Jo Avery – the Blog

Temperature Quilt and Temperature Embroidery

I have finished my Temperature Quilt top!  And I have started a Temperature Embroidery! I started the ‘Weather Bubble’ Temperature Quilt just over a year ago on 28th March and finished it yesterday 5th April. Each row is 17 squares and there are 22 rows (the closest I could get to 365 days). You can

Embroidery Update

It’s ages since I posted about embroidery and I realised that I hadn’t even shared the exciting news here about my forthcoming book ‘Modern Crewel Embroidery’ which is due out in October.  Since my Moxie arrived I’ve been very taken up with quilting but in the background there is always some embroidery going on and

Heather Black Book Review and Moxie Update

I’m a huge fan of Heather Black’s quilts and loved her first book, written with Daisy Aschehoug, ‘Quilt Modern Curves and Bold Stripes’, so I was delighted to be given a preview digital copy of Heather’s new book, ‘Design Make Quilt Modern’. I have to say that I was immediately impressed by Heather’s ambition with

The Moxie Report Part 1

About 10 days ago a pallet arrived at Shangri la Farm with all of this!! Yes my Moxie has arrived! This is the new long arm quilting machine by Handi Quilter and I am lucky enough to have one of the first in the UK.  You can read all about the start of my Moxie

2020 in Quilts and more

It’s time for my annual round up of quilts made in the last year. And what a year! Not for the quilts, as there has been so few against my usual tally, but for all the changes and trauma that we have had to watch or participate in. It’s strange to think that last New

Virtual Class Samples

What a strange year. My teaching used to involve interractions with real life students and plenty of travel. Now I spend my time recording myself on my phone or teaching groups via zoom where I hear their disembodied voices asking questions from my laptop. Not all of this is bad as I really don’t miss

Quilt Dancing with the Edinburgh MQG

Lockdown brought all sorts of challenges but also some new opportunities and one of these was the chance to take an online class with the amazing Irene Roderick along with my Edinburgh MQG buddies. Irene lives in Austin Texas and starting offering her ‘Dancing with the Wall’ workshop as a Zoom course during lockdown. Our

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Today I am sharing a new quilt finish along with news of the workshops I will be teaching at QuiltCon Together next year. Yes I am now part of the QuiltCon Faculty! QuiltCon wisely decided to change their 2021 physical event (planned for Atlanta) to a virtual one, which means everyone can get involved no

Wonky Curves and a Win

I’ve been taking a break from making large quilts this year and instead have been working on smaller projects and embroideries.  I’m enjoying exploring more of my favourite techniques (improv piecing, curves and applique) and slowing things down with some hand stitching. Towards the end of last year I taught my Embellishment evening class which

Oakshott Medallion Quarter Quilt

Happy New Year! It feels good to be getting back to normal after the festivities and I am delighted to share what I have been working on over the last week or so. Back in August the lovely folks at Oakshott  Fabrics asked me if I would like to design something using one of their