Not to generalise, but the last place you would expect a man who can’t sew to enjoy visiting is a fabric and yarn shop, yes? Well, one guy does, often, to Róisín McManus’s Quilt Yarn Stitch in Tuam, Co Galway. This is because it has much to offer, and not just in terms of crafts.
“There’s a man here in Tuam, he doesn’t know how to sew and he will never know how to sew,” starts Róisín with a smile, “but he’d be up the town and he’d say, ‘If you’re down in the dumps go into the back of Róisín Brennan’s shop (that’s my maiden name) for a drink of colour’. He’d arrive in and say, ‘I’m coming in for a drink of colour’.”
And he’s right, walking into the shop in Tuam town you can’t help but be stimulated by the array of colour. The blend of bright fabrics isn’t overpowering, but invigorating.
The shop is divided in two parts. The front sells a range of craft materials; from fabric to yarn, needles, zips and buttons, you name it. The back is a classroom where people take classes each week in quilting and patchwork, knitting, crochet and sewing.
All-in-all, a pretty impressive crafting résumé. But, looking at Róisín’s pedigree, it’s no surprise. Her mother was a local seamstress and her father was once the manager of a weaving factory in Tuam. When it closed in the 80s he opened his own place in Cornamona, where wool was spun and socks were knit.
After working for her father full time for 12 years, Róisín had two kids (of four) and decided to give up work to stay at home with them.
“I had two more kids after that and I was kind of ready to go back to work, but I didn’t want to do a nine-to-five, this is the hilarious part because now I’m doing it 24/7,” laughs Róisín, adding after that of course this is because she loves what she does.
“I advertised a patchwork and quilting class and rented a room up in the secondary school. I did my first class from there and it filled on the first night. Then I advertised a second class and that filled fairly fast too.”
The classes went from strength-to-strength and after a couple of years an interesting opportunity arose. Where Quilt Yarn Stitch is now, was once Róisín’s father-in-law’s TV shop. At the front he sold TVs and at the back operated a TV repair centre.
“It was in and around the time of Soarview and people weren’t really fixing TVs anymore, they were upgrading. So we were closing the repair centre and I was like, ‘Y’know what? I could buy a bit of stock and open a shop’.
“Originally my shop started back in this room. It was kind of unorthodox, with the TV shop at the front and my classroom and shop to the back here. Then in 2014, my father-in-law closed the TV shop. Now when my shop was back here I was only open on a Friday and Saturday. I had my classes Tuesday and Thursday, but the shop was closed.
“So when he finished up in 2014 I was faced with either opening full time myself or closing, and I said I’d give it a shot. Five years later we’re flat to the mat, as they say.”
A family affair
When Irish Country Living visits Quilt Yarn Stitch just after Christmas, the whole team – Róisín employs four people in the shop as well as bringing in other teachers for classes – are busy in the back processing orders from the online new year’s sale. And, they most certainly aren’t just shipping around Galway, or even Ireland. Quilt Yarn Stitch sends orders all over the world, from Australia to Mexico and the UK.
There have even been extra helpers drafted in. Róisín’s two eldest sons, Luke (who is taking a break from studying for his Junior Cert) and Jack are busy manning social media and doing odd jobs. Jack is dispatched to get milk for the tea.
While it’s the boys that are being put to work today, Róisín’s daughters, Molly and eight-year-old Kate, are the most enthusiastic when it comes to crafts. They have both made quilts and have been in the local quilting exhibition, as well as making garments too; Molly a hoody and Kate a dress.
Clearly, everyone in the family mucks in one way or another. None less than Róisín’s mother. 
She attends the Knitting and Stitching Show in the RDS with the team each year and 13 years ago, ever before her daughter started teaching, she and Róisín founded a local sewing group, Ready Thready Sew, which is still going strong.
Róisín’s mother also made her wedding dress, albeit in a rather peculiar fashion.
“My parents travel a lot. In 2006 they cycled from Salthill in Galway to Sydney in Australia. The year I got married my parents were cycling to the north of Spain. So my wedding dress was actually on the back of my mother’s bike and she’d be sewing as she stopped along the way,” recalls Róisín.
A sewing revival
With 70 adults and 20 children taking classes in the shop each week, Irish Country Living can’t help but enquire what the secret is? Róisín – and the team concur – that the social aspect of the classes is a big draw. Everyone learns loads, but it’s easy going and individuals work on their own projects.
Róisín feels that now, living in a world where mindfulness is a buzz word, crafting is and always has been a very mindful activity. Crafting is back in vogue, she thinks, whereas when she was younger it was less so.
