2017 – Page 2 – Jinny Beyer Studio

Posted on September 2, 2017July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 9 Comments

Quilts for Victims of Harvey

Last week we were all drawn together in unity as we stared in awe at the magic of the universe. The eclipse captured the heart and souls of our country.

Not even a week later our hearts are going out to those affected by the horrible destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey. This storm will impact the lives of thousands of people in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi for months to come. It is estimated that in Texas alone, more than 100,000 homes have been flooded. Many people will have lost everything but the clothes on their backs.

We ask ourselves, “What can I do to help?” People living close to the disaster are taking clothes, food and supplies to shelters and distribution centers. Others are directly involved in the rescue operations. The vast majority of us are not able to do that. But there are other ways we can offer our support.

The immediate need is money to help in purchasing food and supplies.

There are several relief organizations recommended on CNN.

And, of course, the American Red Cross is always prepared to help in such situations.

If every one of you reading this donated at least $10, think of the impact it would make. One thousand donations would generate $10,000 in seriously needed aid.

Those of you who have been to Quilt Market or Quilt Festival are very familiar with the George Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston that is now sheltering thousands of storm victims. Many people who work for Quilts, Inc. are victims themselves.

While the urgent need right now is money, as the waters recede and people return to what is left of their homes there will be a need for so much more. As quilters we know the warmth and comfort that comes from being wrapped in a quilt and we can all help providing that comfort to the victims of the storm.

At JINNY BEYER STUDIO we want to collect as many quilts as possible to send to those in need. As we did with Katrina, we will send those quilts to the various organizations in the affected areas that will handle their distribution.

Do you have quilt blocks or tops that have been sitting around and are in need of finishing into a quilt? Maybe you already have some finished quilts that you made to donate to a worthy cause. Please bring those quilts to us and we will see that they go to a family in need.

We are currently planning two “Quilt-In” days at the shop, on September 12th and 19th from 10-4. Bring your own “Harvey Quilts” to work on, or help us make some new quilts. While supplies last, Quilters Dream Cotton has donated a large roll of batting to use in Harvey Quilts and we at the Studio have set aside some fabrics that you can use for backing. These will be distributed on “Quilt-In” days.

If you cannot come to a Quilt-In, stop by the shop at any time to drop your quilts off and please:

Donate a minimum of $10 to the Red Cross or other charity of your choice.
Bring finished quilts to us for distribution. If you know of an organization that will be distributing household goods to those in need, please send contact information to us.
If you are a long-arm quilter and are interested in donating your time to quilt some of the tops, please contact us.

Watch for details on our Facebook page.

I know we quilters can accomplish a lot when we work together. Thanks, in advance, for helping out.

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Posted on August 17, 2017July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 4 Comments

Travel the World With Us!

This summer seems to have flown by and as usual I have been busy with garden, family and quilting. Sadness for all of the extended family was the passing of my sister, Linda. She had fought a long battle with cancer and finally lost. But her amazing spirit through it all was an inspiration to everyone who knew her. I feel so fortunate that I was able to fly to the west coast in June and spend a quality week with her. I returned in July for another week for the celebration of her life.

As usual in the summertime we start gearing up full tilt for the Shop Hop in November. This is our annual “Quilter’s Quest” which takes place for 10 days in November from the 9th to the 18th.

Each year we plan a color scheme and each shop selects a group of fabrics that fall within the range of those colors. As participants go to each shop they can purchase the swatches for $4.00 or if they spend $30 they can get them for free! This is our 2017 color palette.

This year the “Quest Cuts” are eight six inch squares. We all get together and trade our sets with each other so every shop ends up with a complete set of 80 swatches. Then comes the fun part. Each shop designs a quilt based on the Quest Cuts. As you go to the shops you will receive a free pattern for that shop’s quilt. Many of the shops offer “finishing kits” so that you can make a quilt from the pattern you like the best!

We have decided to have a “movie” theme this year and each shop has selected a movie and will enhance their shop according to the movie they select. We chose the movie Around the World in 80 Days.

