Jo Avery – the Blog

Spot The Difference

Seeing as it’s the Easter Holidays I thought it would be nice to have a ‘spot the difference’ competition to help keep your kids busy while they are off school. So I completely re-made the Red Riding Hood quilt that I made 2 years ago for the DQS9 just so we could play a little

A hearty Goodbye to 2011…

… and Hello to 2012! I am just hoping it will be an improvement on 2011 which was a pretty pants year as far as I was concerned, but it did have lots of good points too. And look at all the quilts I managed to actually finish! I am very impressed with myself. Of

A new passion and my first Christmas present

Here is a sneak preview of a new workshop I will be taking in March. I have had a few requests for some more embroidery/applique classes so I thought I would combine them with this ‘Embellishment’ class. A bit of applique, a lot of embroidery and an Indian Shisha mirror. I used to use these

Doll quilts sent and received!

Amongst all the chaos of my recent life, I did actually manage (just) to get my DQS11 finished and in the mail by the deadline! And here it is, all 14 inches of it. You can read more about this quilt here, including a wee tutorial on English Paper Piecing. Here is the back, I

Too Busy To Blog – part 1

My life is a bit of a whirlwind at the moment and I feel my poor old blog is being slightly neglected. So please forgive me, dear readers, and also all you lovely bloggers whose blogs I usually follow. I just have not had a spare minute over the last few weeks to properly visit

Goodie Bag Swap

Another day, another swap completed! This time it’s the first round of the Goodie Bag Swap on Flickr. Make your partner a bag (or purse as I believe our American cousins call them) and fill it with a plastic bag full of fabric scraps! I got paired with someone very young and funky, so I

Scrappy Pincushion Swap Round 3

Oh, I have had such fun making this Pirate Treasure Chest pincushion!! This is the second time I have taken part in the Scrappy Pincushion Swap. Last time I made the Little House Pincushion and I got the feeling that my partner this round would like something similar. The idea of a treasure chest came

Sleepy Owl Pyjama Case

Brrr! It’s getting cold at night now, and at the end of the day all I want to do is climb into my jim-jams and curl up on the sofa with a bit of hand sewing or crocheting. But the next morning my pyjamas are just lying around on the bed! Now I am not

Scrappy Button Mandela

  Here is my finished scrappy hoop for ‘The Scrappy (Hoops) – a Modern Swap‘. I have called it ‘Scrappy Button Mandela. A Mandela is a kind of prayer wheel that aids meditation. It is my first hoop attempt and I am really pleased with it. I pieced the middle circles then needle-turn appliqued the

Scrappy-ness!

I’ve had a few days off from work so I have been holed up in the sewing room making stuff for my shop. I still had my scrap box out from making the scrappy coin block for the Tag Square Bee. It all looked so inviting that I couldn’t help having a play! First of