“When I would have been out with my friends they would often have been taking the Mick out of me, saying, ‘Ah will you go away with your knitting needles’. It was kind of like a slag for a long time, that you would be into knitting and sewing. Whereas now it’s popular.
“When we were kids my mother made clothes for us because it was cheaper to make them than to buy them. Then when all the chain stores came in, it was cheaper to buy clothes, so people weren’t making them anymore.
“I think people went back to it not as a necessity, but as a hobby. You have the satisfaction of making the clothes yourself. The quality is hugely different and you’re not contributing to that fast and disposable fashion.”
Although she may have been jeered about it before, there is an upside to making your own clothes (#memade, as people call it now) – compliments.
“I often tell a story about being in Dunnes Stores and I had a jacket on that I had made. I was going up to the checkout and the lady said to me, ‘Oh my God, where did you get your jacket?’ That thrill of saying, ‘Oh, I made it myself’. It’s a great feeling when people admire your work.
Róisín with shop assistant Lesley Connern. \ David Ruffles
Going forward, Róisín has loads of plans. She wants to move the classroom upstairs and expand the shop. One of her goals is also to pluck up the courage to start doing tutorials on YouTube.
No doubt she will, she’s conquered all before her to date.
Róisín is Tuam born and bred and says she gets great support from the local community. In December just gone, Tuam came out on top as the regional winner – Connacht/Ulster at the National Enterprise Town Awards, and Róisín had her own part to play in this.
The group who entered Tuam in the awards credited Róisín’s shop as one of the positive things about Tuam and the judges came to visit her. Quilt Yarn Stitch is also up for best retailer in Ireland at the UK Sewing Awards. A great run of success all around.
If given the chance, Róisín is adamant she wouldn’t move her business to Galway city.
“Obviously I wouldn’t have the same footfall here as I possibly might have in Galway, but my rates and business costs would be higher,” deduces Róisín.
“We’ve great support here and I’m not sure I’d have the numbers for classes. There are lots of things for people to do in Galway, whereas there’s not as much from a social point for people to do here. I guess that helps our numbers for classes and that keeps the shop ticking over. It’s our bread and butter.”
“People in Tuam are always trying to encourage each other. There are groups in Tuam who are always trying to put Tuam out in a positive light and always just trying to make the best of the town the way it is.”
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A dress fit for a princess
Not to generalise, but the last place you would expect a man who can’t sew to enjoy visiting is a fabric and yarn shop, yes? Well, one guy does, often, to Róisín McManus’s Quilt Yarn Stitch in Tuam, Co Galway. This is because it has much to offer, and not just in terms of crafts.
“There’s a man here in Tuam, he doesn’t know how to sew and he will never know how to sew,” starts Róisín with a smile, “but he’d be up the town and he’d say, ‘If you’re down in the dumps go into the back of Róisín Brennan’s shop (that’s my maiden name) for a drink of colour’. He’d arrive in and say, ‘I’m coming in for a drink of colour’.”
And he’s right, walking into the shop in Tuam town you can’t help but be stimulated by the array of colour. The blend of bright fabrics isn’t overpowering, but invigorating.
The shop is divided in two parts. The front sells a range of craft materials; from fabric to yarn, needles, zips and buttons, you name it. The back is a classroom where people take classes each week in quilting and patchwork, knitting, crochet and sewing.
All-in-all, a pretty impressive crafting résumé. But, looking at Róisín’s pedigree, it’s no surprise. Her mother was a local seamstress and her father was once the manager of a weaving factory in Tuam. When it closed in the 80s he opened his own place in Cornamona, where wool was spun and socks were knit.
After working for her father full time for 12 years, Róisín had two kids (of four) and decided to give up work to stay at home with them.
“I had two more kids after that and I was kind of ready to go back to work, but I didn’t want to do a nine-to-five, this is the hilarious part because now I’m doing it 24/7,” laughs Róisín, adding after that of course this is because she loves what she does.
“I advertised a patchwork and quilting class and rented a room up in the secondary school. I did my first class from there and it filled on the first night. Then I advertised a second class and that filled fairly fast too.”
The classes went from strength-to-strength and after a couple of years an interesting opportunity arose. Where Quilt Yarn Stitch is now, was once Róisín’s father-in-law’s TV shop. At the front he sold TVs and at the back operated a TV repair centre.
“It was in and around the time of Soarview and people weren’t really fixing TVs anymore, they were upgrading. So we were closing the repair centre and I was like, ‘Y’know what? I could buy a bit of stock and open a shop’.
“Originally my shop started back in this room. It was kind of unorthodox, with the TV shop at the front and my classroom and shop to the back here. Then in 2014, my father-in-law closed the TV shop. Now when my shop was back here I was only open on a Friday and Saturday. I had my classes Tuesday and Thursday, but the shop was closed.