It is a great event and all 10 shops have put together a fun video that tells you all about it.

In the past I have shared with you the progress of the quilt as I work on it over the summer. I wanted the design of our quilt to reflect on the movie theme. The 1956 film is about a Victorian Englishman who bets he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. Here is a little sneak peak of the progress.

You all know how much I love shading fabrics together, so that was my first task. I needed four groups with 12 values of colors in each one, going from light to dark.

While the pattern for the quilt will be foundation piecing, I worked with templates, because I needed to move pieces around as I created the design. The hardest part was drafting the pattern, from there the rest was easy. Here is just a small portion of some of the pieces arranged on a design wall. It took me more than a week to get the pieces the way I wanted them and then only about a week to hand piece.

The quilt is now in my quilting frame and I work on it as I watch the Washington Nationals’ baseball games. Here is a small portion of the quilting in progress. I will share the complete design when the quilt is finished.

Posted on July 27, 2017July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 3 Comments

Escape to an Island with a Bundle of Fabric!?!

In quilting today, we have thousands upon thousands of fabrics in an ever-changing palette available to us. When we enter a quilt shop, we find that beautiful array of color and fabric irresistible. As a result, it is rare that we meet a quilter who does not have a substantial stash. Have you noticed, though, for many of us, when we go to put fabrics together for a quilt we never seem to have quite what we need? There always seems to be something missing but we don’t know what.

It is no secret that I love color and I love shading fabrics but I realize that not everyone does. Putting together a quilt with many fabrics can seem overwhelming. Because we recognize this, we have always made available a large selection of shaded bundles. We would, though like to help you to understand how you can do this yourselves or maybe just watch the journey as we do it for you.

Grand Bundle Complete for Blog — The complete Island Escape bundle.

With that in mind, we have put together a collection of 40 shaded fabrics called the Island Escape bundle. (It was very hot and steamy while we were putting it together so I may truly have been looking for an Island Escape.)

A starting point for the Island Escape bundle, the Portable Palette.

To gather the colors I wanted for this Island Escape bundle, I first went to my “go to” color tool, my Portable Palette. I worked with various groups of colors, shading them together until I had a palette I liked. I came up with a palette of 27 colors. Next I looked all around the shop trying to find fabrics of different textures and designs that would fit into the color range shown on the palette. Sometimes they were a little brighter, a little darker or had had a slightly different cast. As long as they blended in they would work! Ultimately, in the 40 piece bundle, I only used a small portion of the original Palette fabrics, but of course all of those could be added as well for even more variety in the bundle.

We will start presenting them to you, one mini-bundle of eight fabrics at a time, over the coming months in our Weekly Web Specials. Along the way, we will share tips and pattern ideas for how you can use them. Each mini-bundle shades from one color to the next so at the end you will have an entirely shaded collection of fabrics for fun, “scrappy” quilts.

This month’s mini-bundle shades from pale seafoam through brilliant blue to deep violet and it will be on sale for the week’s special beginning July 26 and ending August 1. The next bundle will be released later in August.

For more information on how to use my Portable Palette, visit the Tips and Lessons page on our website.

Posted on July 7, 2017July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 2 Comments

Visiting Sacred Threads – A Unique and Inspirational Quilt Exhibit

Neon Image One — With my friend Carole Nicholas holding “Neon” by Laurie Cessay

This morning I was given the wonderful opportunity to visit the Sacred Threads exhibit as finishing touches were added. If you are not familiar with Sacred Threads, I would guess that you’ve probably never seen anything quite like it.

“Pyrite Ammonites” by K. Lacy — “Pyrite Ammonites” by Kimberly Lacy

Back in 1999, fellow quilter, Vikki Pignatelli, gathered a small group of women to discuss their idea to present quilts with topics that you wouldn’t ordinarily see at quilt shows, giving quilters a venue to freely express themselves. Their idea was to create “a dignified exhibit of artwork that would touch all those who viewed it on both spiritual and personal levels.”

