when I was a kid. Most likely, it came from my grandmother. I know that I was fascinated by the yo-yos and would try to separate them, in an effort to figure out how the thing was made. I didn't hold on to it though probably because I am not a huge fan of clowns. I wish I still had it because I could take it apart and use the yo-yos. You can make your own yo-yo friend thanks to this tutorial.

Maybe I Should Just Make a Really Small Yo-Yo Pillow

I found a list of links for free patterns in an email that I sent myself. I have no idea how I first got to the list but it's here if you want to look. From there, I ended up at Sew & Sew's Patterns. They have some free patterns there, including a Poodle (you can buy the entire set of dog patterns too) and some cups, teapots & pitchers that you can use for redwork or applique.

UPDATE: The site owner is no longer sharing free charts at that website. I haven't been to this French site for quite awhile. Many of their free charts are cows but not all. You can access the freebies by clicking on the archives at the bottom of the page. The galleries are worth looking at to see what other people made from the free stuff.

And, if you haven't been before, go see all the cool stuff at Knitting-and.com. I think I found that through a Google search because of the embroidery patterns. I especially like this one. Or it might have been due to the needlecase.

Sarah of knitting-and.com also has a blog, Mostly Knitting. And, look: she is making 1600 yo-yos for a coverlet. Wow!

Here's a Heart Yo-Yo Tutorial

I saw that Turkey Feathers linked to the tutorial for making a heart shaped yo-yo the other day. I have been meaning to do that for a few weeks. I have all these emails with links that I sent to myself back when I wasn't able to use my computer because it died and I couldn't save anything, with plans to eventually put them here. I'm afraid that if I post them all in one night, I won't have anything else to write about for a few weeks, so I've been adding them sparingly.

See?

Forwarded Message:
Subj: (no subject)
Date: 4/9/2007 2:08:25 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
From: NahNahNah
To: NahNahNah

Penny Sanford Porcelains: Pattern for Heart Yo-Yo

Penny Sanford Porcelains is another one of those blogs that I just enjoy looking at. I mean, I read it too, but I'm a geek for flower pictures and cute little doggie pictures, and there are many to see there.

Also, there are tutorials on making Pet Collar Slipcovers. This one has rick-rack and a heart-shaped yo-yo. The others are linked in that entry.

Maggie wears a boring blue collar around the house and a boring black harness is added for walks. I think her collar needs a slipcover with rick-rack and a heart yo-yo on it. Yes, she does.

Yo-Yo's and Sharpie Envy

Years ago I had a lightweight Martha Stewart comforter from K-mart that was one color on one side, (light blue, I think), and multi-colored squares, (pastel pink, green, blue, yellow and off-white), on the other side. After washing it a few zillion times, the batting in the middle got lumpy. I stupidly thought I could take it apart so I'd have a top piece and a bottom piece, and I could put new batting in the middle. So I got out my seam ripper and started removing threads, only to find each square was individually sewn to the bottom piece. This thing did not look like a quilt. I'm telling you it was a comforter.

"A comforter is a type of bedding — a soft flat bag used on a bed as a type of bed cover. It is filled with either an artificial material (such as polyester or a natural material. . . it is basically a thick, fluffy blanket that people put on their bed to achieve a much higher level of comfort and warmth," so says Wikipedia. And a quilt, they say, is "a type of a bed covering composed of a quilt top, a layer of batting, and a layer of fabric for backing, generally combined using the technique of quilting. "

I guess what I had was a comforter that was quilted. Or a quilt with a million times more batting.

Anyway, I took the entire thing apart and was left with a bunch of squares of various colors. My plan was to make them into yo-yo's and then do something with them. Here's a great tutorial on making yo-yo's. (And I totally want that blue Sharpie. All my ultrafine points are boring black. I do have a set of colored ones with fine points though.)

Of course, I haven't done anything with the squares yet. After seeing that tutorial, I was inspired to go get my squares and start turning them into yo yo's. But I'd rather go back to the Sharpie site and see what's new. (Suddenly, the "adventures of a wanna-be crafter" line fits, doesn't it?) Did you know you can order personalized Sharpies with your name on them? If I go back to teaching preschool, I am so doing that.

How I got to thinking about yo-yo's today: googling "donkey pattern" took me to A Piece of My Soul and a donkey quilt (cute, huh?), which got me checking out the other quite there like this Double Wedding Ring quilt, this Log Cabin quilt, and the yo-yo bedspread, which reminded me of my squares and how I haven't done a thing with them.