Fabrics – Page 5 – Jinny Beyer Studio

Posted on October 15, 2014July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 4 Comments

The design process behind my fabric

People often ask me where I get my inspiration for fabric design. I am inspired by nature, architecture, antique fabric and wallpaper, and so much more. But a lot of my design inspiration comes from other art. There are design archive companies which cater to fabric and wallpaper designers. They have thousands of pieces of art that they, themselves, have collected to show to designers.

I have just recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Japan where I met with the artists who work with me on my fabric collections. I also went to the printing facility that prints my fabrics. I try to go periodically to personally touch base with the people who work with me and to also look through their design archives.

On my most recent trip, I looked at more than 10,000 pieces of art in two days. I was getting bleary eyed! When looking at each, it is important to look beyond what is actually there. I look for interesting textures, motifs, backgrounds. Sometimes, something with really high contrast or bold electric colors catches my eye even though I would never use it as is. I look for parts of the design that I can manipulate to turn into something else.

For instance, Chelsea, my most recent fabric collection, was inspired by designs that I selected on a previous trip to Japan. Let me show you an example of how this design worked for me.

Original floral design — Background design only

The first thing that caught my eye was the beautiful flowers on this more than 60-year-old piece of art. The second was the design in the background. Notice that there is too much separation between the flowers and the background making it a bit difficult to use in quilting. I also didn’t like the white dots on parts of the design.

Studying the design, I decided to make two fabrics from the one piece of art with one being a separate fabric of just the background. For the other, I eliminated the white dots and brought the value of the colors closer together.

I do most of this work in Photoshop and then send what I have done to the design studio. They make any corrections that I cannot do on my computer and send it back to me. Once I have the designs complete, I do the colors on my computer and send it back to Japan so they can prepare the art for printing. Here are photos of three of the final fabrics in the collection

Most exciting for me is to finally have the designs the way I like them. I then work with the digital images to create a quilt using that collection. I will talk more about designing fabric in upcoming blogs.

Chelsea both colorways — Chelsea quilt in blue and pink granite

Posted on October 8, 2014July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 4 Comments

Anatomy of a Border Print

Early quilt made with Indian fabrics & Indian border prints

Through social media such as Facebook and this blog, I have had the opportunity to be in touch with so many quilters around the world. Many of you have recently discovered our website and the techniques I’ve been teaching for years. I’m very excited that through this blog I’ve been able to share my methods of quiltmaking with you. This week, I would like to cover a basic topic, one which you will find in most of my quilts, namely, border prints.

I started quiltmaking when I lived in India and was using Indian fabrics exclusively. Most Indian fabrics have some type of border print and I loved using them. However, when I returned to the United States, few could be found. When I started designing fabrics, I made sure that each collection and my quilt designs incorporated these border prints.

What is a border print?

When you look at my border prints, each one has a wide and narrow stripe. To make the best use of each of these stripes, I put a one-half inch area between them. When you cut down the middle of this area, you will have a perfect one-quarter inch seam allowance on each side of your stripes.

All of my border prints also have at least four repeats of the stripes across the width of the fabric. This allows for at least one stripe to go around each side of your quilt. To estimate the yardage necessary for your quilt, just measure the longest side of your quilt and add 18” for mitering and centering the design.

The designs also always mirror-image meaning that each side of the design is identical to the other but reversed as in looking in a mirror. Some are vertically imaged motifs (single) and some are both vertically and horizontally mirrored (double).

Mirror line for border print placemats — Using a template for mirror images

Of course, I don’t believe in limiting the use of these borders to simply framing a quilt. In future blogs, I hope to open your eyes to the endless possibilities I’ve discovered in using these wonderful designs. In the mean time, go to www.jinnybeyer.com and look at the images of the border prints themselves. When you click on each image, you will be given the number of repeats and the width of each stripe.

Also, you’ll find a lot of material on Working with Border Prints on my website.

Posted on October 2, 2014July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 1 Comment

Teaching Children to Sew Part II

Passing along our love of quilting to future generations helps to mark our history and links us as families and communities. I am thrilled that my granddaughter, Polly, loves to sew and I see this sharing of our art form with my customers and staff.

