Yo-Yos for Granny

As our country approaches its 250th birthday, this piece reflects on how history is carried forward—not only through words, but through what we make with our hands. Across many communities, quilts have long held care, ingenuity, and story. In Black communities, they have also preserved memory and resilience and, in some cases, served as tools of survival and communication along the Underground Railroad.

Quilts have always held stories—carrying memory, resilience, and love, stitched into every piece of fabric. Yo-yo quilts grew from necessity: small gathered circles made from scraps, each complete on its own, yet stronger together. That feels like community to me.They are quiet works, built over time, often in the margins of daily life. Community and time live in their seams.

Most people know me through food—my cooking, my cookbooks, my time on television. Creativity has always been my language in the kitchen. What is less visible is that I am also a lifelong crafter. Making things by hand has always been part of how I think, feel, and remember.

This work begins with my grandmother, Freddie Mai “Granny” Glover—my hero and my culinary guardian angel. She fed people with her hands, her biscuits and cornbread carrying comfort, generosity, and love. She left me her yo-yo quilt. When I believed it had been stolen, I felt as though I had lost her all over again. Nearly twenty years later, I found it, folded and waiting. Holding it felt like an answer.

I lean more toward crafting than sewing, and I have always been drawn to paper. In 2021, these paper yo-yos emerged as a response—my way of honoring Granny with the materials that live most naturally in my hands. Making them keeps her present. Hanging this work at Bumblebirds feels like carrying my guardian angel with me.

I gift these yo-yos. I build with them.

Art begets art. 

Love begets Love.