About

Welcome to Craft Apple!

Waaaay back in 2006 I started a sewing blog called Craft Apple. Ahhh . . . blogging when blogging was new! It was incredibly exciting. There was a nice-sized group of sewers, knitters, and crafters that found inspiration and community with each other. We followed our friends on Bloglines and navigated the early years of Etsy. I never intended to start a buisiness but after publishing my first pattern in 2007 I surprisingly went on to sell thousands of patterns wholesale to distributors and quilt shops.

It was such a good experience for me to know that there was something that I made that inspired others. It was during that time that I started staying up late stuffing patterns into plastic pouches and boxing things up to send the next day – not my favorite activity, but Craft Apple was all mine and it made it worth it.

Things took off quickly and within a few years I had 10 patterns published, with some featured in magazines and a few projects published in sewing books.

I needed, really needed, to sew in those years when my kids were young. After long days of housekeeping and homeschooling we would put the kids to bed and I would go into the sewing room. The projects I was working on had a beginning and an end and that was all it took for me to find therapy with my sewing machine.

Everything else in life never ended. When I finished grading the kid’s math homework, there would always be more the next day. By the time I finished folding laundry there were already more dirty clothes in the hamper. Dishes never seemed finished and the house never felt clean. But when I finished a quilt or a bag I had something that was without question DONE.

The positivity from the craft blogging community was adult interaction that I sorely needed. Then over the next few years pattern sales started declining and I got busy with other things. Blogging with all it’s words was replaced with images and fewer words. I still enjoy sewing but have added photography, woodworking and gardening to my routine and a blog about sewing feels too confining. So here I am writing again, adding woodworking and photography to the mix.

I hope you’ll take a moment to share your story as well.

The Mini Patchfolio from my Small Books pattern.

The Knotted Bag.

A baby quilt for Anni Rose.

Quilted hexie cushion ties.

Bag-making has always been my first love.