Moon Trees by Jo Avery

For years, we’ve been lucky enough to call Jo Avery a collaborator, a fellow maker, and one of our favorite humans. Her artistry is singular—bold, curious, and endlessly inventive—and her approach to thread is nothing short of inspiring. Jo moves seamlessly across all weights in the Aurifil range, using each in new, intriguing ways that constantly spark ideas and ignite creativity. Beyond her mastery of thread, Jo is warm, generous, and incredibly knowledgeable—and we’re grateful for every opportunity to work with her on curated collections that bring her vision to life.

Her latest release, Moon Trees, is a celebration of her unique creative language. This curated set brings together Aurifil Cotton 80wt, Cotton 8wt, and Wool 12wt, giving makers a palette and versatility that mirrors Jo’s own exploration of texture, color, and stitch. Each color has been thoughtfully selected, each weight chosen for its particular magic—and together, they form a collection that promises to inspire makers in new ways.

We’re thrilled to share this interview with Jo today, giving you a peek into the inspiration, the process, and the stories behind Moon Trees. And keep your eyes on our channels: we’ll be announcing a special giveaway next week, and Jo has crafted an exclusive social series that you won’t want to miss.

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Hi Jo and welcome back! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. We are so excited about Moon Trees and can’t wait to hear more about it! Before we dive in, we’d love to introduce you to any of our readers who may be meeting you for the first time. Can you tell us a bit more about you, your background, and how you first came into this gloriously creative industry? 
I’m a Scottish quilter and textile artist (originally from London) and have been sewing all my life. I originally became obsessed with quilting back in the 1990s and finally turned that into a career about 15 years ago when I opened my teaching studio and fabric store in Edinburgh and started designing quilts for magazines. It’s been 5 years since I sold my store and these days I teach online through The Thread House Academy (which comprises myself, Lynne Goldsworthy and Karen Lewis) and produce my own patterns and books.

It’s been about 2 years since your last Aurifil release. How has your creative journey evolved over that time?
The Dream Flowers collection represented the small hand stitched appliqué and embroidered flowers and birds I was creating at the time. I loved stitching these but was missing making quilts. My quilting aesthetic is very modern and I tend to make bright bold graphic quilts from solid fabrics. This is very different to the softer linen/woven fabrics I use for the Dream Birds Flowers. Somehow I needed to bring these two styles closer together and that is the journey I have been on for the last couple of years which culminated in the Moon Trees quilt.

Your online community has grown quite a bit over the past few years, with some viral attention on your Dream Birds & Dream Flowers. What has this surge in activity done for your community interactions and do you find that you’re reaching new audiences as a result?
The Dream Birds & Flowers brought me to the attention of an audience from different parts of the world who seem to especially love the embroidery embellishment I add to these pieces, specifically from South America, India and Turkey. I found that a lot of the comments on these posts were in languages I couldn’t read! It was wonderful to connect with such a global community and to tap into textile traditions from these other countries.

Let’s talk about Moon Trees— it’s such a beautiful name. What inspired this new thread set, and how did the concept first take root? 
I live surrounded by trees and they are a constant source of inspiration to me. We moved to a seven acre ex-smallholding 15 years ago and planted thousands of trees and basically rewilded it. I get so much positive energy from watching our trees grow and change through the seasons and from hugging them! The moon, especially when it’s full, has powerful magical qualities and so depicting these two elemental forces together just felt right. Initially I was just being playful with fabric and thread and the design developed from there without very much forethought, though once I stitched the first Moon Tree panel it seemed a very obvious subject for me. Sometimes you need to let your subconscious take over and lead the way. 

Can you walk us through your creative process—how do you begin developing a series like this? What informs your design decisions?
The Moon Trees started as a further exploration of my Freehand Rainbow Appliqué design. This design itself began because I wanted some very easy hand sewing without time consuming prep. I love the process of needle-turn appliqué and sometimes I just want to sit and sew and it doesn’t really matter what I am sewing! So I chose this simple hoop shape which I could cut out with scissors while sitting on the sofa and layered these shapes on top of each other. This turned out really well and was satisfying to sew so I tried other simple shapes and created a Halo design too.

I’m always on the look out for new shapes that could work for this technique and while musing possibilities I wondered about turning the rainbows upside down and giving them a stalk. This would look quite like a tree and then maybe I could cut into the rainbow part for branches?

But that wouldn’t be enough as the rainbows and haloes worked so well because I layered at least two different fabrics. So what about two trees with a moon behind?! 

Originally these were small 6” studies like the rainbows but I quickly realised these could be expanded so I made larger panels giving the trees more room and adding more branches. I experimented with three or four trees and improv pieced backgrounds to create sunsets or made large one tree panels with complex spreading branches.  The aspect that remained constant was the freehand cutting with scissors. I tend to use a rotary cutter for the outer shape of the tree and stitch this down first and then cut into the tree to create the branches. This is very much ‘drawing with scissors’ and I find it very satisfying. With the larger trees I will cut  some branches and sew these before cutting more which helps control the thin pieces of fabric and stops them fraying too much. 

