Jo Avery – the Blog

Flower Teacups and Dandelion Clocks

A lot of my time is spent coming up with new designs for quilts and new designs for classes and sometimes both things at once.  I often turn my magazine quilts into new workshops (usually due to student’s requests) but with a full-time teaching studio and three annual retreats I am still always searching for

Festival of Quilts 2018 Report

Yes… that IS me and Kaffe Fassett! This year my Festival of Quilts adventure began (at 8am!) with an appearance on the Sewing Quarter.  And if you read my last post you will already know that the other guest that day was none other than the legendary Kaffe Fassett – one of my biggest design

Small Projects and News

My working life is roughly divided into four parts: MyBearpaw Studio and Shop Stitch Gathering Retreat The Thread House Retreat Quilting/Sewing Patterns for publication I always joke that I’m part of the gig economy as I need to run at least four businesses to survive! Actually I am only partly joking and sometimes I can

The Thread House Retreat Medallion Quilt

For this year’s Thread House Retreat we thought it would be fun to make a quilt using all the workshops and techniques we would be doing over the weekend and offer it as an exclusive pattern to all our Retreaters.   And here is the finished result – the Thread House Retreat Medallion Quilt! This year’s

The Thread House Retreat 2018 Report

And so our second Thread House Retreat has come and gone! We returned to Folly Farm in Bristol with another 45 Retreaters from around the world for a jam packed weekend of workshops, fabric, frolicking and fun! We started things off on Friday afternoon with a fabulous goody bag  (thank you to all our amazing

Pouch Problem?

Is an addiction to zippy pouches a recognised condition?!  If so I think I better get some help as I can’t stop making them! I’ve been talking about my Tendrils Technique in my last few posts.  The pouch above was the first one I tried with this technique, using Dashwood Studio ‘Paper Meadow’ fabric. I

Festival of Quilts 2017 Report

The Festival of Quilts is a four day event and the largest quilt show in Europe with thousands of quilts to see, and way too much to buy! Plus you get to catch up with all your quilty friends! Basically it is four days of bliss and excitement, where you feel completely ‘amongst your people’!

Stitch Gathering 2017 workshops and news round up!

Our workshops for this year’s Stitch Gathering Retreat have just been announced and I thought I would share my two new class samples with you. As you can see from the mosaic above there is a fabulous selection of classes on offer this year from our new guest tutors, Mandy Munroe, Lucy Brennan and Sarah

Announcements Galore!

I’ve been meaning to publish a newsy post for ages and now my ‘news bag’ is full to bursting! So I am going to get everything out there in one big announcement splurge!  Did you know it is World Craft Week this week?!  Check out the Facebook page to find out how to get involved with