Behind the scenes at a Kaffe Fassett workshop
Kaffe Fassett & Brandon Mably visit Wicklow, Aug 2022 (they didn't arrive by tuk tuk, Brandon's way too scared of Kaffe's driving for that) You love his fabrics, his bold and unexpected arrangements and now you want to meet the man himself. Kaffe and Brandon travel widely teaching masterclasses in how to put together colour in a different way to how so many of [...]
When Sewing Left Me
Sewing left me during lockdown. Just as creativity can strike out of nowhere, it can also decide to feck off when it wants as well. My most recent experience of this was unsettling to say the least. The best way I can describe it is to say that sewing, as a creative outlet, got up from the table one day and walked out the [...]
Creativity is a Wild Horse
Hands up if you retreated into a new or established hobby during the last couple of years? Most of us engaged in some form of a creative pass-time. Their importance has really been brought into sharp focus lately, and it's something I was missing for a long time. I was too busy to even think about having a hobby. The odd time when it [...]
FREE PATTERN – Make 11 Items From 1 Layer Cake
As promised during Christmas in July here is the pattern for making lots of lovely little gifts, we hope you enjoy it! Make 11 Gift Items from 1 Layer Cake - Apple Tree Crafts
Quarantine Quilting – anyone else need a project planner?
With all the self isolation, which us introverts LOVE, many of us are breaking into our stash and picking up semi finished projects. During some bad weather last year when I finally had my own sewing space in the house I tried working my way through a few half started projects. I realised quickly that there were several quite different ones in varying states [...]
Beware the Ranty Granny
( I wrote this some weeks ago and felt that it was quite strong and not related to my sewing, I didn't want to delete it so we delayed publishing it while I thought about it. However reading it again nothing has changed and I am still angry. I need to say this. We all need to say it. Our leaders are dumbing down [...]
APPLE TREE TIPS: NO.2; If in doubt rip it out
Ok in some ways this goes against our philosophy of 'ah it'll be grand' But we have often got to the quilting stage and it has become apparent that actually it is not grand. We have bumps and hillocks and tucks and craters where we should have flat flat plains. Oh yes, we are not the perfect seam conjurors our customers sometimes believe us [...]
APPLE TREE TIPS: No.1; How to Deal with Birds Nesting, or threads clumping under your sewing
HOW TO PREVENT BIRDS NESTING In an effort to sound like we know what we're talking about we thought we would share some hopefully useful information with you each month. We plan to focus on questions that we get asked all the time and issues that students run into in class frequently that can happen to us all. This month's tip is all about [...]
APPLE TREE TIPS: No.3; Always Buy Enough Fabric!
ALWAYS BUY ENOUGH This month's tip is all about How to make sure you buy enough fabric for future projects. (Spoiler; there is no definitive answer!) Of course a quilt shop is going to encourage you to buy more right?!! When you have had as many desperate customers through the door as we have you will understand why we encourage this. There is [...]
Crossed eyes & Quad bikes
It’s been a while since I have felt like sitting down to write a post for the blog but I’m back again at last, hopefully I’ll remember to post more often! […]
Guest Blogger – Trina O’Mahoney
Marie has been noticeable in her absence (blogwise) of late so I've decided to pop in and say hi! I'm Trina and I run Apple Tree Crafts with my mam Marie and sister Sinead. I'm loving our brief bursts of summer and even though I silently curse the rain each time our weather turns I also love how much greener everything is when the [...]
Oops
We all make mistakes and I made a whopper. I made 64 quilt blocks and when I tried to join them together realised they were done wrong! After lots of bad words and tantrums I picked up my faithful stitch ripper and put it to work. I now have the blocks separated out again but the outside layer of each one will have to [...]