I kept making the moon tree panels as I was enjoying stitching them so much and soon I realised they would look wonderful together as a quilt. So I kept going, not thinking about the size of the panels by keeping the colour palette consistent. When I thought I had enough I jigsawed them together adding in extra strips made of scraps. I added some embellishment to these too using different embroidery stitches.

Moon Trees includes Cotton 8wt, Cotton 80wt, and Wool 12wt threads. Why are these weights your go-to choices? What makes each one special to work with?
I do love a neatly turned under appliqué edge and 80wt cotton is the perfect thread to achieve this. The thread is so fine that the stitches simply melt into the fabric and are very difficult to see. Once I have all those raw edges safely tucked away I like to add stitchy texture with the thicker threads. For a long time I have used 12wt wool exclusively for this but since Aurifil developed their 8wt cotton I have been using this more and more in combination. The 8wt has just enough thickness to give a good contrast to the wool and make the stitched texture even more interesting. 

You’ve always been incredible with your thread education— can you offer any tips or best practices for makers working with these threads for the first time?
I would like to emphasise one of the main reasons I love to use 12wt wool for embroidery embellishment.  If you are using cotton threads for embroidery then working in a hoop is preferable as the cotton pulls easily and can distort your work. However when you are simply adding bits and pieces of embroidery to embellish appliqué you probably don’t want to go to the bother of using a hoop (I certainly don’t!). This is where the 12wt wool offers such an advantage as it has the ‘give’ that cotton lacks. Once you have finished stitching give your work a light pressing and this will enable all the wool thread to relax and flatten completely giving fabulous results. It’s like magic! Don’t have your iron too high when pressing wool though as it can scorch if you press on a high heat for too long. I also find that the wool is easier on my hands and wrists as it seems to meet less resistance going through the fabric layers when hand quilting. Something about the softness of wool means I get less trouble with repetitive strain niggles when working with the wool thread.

You incorporated Cotton 8wt, Aurifil’s newest threads, into this set— what drew you to them, and how do you like to use them in your work?
I love the extra oomph they give over the 12wt, they just have that little bit of extra contrast against the fabric which appeals to me as I want to see all those lovely embellishment stitches and the extra pop of colour this gives to a design. I wanted to keep the embellishment very simple for the moon trees but still bold enough to be noticed so I stitched a row of running stitches around the outer edge of each moon tree and left the background free. On smaller panels I then used the 12wt wool to echo hand quilt around the tree once it was layered up. I had intended to do this for the Moon Tree quilt but I ran out of time (before my Festival of Quilts gallery) to hand quilt it. So instead I machine quilted it on my Handi Quilter Moxie XL long arm using lines of large FMQ trees and Aurifil 40/3 cotton thread in a neutral off-white. At first I thought it might be a bit weird to machine quilt over the hand stitching but actually it worked really well! It’s always worth trying things out and experimenting.

The colors in Moon Trees are so rich and thoughtful. Can you tell us about the palette— what inspired your choices, and what role does each color play in your designs?
Of course there had to be plenty of green and I started with the 8wt colours I had been using most for the moon tree panels, lovely leaf greens, a pale cream to represent the moon and my favourite dark orange shade.  These set the tone and I added in two very useful 80wts, that gorgeous pale aqua which works as a neutral with any colour of fabric and the orange which is perfect for any darker warm fabrics. I have now produced three previous Aurifil collections that included 12wt wool with 26 different shades between them. I know that some of my followers collect these boxes and so I never want to duplicate the threads used. But with the reduction in the wool palette to 40 shades that left me with only a few to choose from.  This did make the wool thread decisions slightly easier. I was very happy to include these four wool threads, especially the teal colour and the variegated brown which give the collection some extra variety. Each one of these 12wt wools is a favourite shade and I was quite shocked that I hadn’t included them previously!

Are there particular patterns involved with this collection release that our readers can use to experiment with these new threads?
I’ve been so busy making quilts for the Festival of Quilts gallery that I haven’t managed to release any new patterns this year. However, the Moon Tree collection would marry perfectly with any of my appliqué patterns, both the Dream Flowers and Dream Birds and my original Bird Appliqué patterns which are all available by clicking HERE.

We’re aware that you’re fresh off a wildly successful special exhibit at the 2025 Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, UK. Can you tell us more about what that exhibit entailed and how you went about putting it together? 
Yes I am still coming down from the experience! I was honoured to be given my own Textile Gallery at Festival of Quilts and spent the last year working towards it, planning the exhibition, making new quilts and self publishing a book to accompany it. The Gallery was entitled Journey to the Centre of a Quilter and marked my journey through improv quilting from 2017 till the present day. With over 30 exhibits it included all my most iconic quilts such as Dandelion Clock, Intertwined and Poplars along with new pieces like The Crows are Calling and of course Moon Trees. I also had space to display my themed fabric books on plinths and a whole section on Temperature Quilts.

What was it like to walk through your own exhibit with your work fully on display, chatting with attendees and admirers? Did it frame your work in a new way, even in your eyes? 
I think talking about the quilts, answering visitors’ questions and listening to their reactions really did change some of my thoughts on my work.  I started to see connections I hadn’t realised were there and obtained some deeper understanding of what defines my style and practice. The whole experience was very intense and overwhelming and in some ways it was hard to see the gallery in perspective as I was so involved in putting it together. But it was an absolute career highlight to have all my quilts on display in one place and have so many people see them. In some ways I feel my work is done and I can now just retire as a quilter – only joking of course!

