Aurifil is delighted to celebrate a collaborative partnership with Fiber Art Now. It is a partnership that allows us to support a remarkable publication, uniquely designed to elevate the work of textile artists worldwide. Over the past few years, the magazine has undergone a beautiful shift– centering focus more on textile art and content and less on advertising. It’s truly like holding a subscription to a quarterly coffee table book. We often find ourselves browsing through, getting mesmerized by the brilliance of it all.
You’ll see Aurifil as one of the few ads in each publication, but rather than working a sales angle, we see it as an opportunity to showcase the work of our wildly talented Designers & Artisans. Each page puts one work of art front and center, beautifully illustrating the possibilities that exist when partnering intense creativity with a little Aurifil thread. These highlighted artists will occasionally have the opportunity to take over the FAN Instagram account, sharing their workspaces, works of art, ideas in progress, and more.
While we recognize that Aurifil and Fiber Art Now do have a cross-over audience, we’re guessing that many of you may not have had the opportunity to experience each artist takeover from start to finish. As such, we’re bringing those takeovers here to Auribuzz. We kicked off the series with Aurifil Artisan Emma Giacalone back in August, highlights Aurifil Designer Sophie Standing in November and today, we’re delighted to feature Aurifil Designer and fearless thread warrior, Jo Avery. We have been working with Jo for 7 years and have collaborated on 5 different collections incorporating a variety of Aurifil thread weights. She is widely adored for her magnificent improv quilts, bold and vibrant embroideries, and hand stitched masterpieces, and never shies from a new challenge. Her latest series of Dream Birds, which relies heavily on the glorious partnership of Aurifil cotton 80wt and wool 12wt threads, caused quite a stir in 2023. Jo will release her Dream Birds patterns this Monday, January 22!
Jo’s FAN Takeover originally posted in January of 2023. To see her more recent work, we’d encourage you to check out her Instagram account & her blog.
ONE
Hello! I’m @joaverystitch. I’m a UK based textile artist, teacher and author. I specialise mainly in quilting and embroidery and along with my two quilting sisters @lilysquilts and @karenlewistextiles I run @threadhouseuk. Originally from London I’ve been living in Scotland for over 30 years.
We are now settled on a 7 acre re-wilded plot near Edinburgh which we call Shangri la Farm. My husband specialises in building beautiful Tiny Houses and so I am lucky enough to have my very own as a studio. The Schoolhouse is where I design, sew, teach online and record video tutorials. I also run a small online business from here selling kits, fabric, book and threads.
I’ve been sewing and quilting since I was a small child but it didn’t become a career for me until around 2011 when I opened my teaching studio and craft store in Edinburgh @mybearpaw (which I sold 3 years ago). I’m looking forward to telling you more about my textile journey and show you examples of my work in the following posts. I hope you will follow along with me!
TWO
If you are a subscriber to the excellent Fiber Arts Now magazine you might recognise this image as it’s a full page advert in the latest issue! (edit to add: Jo’s image was in the Winter 2023 issue of Fibert Art Now)
The image is my Vetch cushion and the advert is for @aurifilthread and I’ve been working alongside this amazing company since 2017 when my signature thread collection was launched. Since then I’ve produced or been involved with another 5 collections (2 of which are still current). I’ve gone from being an Aurifil Designer to an Aurifilosopher which means I am an accredited educator in all things Aurifil and give regular presentations.
Although I enjoy using all the Aurifil thread weights my two favourites are the 80wt for needle-turn applique and the 12wt wool which I use for a number of techniques including the hand quilting on the Vetch cushion.
This is one of a series of textile panels that involve improv pieced background with an organic freehand applique over the top. Swipe to see my latest WIP in this series ‘Woodland floor in Autumn’.
As we move through the weekend takeover you will see my work includes a wide range of techniques but I think what holds them all together is an emphasis on colour, modern aesthetics and hand stitched details. My two favourite techniques are improv piecing and organic needle-turn applique, and these pieces include both.
Note: If you’d like to learn more about this technique, it is available as an on-demand class via Jo’s website. Simply click the button below for more information.
THREE
@joaverystitch back with another post and I thought I would share one of my most recent quilt finishes and chat about it’s evolution. This is Eye Catcher and it measures 46” x 54”.
I started quilting properly back in the 1990’s before Foundation Paper Piecing was invented and before everyone had a printer at home and the internet. I used a technique I called Freehand Foundation Piecing to achieve the same result and I love using it still. It involves drawing up your pattern freehand on to a foundation (such as an interfacing) before piecing.
I’ve been teaching this for a while with a range of different designs, one of which is called Journey to the Centre of the Earth. This grew out of needing a ‘centre of the earth’ for my Tiny Improv World Quilt. A lot of my quilts are created to use up the many class samples I accrue but as I really can’t bear to repeat myself I have to find new quilt designs to use them. Journey to the centre of the earth became journey to the center of a flower and recently got tweaked again to be eye catcher.