“So when he finished up in 2014 I was faced with either opening full time myself or closing, and I said I’d give it a shot. Five years later we’re flat to the mat, as they say.”
A family affair
When Irish Country Living visits Quilt Yarn Stitch just after Christmas, the whole team – Róisín employs four people in the shop as well as bringing in other teachers for classes – are busy in the back processing orders from the online new year’s sale. And, they most certainly aren’t just shipping around Galway, or even Ireland. Quilt Yarn Stitch sends orders all over the world, from Australia to Mexico and the UK.
There have even been extra helpers drafted in. Róisín’s two eldest sons, Luke (who is taking a break from studying for his Junior Cert) and Jack are busy manning social media and doing odd jobs. Jack is dispatched to get milk for the tea.
While it’s the boys that are being put to work today, Róisín’s daughters, Molly and eight-year-old Kate, are the most enthusiastic when it comes to crafts. They have both made quilts and have been in the local quilting exhibition, as well as making garments too; Molly a hoody and Kate a dress.
Clearly, everyone in the family mucks in one way or another. None less than Róisín’s mother.
She attends the Knitting and Stitching Show in the RDS with the team each year and 13 years ago, ever before her daughter started teaching, she and Róisín founded a local sewing group, Ready Thready Sew, which is still going strong.
Róisín’s mother also made her wedding dress, albeit in a rather peculiar fashion.
“My parents travel a lot. In 2006 they cycled from Salthill in Galway to Sydney in Australia. The year I got married my parents were cycling to the north of Spain. So my wedding dress was actually on the back of my mother’s bike and she’d be sewing as she stopped along the way,” recalls Róisín.
A sewing revival
With 70 adults and 20 children taking classes in the shop each week, Irish Country Living can’t help but enquire what the secret is? Róisín – and the team concur – that the social aspect of the classes is a big draw. Everyone learns loads, but it’s easy going and individuals work on their own projects.
Róisín feels that now, living in a world where mindfulness is a buzz word, crafting is and always has been a very mindful activity. Crafting is back in vogue, she thinks, whereas when she was younger it was less so.
“When I would have been out with my friends they would often have been taking the Mick out of me, saying, ‘Ah will you go away with your knitting needles’. It was kind of like a slag for a long time, that you would be into knitting and sewing. Whereas now it’s popular.
“When we were kids my mother made clothes for us because it was cheaper to make them than to buy them. Then when all the chain stores came in, it was cheaper to buy clothes, so people weren’t making them anymore.
“I think people went back to it not as a necessity, but as a hobby. You have the satisfaction of making the clothes yourself. The quality is hugely different and you’re not contributing to that fast and disposable fashion.”
Although she may have been jeered about it before, there is an upside to making your own clothes (#memade, as people call it now) – compliments.
“I often tell a story about being in Dunnes Stores and I had a jacket on that I had made. I was going up to the checkout and the lady said to me, ‘Oh my God, where did you get your jacket?’ That thrill of saying, ‘Oh, I made it myself’. It’s a great feeling when people admire your work.
Róisín with shop assistant Lesley Connern. \ David Ruffles
Going forward, Róisín has loads of plans. She wants to move the classroom upstairs and expand the shop. One of her goals is also to pluck up the courage to start doing tutorials on YouTube.
No doubt she will, she’s conquered all before her to date.
Róisín is Tuam born and bred and says she gets great support from the local community. In December just gone, Tuam came out on top as the regional winner – Connacht/Ulster at the National Enterprise Town Awards, and Róisín had her own part to play in this.
The group who entered Tuam in the awards credited Róisín’s shop as one of the positive things about Tuam and the judges came to visit her. Quilt Yarn Stitch is also up for best retailer in Ireland at the UK Sewing Awards. A great run of success all around.
If given the chance, Róisín is adamant she wouldn’t move her business to Galway city.
“Obviously I wouldn’t have the same footfall here as I possibly might have in Galway, but my rates and business costs would be higher,” deduces Róisín.
“We’ve great support here and I’m not sure I’d have the numbers for classes. There are lots of things for people to do in Galway, whereas there’s not as much from a social point for people to do here. I guess that helps our numbers for classes and that keeps the shop ticking over. It’s our bread and butter.”
“People in Tuam are always trying to encourage each other. There are groups in Tuam who are always trying to put Tuam out in a positive light and always just trying to make the best of the town the way it is.”
Read more
From the Midlands to Manhattan: meet #WearingIrish role model Margaret Molloy
A dress fit for a princess
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