Jo Avery – the Blog

Sewing Quarter – my first appearance…

…is on Saturday! The Sewing Quarter is a shopping channel focusing completely on sewing (dressmaking and patchwork mainly) which launched in January. I’ve been ‘promised’ since the beginning but my distance from the studio (in Birmingham) and trying to sort out projects and kits has meant it’s taken this long to get me on! I

Feathers Quilt for Siblings Together

I finally had some time to finish a quilt this weekend! This is a version of my Feathers Quilt that I’ve made during the last three years that I’ve been teaching this workshop. The pattern was in Love Patchwork and Quilting issue 9 (and it made the cover!), and has been one of my most popular

Butterfly Block Tutorial

It’s time for a new tutorial! How would you like to make a pretty butterfly block that’s quick and easy and requires NO foundation paper piecing?! That’s right no FPP! It’s not that I have anything against FPP but sometimes you want to just rotary cut and sew! I’ve been playing with the gorgeous new

Home Wall Hanging

I spent last weekend with my extended family celebrating my niece, Sarah’s, 40th birthday (I was very young when I became an aunt BTW!) at her amazing party. Of course I left it till the last minute to make her a present. Obviously she has already had a quilt from me (21st birthday) and numerous

Pickle Dish Quilt

  Happy New Year everyone! Let’s start 2017 with a brand new quilt! This is yet another pickle dish quilt, this time a straight-up version of the traditional pattern, made completely in Jennifer Paganelli’s new line Hotel Frederiksted (for Free Spirit Fabrics). Yay! It made the cover of Today’s Quilter! I actually received my copy

Starlights Quilt

Introducing my new Thread House quilt – Starlights!  And the third finish on the blog this week! Yes three months have (somehow) passed since our first patterns were released back in September. So it’s time for three more Thread House Patterns, and this is my offering. I was attempting something relatively simple ( I often

St. Catherine’s School Quilt – FINISHED!

I’m going to be sharing not one but THREE quilt finishes this week – phew! So watch out for more posts – but in the meantime… I wrote about this project a few posts ago here. It is a commission for an Edinburgh primary school to commemorate their 50th anniversary. I really had a lot

Square Cogs Quilt

Issue 39 of Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine comes out today and I have a quilt featured! This is my Square Cogs quilt made with Joel Dewberry’s gorgeous Wander fabric (the same line I used for my Crockery Cupboard quilt). Absolutely love this modern sampler quilt by Karen Lewis on the cover! And Karen has an

New York Beauty Brigade Quilt

Welcome to my New York Beauty Showstopper!  This was the design brief I had from my lovely editor Jen when I discussed making a quilt with Jennifer Paganelli’s sumptuous new line ‘Color Brigade’ (I know, it’s an American name so it has American spelling, just grit your teeth and let it go). I have a

Colourwash Quilt

Wow, two finished quilts in the same week! Of course these were both finished months ago but at last I can share them here! This quilt features in the latest issue (12) of Today’s Quilter and there’s a bit of a story behind it that involves a feature I’ve contributed to! (so not just sewing