We heard that FOQ introduced exhibit tours to their show model at your suggestion— how did that all come about and will it now be a regular addition to the show schedule going forward?
It was actually my idea to put on gallery tours and I am going to be claiming credit for it for many years to come! Having visited QuiltCon many times I loved the idea of the special exhibit gallery tours they offer before the show opens. I have attended them myself and gained such insight into the quilts and quilters.  I suggested these to the FOQ organisers and they were a little hesitant at first and so just tried them out with my gallery on just two of the days. When they realised how quickly they sold out they added them to the other galleries (as long as the artists were keen) and added extra days for mine.  I think they were a huge success and I really loved having the opportunity to tell the stories behind all the quilts in my exhibition, a bit like my book brought to life.

What was the most impactful feedback that you received about the show? 
So many people told me that it was their favourite exhibition at the show with some even saying it was their favourite gallery ever at FOQ! This was incredibly rewarding and humbling and I’m still trying to get my head round it actually. It certainly has given me lots of confidence to keep creating. I also loved hearing how inspired people were by the exhibition and how it made them want to rush home and start creating their own work, that is really the best feedback I could receive.

Can you share a few highlights?
Of course it was all such a blur and I didn’t take enough photos but here are some. I loved having the huge space for my Giant Trilobite quilt which was a real talking point, especially the quilting, something I am especially proud of on this quilt.

I was happy to let people flick through my fabric books (without white gloves) and some visitors spent a lot of time studying the three books. Two of these are 100 Day Projects and the other is a Temperature project from 2024. I really enjoyed sharing these properly. My crow quilt was also a big hit and it was so lovely to hear from many other ‘crow lovers’ and hear their crow stories.

Where else can we find you throughout the remaining months of 2025 and looking forward into 2026? Any upcoming workshops, classes, or special appearances you’re excited about?
After all the work I’ve done for the gallery and book this year I am looking forward to a few quiet months to work on some new projects. But I continue to teach for The Thread House Academy with a new online workshop every term. The next one is the Twelve Green Bottles quilt which was featured in both the exhibition and the book and goes live on the 1st of October. I will be demonstrating a range of improv-pieced techniques and motifs including bottles, wonky crosses, checkerboards, coral beads and two different ways to create improv triangles. I will then show you how to use these to create this dynamic modern quilt. All our classes are pre-recorded with lifetime access and can be bought as a single class or as part of a Term or Annual Pass which also includes live Zoom surgeries, a community platform and a BOM. More info here with this class going on sale mid September via the linked button below.

Tell us more about your new book Journey to the Centre of a Quilter? Where can people buy this?
Originally I planned to produce a sort of exhibition brochure to accompany the FOQ gallery where I could tell the stories behind the quilts and the creative journey that led one quilt to the next. But then I thought it would be nice to offer a few small projects that used the same techniques I used to make the featured quilts so folks could have a go themselves at home. As so many of the quilts were Temperature quilts I also added a whole chapter and resource page about this subject and finally I decided I really needed to add my thoughts on colour, design and quilting. So basically it turned into a full size 96 page book! 

I self published the book using a graphic designer, tech editor and printer all based in Scotland, something I am very pleased about. The photography was all done by either my husband Jonathan (who was a professional photographer when I met him!) or myself and we used our beautiful new home (built single handedly by Jonathan) and surrounding trees as a backdrop to the styled photos. This book is very personal to me and I’m immensely proud of it. The four projects include a mini temperature quilt, quirky cushion, cheerful Playmat, and a beautiful improv flowers wall hanging which includes an exclusive Dream Bird!

The book also includes instruction on needle-turn appliqué, Freehand Foundation Piecing, and improv squares and curves. It’s only available from my website or from a few selected stockists around the world including Morris Textiles in the USA. I had to suspend shipping to the US recently due to the tariff issues but have now been told these don’t affect books so have reinstated it. However international shipping is expensive so do check out Morris Textiles if you are in North America.

Is there anything new you’re currently working on that you can give us a sneak peek of?
I finally have time to get back to this year’s temperature quilt which I started in January and then abandoned to work on the book and gallery. For 2025 I am creating Temperature Trees! Inspired by my Moon Trees, each month I create a large freehand tree and then stitch on leaves to represent the highest temperature for each day of the month.  This is March and I have just started April (I should catch up soon!). The leaves travel around the tree in date order so the first of March is at bottom left and the 31st at bottom right. 

Finally, for our readers who admire your work and are eager to dive into their own creative practice— any words of wisdom you’d like to share?
Don’t get too caught up in trying to make something too ambitious and perfect that you take all the joy out of creating. We can put too much pressure on ourselves which can paralyse us and stop us from even starting. Don’t forget that this is supposed to be a relaxing and fun hobby (or a relaxing and fun job!). Try to embrace the simple playfulness of just making for the sake of it and take the pressure off yourself.