All these quilts include, improv piecing, wonky curves and needle-turn applique details, aspects that occur throughout nearly all my quilts.
FOUR
As an Aurifilosopher, I aim to constantly inspire others to use @aurifilthread with new creative ideas. My latest project are these 3D felt flower corsages, all hand stitched and embellished using Aurifll 12wt wool thread from my two collection boxes ‘Modern Crewelwork’ and ‘Stitching with Wool’.
FIVE
As with the previous quilts I shared in an earlier post this one was also brought about by my need to use up class samples. But the really special thing about this one is it won a prize! I was shocked and delighted to win first prize in @thequiltersguild Challenge category at last year’s @thefestivalofquilts (the biggest quilt show in Europe).
Intertwined features many samples made teaching my Improv Flowers class over a number of years. This class involves improv piecing and curves along with needle-turn applique details. Yes all those favourite things I’ve been sharing in my other posts.
I am inspired by nature more than anything else. My daily walks around our woodland and fields always make me want to rush back to the studio and start sewing. Therefore I interpret a lot of flowers and leaves! I want all my work to be infused with joy and wonder and to honour the natural world. This quilt in particular seems to tick all my boxes.
SIX
I haven’t even touched on my love of embroidery yet, specifically crewel embroidery. Crewel simply means embroidery with wool and since I fell in love with @aurifilthread 12wt wool I haven’t been able to use anything else for embroidery.
The wool thread is so soft and tactile. It fills easily and is very forgiving for a beginner embroiderer. As it is a mix of wool and acrylic it doesn’t break and twist the way traditional crewel wool does and it’s fine text means it can be used double or single strand for increased versatility.
The thread has so much potential that I wrote a whole book about it! Modern Crewel Embroidery was published in late 2021 and is my second book with @ctpublishing (New Patchwork and Quilting Basics is the first, published in 2020).
The book includes 15 samplers and a range of different projects to make with them such as, pouches, pots, pincushions and even a belt.
SEVEN
I started the year off experimenting with some new stitchy samples that marry a simple organic needle-turn applique with embroidery and embellishment using @aurifilthread 12wt wool.
As these stacked up a little I decided to make them all into a fabric scrap book and add in previous sample pieces. First I needed a title page which I created with crewel embroidery.
Other pages include sashiko and siddi samples and some embroidery I started in a class with @mirjamtextiles last year. I added a few samples of my Bird Applique patterns and stitched them all together.
The result has been so successful that my two pals @karenlewistextiles and @lilysquilts and I have decided this should be the main workshop for this year’s @threadhouseuk retreats. (note: this is still a class offering for 2024!)
EIGHT
I find hand stitching so pleasurable and comforting. The mindfulness is increased when I can be free with my design and not have to work to a pattern. I find simple shapes pleasing and effective. Last year I began creating Freehand Applique using fabrics with texture such as linens and wovens.
I started with rainbows and then progressed to haloes (rings/circles). I cut the simple shapes freehand with scissors, pin them to the background, turn edges under and stitch the fold down using @aurifilthread 80wt thread (a gorgeous fine thread perfect for hand applique). I’ve experimented with a range of different textiles including recycled fabrics, such as old curtains, tea towels and clothes.
NINE
This is Fruit Salad and yes it’s more improv piecing and needle-turn applique and it’s more class samples!
Last year I made Watermelon Eyelashes. I had been teaching a lot of Freehand Foundation Piecing workshops and I wanted to move away from the ‘journey to…’ quilts (see earlier posts), so this modern version of a fancy New York Beauty was born.
Of course this ended up as a new class!! I called it Pattern Rings and taught it at @thefestivalofquilts last year. I think you can guess what happened next… I ended up with more class samples!! And Fruit Salad is the result. Sometimes I feel like I am in a never ending loop! But having to keep coming up with something new to do really pushes my creativity and means I now have a progressive series of quilts that fit together for an exhibition.
note: Fruit Salad has been juried into 2024 QuiltCon so if you are heading to Raleigh next month, be sure to take a peek!!
I do hope you have enjoyed this whistlestop tour of my creative brain. I hope some of you will continue to follow along with my exploits over at my own feed. If you have any questions about anything I’ve been sharing please do feel free to send me a DM or an email, I welcome all interactions and love sharing ideas and inspiring others!
Thank you to @fiberartnow for having me come stay this weekend!
HUGE thanks, again, to Jo for allowing us to recreate her takeover here. If you’re feeling inspired and are itching to dive in to some of Jo’s techniques, be sure to sign up for the Free Taster Weekend for The Thread House Academy. Scheduled for March 2/3, this weekend of classes is an excellent introduction to the Academy and offers a range of incredible instruction. Click on the button below for more details and be sure to follow Jo on Instagram for more!
Love your work!
thank you Sue!
My Favorite UK quilt designer!
thank you so much Gale!
Love Jo’s work – so vibrant!
that’s so kind, thank you!
This was so fun. I’ve followed Jo on IG for years but didn’t know all these things. I must’ve missed a lot! Neat to see.