Scrapbusting: Fabric yo-yos and covered buttons

This is part of a bigger project that I can't reveal just yet until the recipient gets it in the mail but I took advantage of my set of second swap scraps to make some fabric yo-yos and covered buttons.

They're super easy to make.

I found in my stocking over Christmas a "Quick" Yo-yo maker. It was languishing on my pegboard and when I was working on this project and thinking about how to jazz it up with the recipient's requirements in mind, I happened to glance over at the scraps sitting there innocently and pulled a couple of pieces out. In the space of a Saturday morning Dora, I had three of them made and coordinated well with some more scraps from that same stash to make covered buttons.

Melissa, if you are reading this, THANK YOU for your wonderful scraps! I hope you get as much mileage out of the ones I sent you!!!

Here's a bigger picture of the yo-yos (without ruining too much of the surprise for a certain Miss A)...

The stems are leftover chenille from an old project. Love the stuff because you can do all sorts of shapes with it, moisten it down and fluff. The instructions say to use some sort of special product but I just used an old toothbrush that would normally have been thrown out anyway or used to clean nasty cracks in the shower stall.

Would you believe I have never made yo-yos before? I have an old childhood quilt made entirely of yo-yos; I don't know any of the provenance because my grandmother had it and then it was passed to me and I never asked about it. I loved it literally to bits and now it sits abandoned in a packing box many thousands of miles away from where I am now. I used to feel the different bits of fabric and wonder what they came from. My grandmother survived the Japanese occupation of Malaya in the 40s and grew up frugal. Did she salvage those scraps? Did her mother? It was backed with the softest, most luxurious cream flannel that I loved to snuggle under on those cool, rainy mornings in Asia.

But, the simplicity of the making of such a little circle has me thinking.... I should make a new yo-yo quilt (or three!) of my own scraps. I checked out the Clover website and did you know they have these things in odd shapes too? Like a butterfly, a heart,  and a flower! How cool is that? Hmm... oh the thinks I am thinking!