Design Board – Jinny Beyer Studio

Posted on April 13, 2021April 13, 2021 by Jinny Beyer — 3 Comments

Tropical Paradise

In my last blog I talked about taking a block design and making it with multiple fabrics for a scrappy effect. That blog has information that is helpful in understanding how I placed the fabric in the blocks used in this blog as well.

I was so excited about this painting my niece, Tanis Rovner, painted that the colors in the image inspired our Tropical Paradise bundle. Since this is such a popular color scheme, I decided to show how you could use all of the 14 fabrics we put in the bundles in a block that would normally use six or seven. This is just what I did in Desert Star and can be done for any quilt that could be made with only three fabrics.

Both of these blocks are free patterns that are in our Quilters’ Block Library on our web site. I chose the 12” pattern for 1904 Star and the 10” pattern for Attic Windows

Beginning with 1904 Star, notice that the light, medium and dark value placement is the same in each of the two blocks I created but most of the fabrics are different between the two. I was able to use all 14 bundle fabrics between the two blocks and then I alternated them in the quilt.

I created these blocks and quilt digitally but if I were actually sewing them, I would find it boring to repeat the exact same blocks throughout. For me the fun part is experimenting with lots of different fabrics that fall within the same color scheme. It is a good lesson in color and value placement to make each block different. If you like the colors in the Tropical Paradise bundle, begin with it and then go to your stash and find as many colors as you can within the same range.

TIP

If you can’t find as many fabrics as you want in a certain color, did you know that you can sort fabrics on our website by color? You can go to this link and then advanced search and select the color range you want and click on “GO”.

The second block I experimented with is Attic Windows. While this particular design can be made with just three fabrics—a light, medium and dark—it is perfect for a scrappy looking quilt. All fourteen fabrics in the Tropical Paradise Bundle have been used in these two blocks and then the blocks alternated in the quilt. Once again, as with 1904 Star, I would make each block with a variety of different fabrics to add to the scrappy look. I try to get a good balance of value and color within each block, so the colors just meld together, and the blocks disappear when they are assembled.

Please note that even though there are three values, each of the darks do not have to be very dark and the mediums do not all have to be the same value. Depending on the effect you want you can also use different lights for the lightest value in the quilt. As long as the medium piece is lighter than the dark next to it, it still reads as “medium”. Same with the mediums and lights. Sometimes one fabric might be used as a dark in one block, but a medium in another.

I always like to add a border to finish off a quilt. It is like adding a frame to a painting or piece art. Borders can be all one fabric, more than one fabric, border prints or pieced or appliqued. Some people prefer no border at all. In any case, the borders should carry out the colors from the inside. The colors of the border can drastically affect the color image the entire quilt portrays. You can see the no border options above and two different options below with these two quilt designs.

Posted on April 13, 2017October 22, 2018 by Jinny Beyer — 4 Comments

Never a Dull Moment

This is one of my favorite times of the year. The Virginia bluebells are in full bloom along the Potomac River in Great Falls National Park. Our native redbuds are announcing spring with their brilliant violet flowers, the onions, potatoes and early vegetables are planted in my garden and we are already enjoying the early spring greens and winter onions in salads.

That is not to say we don’t get surprises. Last week, I was teaching my Diamonds class at my shop. We had just begun the class when all of a sudden our shop phone rang, I received one of those alerts on my cell phone and I received an urgent text message from my son-in-law in Oregon (who works on mapping at the U. S. Geological Survey)…all of these simultaneous alerts (including alerts on phones of the students) were telling us that there was a tornado warning for Great Falls and we were to seek immediate shelter.

Now we were all on the second floor of our building and could see the suddenly ominous black sky. We all hastily retreated to the basement of our building which houses the utilities. Space was crowded and we got to know each other up close and personal. It was amazing how, not only calm, but jovial the students and staff were in this cramped and dusty place.

Basement Hiding Two — It was definitely cozy!

Student Karen made me laugh at the essentials she brought with her--her fabric and sewing supplies. — Student Karen made me laugh at the essentials she brought with her–her fabric and sewing supplies.

