Simply Stitchy

 Hi all, I'm always surprised by the reaction I get when I tell people I quilt. It's either a mixture of awe and wonder. Or they are totally flabbergasted. Followed by questions like these: "That's complicated isn't it?" or, "I could never do that." And even, "Wow! You bought a yard of fabric to cut it into little bits... then stitch it back together? Why would you do that?"  The thing is, quilting doesn't have to be complicated. Nor does it have to involve stitching tiny snippets of fabric together. In today's video I'm going to show you how to make a quilt top using nothing but a Jelly Roll.  A Jelly Roll is what's known as pre-cut fabric. It's usually made up of 42 strips of 2.5inch wide fabric. Each strip is the width of the fabric from selvedge to selvedge. Which for quilting is usually between 42 and 45 inches long.  So come on over to my YouTube Channel and sew a Jelly Roll Race Quilt with me! Find out why it'...

Hi all I've been test driving a new sewing machine. Its the Brother SE625. A sewing and embroidery combination machine with a 4x4 hoop. Now, I've been looking at getting an embroidery machine for some time. But, there have been a lot of negative comments about 4x4 hoops. The main one being, they are too small.  Well, when this one came up at a reduced price earlier this year, I thought, what the heck. Let's give it a go and see if 4x4 hoops really deserve all the bad press. Find out how I got on in this video: Bye for now  Olly This article may contain Amazon associate links. I may earn a referral fee for any purchases made via these links. This does not cost you any extra, and there’s no obligation to use the links. Although, they do help support me and this blog. The items showcased may be available from other suppliers if you prefer not to use the links. For more sewing tips and adventures, follow me: Twitter Facebook Instagram   YouTube

Hi all A few weeks ago, well more like a month, I saw a post on my Facebook feed for upcycling denim jeans. The post gave a link to a free tutorial for making a denim apron. Always keen to reuse, repurpose and recycle, I thought I’d give it a go. The ruffle around the base of the apron This post is my review of that tutorial. It was designed by Carissa Bonham for CreativeGreenLiving.com and is called the Farm Girl Apron Tutorial. I'll leave a link to it further down in this post. In theory, turning some old jeans into something new and practical sounds like a great idea. In practice, it should also be a good thing to do. I was hoping for a useful, repurposed apron. What I got was frustration and annoyance. The link in the Facebook feed sends you to a blog post. Nothing wrong with that, I use Facebook to link to my blog all the time. My issue with this particular blog was the tutorial isn’t all on the same page. You have to continually “click here” to be taken to a new page. Every ...