Finished My String Quilt

I finally finished putting the binding on my string quilt.  It is 110" x 110" and fully covers our king bed.

It was really tough taking a picture of this quilt because it is so large.  But I decided to put it on the bed and take another picture.  I love the way it turned out.  It only took me how many years to sew a quilt for my bed?  Let's just say too long.

I am also progressing on my yo-yo handbag.  It is a bit slow.  I have now sewn 16 yo-yo's together to make 3 blocks.   There are beads sewn in between the yo-yo's.  This is really a cool way to sew the yo-yo's together.

I have not managed to get outside and garden as much as I would like, but I will share some pics.

Clematis

Can you tell I love irises?  Throughout the years I think I have planted about 100 bulbs.

Some Progress With a Few Hiccups

Although I went out bought the correct size yo-yo maker, the results were not satisfactory.  So I decided to make one by hand to see the difference.

The yo-yo on the top right is made by hand and the one on the bottom left was made with the yo-yo maker.  It seems that when you take small stitches and pull the yo-yo into shape, there is a an opening.  The yo-yo maker tool takes larger stitches and closes completely.  I decided to take some time and think about which yo-yo I was going to use for this bag.  As you can see in the picture below, there needs to be an opening for the inside fabric (smaller circle) to show through.  I think that is the beauty of this bag.

There needs to be an opening to show the inside fabric.

While I was waiting, I made all these large yo-yos for the other bag I wanted to make.  Since I was using the tool, it only took me two nights (while watching tv) to make the 128 yoyos.

There are 128 yo-yos in this pile.

On another note, I do not know if you will remember, but I had an unfortunate finding while I was quilting my strip quilt.  I posted about it here.  Well I took the advice left in the comments.  First I painted the hole using a permanent pigma marker and then put a few drops of Fray Check on top to seal it.  I was going to try to put a bonding agent underneath the hole, but I could not get it underneath and I did not want to make the hole any bigger.  I think it looks fantastic and now I can hardly see the hole at all.  I took the picture when the Fray Check was still wet (oval spot), but the spot went away when the Fray Check dried.

Progressing on My YoYo Bag

So I got out my trusty Go Cutter and started to cut out the circles I need for my YoYo Bag.  I started with 3" square which I placed on the circle size die I wanted to use.  And then ran it through the Go Cutter and...

I ended up with these:

Look at all that waste?  Wish there was something I could do with all these scraps.  

A friend of mine had used a YoYo maker for a project and she said they made life simpler.  So I ran out to the store and purchased the large and extra large sizes.  I got out my thread and was ready to start making the 192 YoYos when I noticed something disturbing.

Guess I should have measured before I went to the store because neither one of these YoYo makers is the right size.  So I guess I will be heading out to the store tomorrow.

Starting To Think About My YoYo Bag

I have finally picked out the first handbag I want to make from the Japanese book I bought while in San Francisco.

YoYo Bag (I wish I could write the author, but I cannot read Japanese)

As you can see, I have also picked out the fabric I want to use.  The best thing about these yo-yos is that there is a center fabric inside the circle.  I have never seen this before and I am dying to give it a try.  I plan on using up all my small scraps for the smaller/inside circle.

So, next up, I am going to get my Go Cutter out.  I could do cut the circles the old fashioned way and cut them out with scissors, but I won't!

Finished Another One

I finished the King's Cross that I was making as a graduation gift.  I ended up quilting it with circles.  I like circles, I have since I first started quilting.  Of course in the beginning I did it by hand.  Using a machine is a lot easier and faster, but I do miss hand quilting.  Any way this quilt is now done and ready to be wrapped.