Within 15 minutes the danger was over and we resumed the class. The two Canadian ladies, two from West Virginia, and one from California who had traveled here for the class along with the locals were quite excited to let all their friends know about our little adventure. We did learn that several small tornados did touch down not too far from us.

Malloy from Maryland — Mally from Maryland

Working with diamonds is one of my favorite classes to teach and they all made great progress. It is a wonderful opportunity to work on both design and color. Here are some photos of them hard at work and some of the results.

Student Work One — Susan has come from California several times to take classes from Jinny and this is at least the second (or third) time she’s taken Diamonds. The quilt is the result of what she learn from Jinny before. Isn’t it beautiful?

Posted on September 22, 2016October 22, 2018 by Jinny Beyer — 3 Comments

Where Does She Come Up With These Great Ideas?

Jinny is off this week so the staff here at the Studio decided to take over her blog. The takeover was prompted by a discussion of this week’s web special. In the web special, we are offering a bundle of autumn colored fabrics inspired by a photograph of the spectacular colors of the maple tree at the Studio’s front door. How did we get from that photograph to the fabrics for this week’s special?

Looking at the image, you will see in the lower left corner the colors taken from the photograph. Jinny explained in her blog in April 2014 how you can do this with any photograph using Photoshop software. From that, she chose eight fabrics ranging from warm golds, oranges and reds to a weathered dark brown. Compare the fabrics with the color palette from Photoshop. Don’t they look wonderful?

But where there are pretty shaded fabrics, there is always the question of where to use them.

Jinny next went into the Quilter’s Design Board on our website. The Design Board allows you to download hundreds of free quilt blocks, get fabric recommendations, yardage requirements and more. After looking through it, she chose two blocks to play around with. Here is what she started with to get to the two quilts above.

Choose the size you want your blocks to be and you can see the templates for each patch and how many you will need along with a handy template guide for how to put your block together.

You can print the templates directly onto template film. Check out this tutorial on our website.

All that’s left is to pull out your fabric and get started. You can make the scrappy Bear’s Foot or the shaded Pine Tree. You just need a half yard bundle and two yards each of a background and border print. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Posted on June 8, 2016October 22, 2018 by Jinny Beyer — 2 Comments

What are You Working on?

Every now and then, I like to share with you projects that members of my staff are working on. It’s a treat for me to see them too, so here goes.Staffer Dana made Millennium Star, based on an old pattern of mine, using fabrics from my Delhi collection. She will have a tough time finishing it if her kitty, Turbo, won’t give it up.

Cathy has one quilt recently finished and one in process. She used one of the new monument fabrics, as we call it, from the “Celebrating Our Region” collection to make this quick and easy quilt using the “Times Three” pattern. It’s perfect for showcasing a favorite fabric. She is currently working on this Civil War era quilt for her son-in-law.

Finishing up UFO’s has been Julia’s mission lately. This is a Karen Sievert design, “Color, Color All Around,” which Julia started in a class with Karen in 2012. The top is now finished and she’s beginning the quilting.

Nancy is finishing, in the nick of time, a quilt for a challenge called “Architectural Quilts.” The design for this is based on a floor found in Venice, Italy.Grandchildren often influence our projects. Linda, in addition to making placemats from border print fabric, made this precious dress for her granddaughter’s doll using fabric from the Palette, #149. It is a free pattern by Susan Kramer which she found on Pinterest.

Another granddaughter, this one Lura’s, was the pretty little recipient of a new dress. Lura also is quilting a Serengeti quilt and making hot pads for her quilt guild’s upcoming boutique.

Looking at these two projects from Rebecca, I can’t help but notice the diversity in her interests. The first is her “whacky family portrait” quilt made in a Lisa Ellis workshop. She is also finishing up this snowman red work quilt, a Gail Pan design. It is hand quilted with perle cotton. She just finished the binding and all it needs is a label, before it is ready for the snow!