Sandy Goldman and I discuss “Winter Solstice” by Seminar staffer Ricki Selva featuring many of my fabrics.

Since 2011, we have been fortunate enough to have this exhibit here in Northern Virginia. Four former members of the Studio and Seminar staffs are on the committee and they invited me to take a sneak peek.

Members of the committee fine-tuning the exhibit.

Waiting for the final drapes and labels.

This biennial exhibit is divided into the themes of Joy, Spirituality, Inspiration, Grief, Healing and Peace/Brotherhood and does not focus on any particular religion or faith.

As I first stepped in, my eye was caught by a quilt so obviously filled with joy.

Happy Image Seven — You can certainly feel the joy in “Bali Boys” by Linda Anderson.

Throughout the exhibit, the quilts told the stories and experiences of life but it was also fascinating, as a quilter, to see how these artists expressed themselves whether their work leaned towards the traditional or abstract. The workmanship of so many of these pieces amazed and impressed me.

“Florida: Black Skimmer” by M. Wolfe — “Florida: Black Skimmer” by Martha Wolfe

Honor Image Nine — “In Honor of My Father” by Joan Bratton

There was even a special exhibit in honor of Yvonne Porcella who passed away last year. I was able to look through these quilts before they were hung and they certainly brought a smile to my face as they reminded me so of Yvonne.

Tribute to Yvonne Porcella by Susanne Miller Jones — Barb Hollinger & Jinny with a tribute to Yvonne Porcella by Susanne Miller Jones

Tribute to Yvonne Porcella by Lisa Ellis

The exhibit runs July 7th through July 23rd at the Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Virginia. Visit their website, www.sacredthreadsquilts.com, for hours and directions. You’ll also find information about “Meet the Artist Weekend” including dinners and more, plus location and dates for the traveling Sacred Threads exhibit. I encourage all who live in the area or who will be visiting during the time of the show to see the spectacular, inspirational exhibit.

“A New Dawn” by R. Schwartz — “A New Dawn” by Roxanne Schwartz

“Fall Was Her Favorite Time of Year” by H. Wilmarth — “After the Rain” by Rosanne Flack Williamson

Posted on July 3, 2017July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer

Fourth of July Holiday Hours

The Jinny Beyer Studio will be closed on Tuesday, July 4th, to celebrate Independence day. We will reopen at 10 a.m., Wednesday, the 5th.

row 2016 photo — *Eagles Pride*, 2016 Row by Row

Posted on June 8, 2017July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 2 Comments

Never Too Old for a New Experience

I sat down this morning to write a blog about another of the projects I designed using my new mini-stripe fabric…the Route 7 Table Runner. The pattern is a free download and features five different colorways. It is interesting to note that all the strips, including the ones with the mini-stripe are all exactly the same width. The illusion because of the stripe just makes it seem more complex and narrower.

However, just as I sat down, the tree service people arrived. They were going to do some pruning of some large trees and the removal of a dead one.

Now, I have to backtrack. I spent a couple of hours yesterday picking cherries. Last year a late frost zapped the blossoms on our trees and we had no cherries. This year we have literally thousands. Several years ago when we planted the four small cherry trees, it was so easy to pick the fruit. I had no idea, though, that they would grow so tall. Now, the only cherries I can reach are the ones on the lower branches.

So when I looked out the window this morning as tree service trucks were arriving I spied the bucket truck. I had to do some quick talking, but they finally agreed that they would let me “borrow” their bucket. It was actually kind of fun and I was able to get into the heart of the tree and get all those luscious cherries. I picked on only one side of one tree and had more than 35 pounds of cherries!

The only difficulty I had was getting in and out of the bucket.

I’ll be spending the rest of my day pitting, freezing, making jam and looking for other ways to use the cherries. One of my favorites is to make blueberry/cherry pie. The blueberries are so sweet that less sugar is used. The flavor of the cherries still comes through and you only have to pit half as many cherries!

