Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

My third day of volunteering at Walford Mill Crafts began with the creative cupcake decorating workshop for kids. This course is run by Lauren Foster of The Cakery Shop  and it was a lot of fun. First we set up the workshop with tools of the trade and places for everyone: Then once everyone had arrived Lauren demonstrated on some sample cupcakes a few techniques for the kids to try out: I can confirm that these were delicious And after that the kids were let loose to decorate theirs however they pleased, and here are some of the results: The kids were really clever and creative and didn't just stick to the examples that were shown. I have never decorated a cupcake and therefore mostly stuck stickily to the perimeter passing different coloured icings and tools and giving tidbits of common sense type advice. And talking about cats. After that it was time to clear up and then finish the decorative christmas kite I started making last week for the kids workshop on 17th

Today I started out by finishing the Halloween creations from last week. There's three kids' workshops coming up; Spooky lanterns (which I created last week ), mummies and monsters and Halloween cupcake decorating. This morning I made the mummies and monsters samples to show the kids, so without further ado here they are: Many-eyed alien / monster, Vampire, Mummy Cone Dracula  I think they're all pretty exciting, but the vampire guy is my favourite. Other than specifically using bandages to make the mummy I had free reign to do anything I wanted which was really fun. After some general admin duties (washing out jam jars for the lantern workshop) and lunch, it was time to start working on some christmas goodies! Decorations for the christmas exhibition and decorative christmas kites for another upcoming workshop. I didn't take any photos of those yet but all will be revealed in it's glittery gloriousness soon! Then at 4 o'clock it was time for the

It's been a while since my last post about the Festival of Quilts, so here's a quick update. Aside from doing some much needed home improvements and working in a 'real job' I've been creating greetings cards and small embroidered framed pieces which are currently for sale at  Dot.Tea's  in Westbourne. I don't have any photos of these (naughty) but they are very much like my older pieces of work such as this one: Except in frames. And different. Also I've been doing some alterations and repairs on clothing which has been challenging at times but not entirely unfun and everybody seems very happy with my work and keep bringing me more and more things to do, so that's great. Next I'll be making some christmas decorations to sell at Dot.Tea's too, and will be posting about those when they're done. Probably. Since I only work in my 'real job' part-time and am just sort of muddling through life a bit at the moment since graduati