What Is a Yo Yo Quilt?

Yo-yo quilts are made from round pieces of fabric with long stitches along their turned-under outer edges. Stitches are pulled to gather the circles into rosettes.

Individual yo-yos are typically hand sewn side by side into rows when they are used to make a quilt, but they also work nicely for 3-dimensional appliqué embellishments.

Yo-yo quilts were popular in the 1930s and 1940s, and there are many lovely examples sewn with fabrics from those eras. Some were structured, with the rosettes arranged to form a pattern, but many of the examples are scrap quilts.