I like to make several pie fillings and freeze them for use later. I line a pie pan with foil or Saran Wrap, put the pie filling directly into the lined pan and freeze it. Once it is frozen I wrap it up and slip it into a freezer bag. When I want to make a pie all I have to do is make a crust, insert the frozen pie filling into the crust and bake!

Blueberry Cherry Pie Recipe

Pastry for two-crust pie 9” pie
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
2 cups fresh blueberries
2 cups fresh, pitted cherries
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
Heat oven to 425° and prepare pastry.

Mix flour and sugar. In a separate bowl, mix berries and cherries together and sprinkle the flour/sugar mixture over fruit. Mix gently. Put fruit mixture in pastry lined pie pan, dot with butter and add the top crust. Cut slits in the top. Cover the edge of the crust with a 2 or 3 inch wide piece of aluminum foil.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil for the last 15 minutes of baking.

Posted on May 26, 2017July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer

Memorial Day Holiday

We will be closed on Monday, May 29th, in honor of Memorial Day to remember those who have served our country with pride. We will reopen at 10 a.m., Tuesday, the 30th.

Posted on May 25, 2017July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 1 Comment

Happy Summer

It is always exciting to go to the spring and fall quilt markets. This year was no exception. There are always old friends to meet and I even ran into Maria, one of my Ukrainian friends, who promised to give my best to all my friends in Ukraine.

I held a schoolhouse segment where I introduced my new mini stripe fabric, and the Amber Waves and Miyako fabric collections which will be arriving soon. When they do I will share some new projects to make with these collections.

2017 Quilts in Booth — *Miyako* and *Arabic Tiles* in the booth at RJR Fabrics

There were lots of great patterns that I brought home to make with some of my fabrics. Look for these in future web specials.

With Alex Anderson at market. — With Alex Anderson at Market.

With Edyta Sitar in the Laundry Basket Quilts booth.

Being gone this time of year is difficult. I came home to an abundance of strawberries in my garden. I plan to make one of my favorite pies for our Memorial Day family get together.

This is the time for fresh strawberries so give my recipe a try.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

Single layer 9-inch pie crust
6 cups freshly picked strawberries
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
½ cup water
4 oz cream cheese at room temperature

Bake pie shell. Mash enough berries to measure 1 cup. Mix sugar and cornstarch in two-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in water and mashed strawberries. Bring to boil, stirring constantly and once it is boiling continue stirring and cook for one minute. Set aside to cool.

Carefully spread cream cheese in the bottom of the pie shell. Fill the shell with the remaining berries and pour the cooled sauce over the berries to completely cover them. Let set in the refrigerator at least three hours.

When raspberries and fresh peaches are ready try this same recipe with either one of those fruits, or try a combo with peaches and raspberries. For the combo, I make the cooked sauce from peaches only and then put both fresh peaches and raspberries in the pie shell and garnish with raspberries…….delicious!

Happy Summer!

Posted on May 11, 2017July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 4 Comments

A Story from the Staff: Our Mysterious Adventure

Some might say that just working for Jinny Beyer is an adventure in itself. Yes, we love being a part of this behind-the-scenes glimpse of the quilting business watching fabrics and designs from conception to the finished product. We get to meet and speak with people from around the world every day. Jinny herself, though, makes it fun and brings her spirit of adventure not just in her quilts and fabrics but even into things like surprises for the staff.

adv1 — Making Temari balls was so much fun!

Mystery Adventure One — Glass blowing was challenging but a great learning experience.

In the past, we’ve been surprised with glass blowing lessons, beat-the-clock shopping, Japanese temari and mystery dinners. This year, she did it again. The date was set for this past weekend. It started as a Christmas gift idea but the weather probably wouldn’t cooperate in winter for an outside event so it came as a huge surprise outing in May. We were told to not wear loose clothing and what we did wear should be cotton. Tie back long hair and bring fireplace tongs. We figured it would involve fire but other than that we were stumped.

Laura's work at Pig Pen Pottery. — Laura’s work at Pig Pen Pottery.

