Jo Avery – the Blog

The Dream Birds Are Here!

The Dream Bird patterns have finally flown into view and can now be purchased as PDFs from my website here! Four years ago I launched my first PDF patterns with my first 4 bird applique patterns. Somehow these real life birds have now evolved into imaginary ‘dream birds’! I first started creating these back in September

Temperature Quilts for 2024 and a Moxie upgrade!

I have temperature quilt projects to share and exciting news about the new Moxie XL! Regular readers will know all about my passion for Temperature Projects. You can read about my original Weather Bubble quilt here and since then I’ve completed a temperature embroidery and started (and then aborted!) a temperature crochet blanket. I’ve started

The Hills Are Alive and Quilts of 2023

It’s that odd time of year between Christmas and New Year when time seems to be more elastic and when I traditionally post a review of all the quilts I’ve made in the last 12 months. Every year my quilt total gets less and less! In many ways I think this is a good thing.

A year of Fabric Books

Sometime between Christmas and New Year 2022 I was trying to think of an idea for us to teach at our Thread House Retreats. We were focusing on hand sewing and slow stitching with a number of different techniques and I came up with the solution of making a fabric book with all our sample

Christmas Reindeer Sew Along Part 3

Yes I know this is all supposed to be about reindeers but how amazing is this dragon version of the patchwork pony pattern?! It is by Jean Borth who shared it in the Facebook Sew Along group. I am constantly surprised and delighted by what you guys do with this pattern, always coming up with

Christmas Reindeer Sew Along Part 2

It’s time for part 2 of the Christmas Reindeer Sew Along and now we have made our outer panels it’s time to add our ears before sewing the gusset and finishing the pony body. When I decided to make the pony into a reindeer I originally thought that it would just involve the addition of

Christmas Reindeer Sew Along Part 1

Welcome to part 1 of the Christmas reindeer Sew Along! The Antler Addendum is now ready for you to download. Just click here to go to the page on my website and click on the download link. From now on all purchases of the patchwork pony pattern will come with the antler addendum as standard.

Christmas Reindeer Sew Along!

I’m delighted to announce a NEW Sew Along! Last February I launched my Patchwork Pony pattern and hosted the Patchwork Pony Sustainable Sew Along. It was so much fun and afterwards I had a lot of requests for a repeat SAL. And then my good friend Ali suggested adding antlers to the pony and making

Gathering Blooms BOM Quilt

It’s almost a year since I wrote this post about the new Gathering Blooms Block of the Month I had designed for Today’s Quilter magazine. Well here is the finished quilt! I’ve really enjoyed making these blocks every month, they are a lovely mix of piecing and needle-turn applique and of course I got to