By A.J. O'CONNELL
aoconnell@wiltonvillager.com
WILTON -- When Kathy Rosenbaum was growing up in Chickamauga, Ga., her mother, Anna Murray, sewed everything. She made the children's clothes, the curtains, the upholstery, the rugs, her own clothing and anything else she needed out of the fabric she kept in a closet. But when Rosenbaum was 13 years old, her mother made her something different: A yo-yo quilt.
The quilt, which is big enough to cover a twin-sized bed, is made up of yo-yos, little circles of material left over from whatever projects her mother had been making.
"It's a way to use up material," said Rosebaum, 37, who will -- with her mother -- be teaching others how to make yo-yos as part of Ambler Farm's Winter Craft series on Feb. 1 from 2 to 4 p.m.
Rosenbaum called the creation of yo-yos "poor people's stuff." The little round pieces of fabric are a way for seamstresses to use small pieces of fabric that might otherwise be useless or recycle pieces of something else -- a yo-yo, she said, is a piece of fabric cut into a circle. A crafter uses a needle and thread to sew by hand along the edges of the circle and then, using the thread as a drawstring, pulls the circle into a pouch. That pouch is then flattened into a smaller circle -- a yo-yo.
"You cannot make them with a sewing machine. You have to do them by hand," said Rosenbaum, who said that the little circles are then sewn together to create whatever the seamstress has in mind, be it a blanket, a pillow cover, a placemat or anything else that is needed.
Although such a quilt is practical, Rosenbaum's blanket has become something else. A nine-year resident of Wilton, Rosenbaum looks at her quilt today and sees the contents of her mother's fabric closet two decades ago in Chickamauga. Her blanket contains all the textiles she knew intimately during her early life; bits of curtains, bedspreads, one of her grandmother's dresses and one of her own dresses are sewn into the piece. She remembers, at 13, not being especially thrilled when her mother presented it to her (and then immediately took it away because her room had not been cleaned.) But now Rosenbaum treasures the blanket.
"For me it's full of memories," she said. "I carried it from apartment to apartment, from city to city, from job to job, always looking for a place to put it."
Rosenbaum's Feb. 1 yo-yo workshop is the third in Ambler Farm's craft series, which is running in partnership with the Wilton Library.
"I thought it was important for the farm," said Rebecca Thompson, co-chair of adult programming for the Friends of Ambler Farm. "We are doing a lot of educational programs (but) a lot of the things dealt with the exterior if the farm. But with the renovation of the Raymond Ambler farm house, I thought it was time to address what would have been going inside the house."
Thompson took the first class, basic knitting, taught by Rachel Bee at Ambler Farm. During the next class, on Jan. 25, also at Ambler Farm, Paula Walton an instructor at the Brookfield Craft Center, will teach the skill of soap-making. All of the classes are free of charge and all are filling up quickly, said Sally Gemmill, of the Wilton Library. There is currently a waiting list for the soap-making class.
Gemmill will also be teaching a class in the series. On Feb. 8, Gemmill will teach Swedish weaving. The craft utilizes huck toweling, a soft fabric that features pairs of raised threads that are easily counted to form a geometric pattern. Gemmill says Swedish weaving is often used to create small items, like guest towels.
"It was something I did in my childhood," said Gemmill, who still has the towels she made as a girl.
To register for the series contact the library at 762-3950 or visit
http://www.wiltonlibrary.org. There is no charge.
Courtesy Wilton Villager, 1/22/2009
http://www.wiltonvillager.com/story/463745
Photo Alex von Kleydorff