We met with fireplace tongs in hand and headed off just down the road a bit from the Studio to our secret destination…Pig Pen Pottery. Jinny thought that since color is so important to us in all our work, it would be fun to experiment with color in other fields of art.

Laura at Wheel — Laura at the wheel…she made it look so easy!

Jinny has known Laura Nichols, our potter, for years. She is a founding member of Great Falls Studios, an organization of more than 100 artists in the Great Falls area, and is well known in the community. She lives in a wonderful historic home, the same house that she grew up in and her studio is just steps away in a small house her father built for his parents. Laura is also talented, patient and lots of fun.

The unglazed pots that Laura so kindly made and we got to choose from.

Sharon and Diane were certainly having a great time!

Since time was limited and there were 10 of us, Laura had a selection of unglazed pots waiting for us. Our job was to choose two pots and decided which glaze or combination of glazes we wanted and how to apply them. We could dip, pour or paint them on. Once that was done, into the kiln they went.

Marion and Elizabeth having a go at the wheel.

Since only about six or seven could be fired at a time, we got to try our hands at throwing a pot on the wheel. Only one of us had any experience (or talent) but it was fun just the same.

It was such a beautiful day on the farm.

We also had the opportunity to take a walk around Laura’s beautiful property with her dogs and two goats in tow!

When the pots were finally ready, we removed them from the kiln, rolled them on a bed of wood shavings on top of sand and then put a galvanized bucket on top and let them slowly cool. We were surprised to discover that what they looked like when we last saw them was not what they looked like when the bucket was removed. It was for each of us a wonderful surprise to see the finished pot in the end.

Yes, Jinny pulled off another big surprise and once again treated us to a fabulous adventure.

Posted on May 6, 2017July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 5 Comments

The Birth of a Fabric

Usually a fabric is chosen to work with a specific pattern or design. In the case of this story, the reverse was true.

As you all know, I love to work with border print fabrics and other prints with mirror imaged motifs. When we select a border print to go around the outside of a quilt or to use inside the quilt, we often have a lot of leftovers. I’m always looking for ways to use these extra bits.

About a year ago I decided it would be fun to use up border print scraps in six pointed stars. I used our 2 ½” acrylic template. Six identical pieces were needed for each star. I sorted through scraps to come up with a color scheme and began making stars. It was such fun to see all the different ones and how the design changed depending on the placement of the mirror images. All the kaleidoscopic results kept tempting me to do more.

Then the question came of how to sew the stars together. I thought of joining them with black diamonds.

However the stars kept calling to me that they needed a narrow border around them. So I thought of cutting a narrow border from one of my border prints. This Corsica border seemed perfect with my colors.

I only wanted to use this small bit that is outlined here.

In order to get the border next to each star, I had to break the diamond into four smaller pieces so the diamond could be completely surrounded by the border. Two are cut one direction and two are reversed.

I began sewing the stars together with the “border print” diamonds.

After I sewed several together, I realized that if the quilt was going to be a decent size I would need anywhere from 12 to 15 yards of the Corsica border to get enough of that small stripe for all the diamonds.

That is when I thought of designing a fabric that was only made up of the small border with black in between. It takes about a year from the idea to the fabric and finally this week the Mini-stripe fabric arrived. I did it in five colorways.

I remade the quilt with a larger (3”) diamond template and the new mini-stripe. I am thrilled with the outcome.

I’m calling the quilt Arabic Tiles, have created a pattern and also made an acrylic template set to make cutting the diamonds easier.

You can use all your leftover bits and pieces of border print, or we have also made a kit in the colorway shown here. There are two sizes……wall and double

Margot, one of our customers, has already started using her scraps to make stars. She said it is addictive and so much fun to see how different each one can be.

For the Arabic Tile quilt, you only need two yards of the fabric for the diamonds joining the stars instead of 15! I’m dreaming up all kinds of other ways to use the fabric as well. Stay tuned for more projects and let us know if you find innovative ways to use it as well.