Several years ago (more than 10), while my mom was working, she indicated that she was bored when she came home and needed something to do with her hands so she would not snack.  Mama Lou is a petite woman, just about 5 feet tall, and loves to snack but does not like the way those snacks affect her figure.  She has never been “crafty”, and was not interested in sewing in her youth and truly had no desire to learn anything very complicated.  One thing she was curious about were the yo yos my sister and I were working on.  She remembered her mother having made a yo yo quilt many years ago, and was willing to give a go to the yo yos.

Encouraged and excited by this, my sister Terry and I went through our stashes and cut hundreds, maybe even thousands of circles from our scraps using a compact disc as a template.  We figured this would certainly keep her little hands busy for at least six months.

Well, my mother, once she gets an interested in something becomes a woman possessed.  Although she wasn’t interested in making the quilt, she sure was determined to help Terry and I by making our yo yos for us.  For her this was a labor of love.  And a labor it was.  It was less than a month when I received a box filled with yo yos.  And then a bag.

I moved, not once, not twice, but three times, and those yo yos moved with me.  Finally, I am paying them a little homage and honoring the lady that sewed this together.  This was not the original intended use for these dimensional discs, but it is a start.

Mama Lou loves purple, and last year I sent her a quilt with lots of purple in it.  There was a little left of the fabric so I used it as a base for her pillows.  I decided on a simple project one being a wreath of sorts, and the other a primitive bouquet.  First I created texture on the base.

Then I laid out my simple plan.

It took me a while, but I attached all the yo  yos by hand using a buttonhole stitch.  This probably could have been done on the machine, but I love the look of the thicker threads.

Once I finished attaching the “flowers”, I put a bow on them, and backed them as pillows.

The project was not difficult and will be a lovely reminder to Mama Lou of her two girls, as well as pride in herself knowing that she helped make this beautiful pieces.

Now that is teamwork!