Our Story
My mother has spent her whole life trying to make things work better.
An expensive hair tie? Mom could make it. A broken pipe or storm shutter? Mom could fix it. Ducklings stuck in the swimming pool? My mother devised a ramp so they’d have a way to climb out on their own.
An inquisitive spirit, my mother began channeling her curiosity into quilting when my brother and I left for college. Quilting feeds her math brain, her introspection, her passion for color, her perfectionism. She finds inspiration everywhere: quilts from hundreds of years ago, modern art, tapestries, Japanese prints, architecture.
My mother is not only an artist, she is impatient. When she begins a quilt, she doesn’t always know where her vision will take her; she doesn’t usually follow a pattern, so it’s always a race to the finish. She works feverishly and then, if the quilt is feeling good, she carries on. If not, she rips out her stitches and starts over, piecing, figuring. As her quiltmaking journey progressed, she encountered the difficult challenge of making perfect circles from the tiniest birds’ eyes and berries to Dresden plate centers.
My mother does not like to waste time. The tedious job of making hundreds of circles tried her patience, sapped her enthusiasm, and slowed her down. Most importantly, the product was far from perfect. So she began her quest to solve the quilt maker’s circle-making dilemma once and for all. Her journey ended with the invention of APPLIPOPS. With APPLIPOPS there’s
NO GLUING.
NO BASTING.
NO TRACING.
NO TEMPLATES.
NO MEASURING.
NO GETTING IT WRONG.
Mom envisioned the technique but now had to fashion a tool to accomplish it. She worked with custom metal fabricators researching techniques and testing materials, tolerances, and thicknesses that would ensure success. She was dedicated to both precision AND quality. Quality is everything to my mother. Quality in relationships, quality in fabric, quality in tools. She buys things once and keeps them forever. She dislikes when things break so her tool had to be indestructible. She found a woman-owned company here in the USA that shared her dedication to quality to manufacture them. APPLIPOPS are made of beautiful stainless steel that will not stain, corrode, or rust. But remember, because they are metal, they will get hot after prolonged contact with the iron. Let them cool down before picking them up, please. And if you’re thinking about thickness, Ellen thought of that, too -APPLIPOPS are thinner than a dime to eliminate a thick edge!
My mother has worked hard on APPLIPOPS, for YOU. And we are so excited to share them with you now. They are the culmination of her quest to make turned-edge appliqué circles fool-proof and enjoyable. Even my husband can't help himself - it really is just so much fun to make circles the APPLIPOP way. We recommend buying multiples of your favorite sizes, so you can have an assembly line of circles going at the same time.
We hope you love APPLIPOPS as much as we do.
Please send us photos of all your beautiful circles as we would love to see your work.
Happy Applipopping and quilty hugs.
- The APPLIPOPS family
Jillian, Max, Ness, Goldie, and Ellen
This is the kids on the floor of my mom’s sewing room, designing quilts together.