Kelley is our newest staff member and it appears she is very busy at home. She is working on a number of projects including this “Diva Frame Wallet” by Sew Many Creations and Lucy Boston. She just finished sewing together a tuffet cover using Erin Underwood’s “Quick and Cute Tuffets” pattern and the Creative Grids 15 Degree Triangle Ruler. The next step is upholstery. Finally, she is moderating a small online sew along of Lori Holt’s “Farm Girl Vintage” with six quilters from Virginia, Arizona and Texas. Here are her month #5 blocks plus an alternate block, “corn and tomatoes”. The corn kernels are 1/2″ finished squares. Phew!

There’s more hand piecing going on. Janet is hand piecing flowering snowball blocks this summer. Eventually it will be a queen sized quilt. She says it is the perfect project for sitting on the porch on a sunny day. Hopefully, all the rain we’ve had will go away and give her the opportunity to to just that.

Here is a top just completed by Eunice. When a staff member leaves, we make blocks from our Quilter’s Design Board as a farewell gift. Eunice just moved to Florida last month but has already managed to assemble the blocks we gave her. It’s beautiful, Eunice!And finally, as for me, I am enjoying spending most evenings watching my beloved Washington Nationals while hand quilting Calliope. It’s a wonderful way to end each day.

Posted on May 17, 2016October 22, 2018 by Jinny Beyer — 8 Comments

The Symmetry of Patchwork Blocks

Our web special this week is a bundle of coordinating fabrics. It’s easy to look at a bundle like this and admire the pretty colors. It takes a little more imagining, though, to figure out what to do with it. To help you out, we selected three different free pattern downloads as possible choices for using those fabrics. Two of the blocks are shown here.

Normally we just think of putting blocks together side by side, and all facing in the same direction. Blocks that have coloring that are non-symmetrical, or are symmetrical in just one direction can also be arranged in a variety of other ways.

For instance, we are used to seeing the Irish Chain block put together with the blocks side by side, and all oriented in the same direction.

But what happens if you pinwheel the blocks? You get a completely different look.

Here are 5 different layouts of the Triangle Charm blocks.

Blocks side by side oriented in the same direction.

Blocks pinwheeled

Blocks pinwheeled and then mirroredFour blocks mirrored and then those units side by side

Four block unit all oriented the same way and then those units mirrored.It is fascinating to play around with all the possibilities. Which is your favorite?

Note: If you would like to recreate these blocks and use them in a quilt, please use the free patterns for guidance as to how much additional fabric you will need.

Triangle Charm: fabric 7 is 5748-02 and fabric 8 is 0213-10
Double Irish Chain: background fabric is Palette #58, 7132-25

Posted on December 10, 2014October 22, 2018 by Jinny Beyer — 3 Comments

Amazing Effects with Mirror-Image Fabric

I have mentioned the Design Board on our web site before. Just this week we added design number 225. All of these are free downloads and available in 6, 10 or 12 inch sizes.

As I was fussy cutting the paisley fabric for the points of this latest block, I realized I have talked about fussy cutting border prints (Anatomy of a Border Print), but not about looking for fabric with mirror-images to use in the same technique.

Here is an image of the paisley fabric I used for the triangles in World Without End, Block 225. The white lines indicate the “mirror” lines. These are places in the fabric where the design left of the mirror line is the identical reverse of the design to the right of the line. In the case of this particular block, the triangle can be centered anywhere along the mirror line. In fact, it is fun to try it in different places. And don’t forget you will get different designs if you turn the template upside down. See how many variations you can get.

The use of a fabric with mirror-image motifs can enhance the appearance of the block. See here the World Without End block with and without the mirrored paisley fabric.

Block 218 looks great as it is but let’s add a paisley design. Here is the block as it appears on our Design Board and another variation using the mirrored paisley from Renaissance Garden.

Block 144, Southern Pride, from the Design Board is shown here first the original form and, second, with paisleys used in place of two of the other fabrics.

Finally, see how different Southern Pride looks when multiple blocks of each variation are put together.

Look through the designs on the Design Board and see how many you can find that already use fabrics with mirror-image motifs and which blocks you think would benefit from the additions of a mirror-image fabric. E-mail us pictures of your designs at service@jinnybeyer.com, we would love to see what you create.