Staff member Nancy discovered a willing helper while machine piecing one day. Whenever she hears the sewing machine running, granddaughter Kyra, 18 months, drops her toys and comes running. She loves to choose the fabric squares and sits on her Nana’s lap to sew. Nancy always keeps a stack of scrap squares by the machine for Kyra to help sew.

Staff member Linda always brings a project with her when she visits her grandchildren. Grandson Andy was curious and wanting to copy what Oma was doing. He holds the needle and takes stitches now on the special projects that Linda brings him.

We don’t have to sit with needle and thread or sewing machine to share our love of quilting.

Customer Angela V. and daughter Erin were in the Studio last month choosing border fabric for their quilt. Erin loves to help her mom design quilts and choose fabrics. She doesn’t do the sewing yet but you never know what the future will bring.

Jinny Beyer Club member Judy I. recently brought her granddaughter to a meeting. Caelyn, 5 ½, likes “blanquettes” as she calls them. She has not started sewing yet but loves to play with her grandmother’s fabrics. She is always cutting out shapes and they glue them to paper making quilt designs. What a wonderful way Judy is instilling in her granddaughter an appreciation of quilts and maybe an understanding of why her grandmother loves to sew.

It is no secret to quilters that children can learn much from the process of quilting. We have heard of teachers incorporating the making of quilts into the curriculum to teach subjects such as math, social studies, reading and writing. I think we, however, just want to share what we love. The Sisters of the Cloth quilt guild in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, has a wonderful motto: Each one teach one. Maybe that’s what we should all aspire to do especially with children. Just imagine all of the new little sewers we can create.

Posted on September 24, 2014July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 7 Comments

Teaching Children to Sew

I don’t remember learning to sew. It is something I have always done. I don’t remember learning to thread a needle or making a knot or taking a first stitch. I do remember sitting in a grocery store at age 5, waiting for my mother to shop and knitting. I only remember that because people were amazed that this small child was knitting. I don’t remember learning to knit either.

What children are exposed to at an early age, even if they are not adept, they still feel they “know how to do it.”

My granddaughter at age five likes to sew. She probably won’t remember learning because it is just something she knows. When she was just a baby she was fascinated watching me stitch. Then one day at age 10 months I saw her pick up two of my patches and rub them next to each other like she was sewing. A few months later crawling across the kitchen floor, she found a needle I had dropped. She held it carefully in her hand, crawled over to me and said “Here you go, Grandma”.

She was two when I had her “help me sew”. I would start a stitch and have her pull the needle through. I was using my tiny betweens 11 needle and a single thread and I showed her how to close her hand over the thread as she pulled so the needle wouldn’t come unthreaded.

At age three and a half she was cutting with small scissors. I remember one day the baby sitter came and saw her with the scissors and quickly took them away saying those were for grownups. She got huge crocodile tears and her feelings were so hurt. She said, “But I can sew. I’m a good sewer, and I can cut carefully with scissors”.

Every time I go to visit, I have a sewing project with me and Polly always asks if she can help. Mostly I’ve been working with diamonds and I give her some to sew together. The last time I went I had squares. She said, “But I like sewing with diamonds. They are easier to sew than squares.”

She has figured some things out on her own. For instance, she has a hard time putting the needle in and pulling it back out and she figured that if she pinched the fabric she could put the needle through and get her in-out stitch at one time.

September is National Sewing Month and it has had me thinking about what starts us sewing and what we can do to pass it on. In next week’s blog, I’ll share with you how those around me are helping spread their love of sewing. I’d love to hear from you about how you have sparked that interest in children: studio@jinnybeyer.com.

Posted on August 27, 2014July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 1 Comment

Fabric…It’s Not Just for Quilts

Jinny is quite busy with a top secret project this week (you’ll have to wait to hear what it is) so the staff is giving her a break and taking over the blog. Since there is no way we can impart quilting advice better than Jinny, we thought we’d show you something a little different—some alternate uses of Jinny’s fabulous fabric.

To be sure, nearly everyone who steps through the door of the Studio is here to buy something for their latest quilting project. Occasionally, a purchase is made for home decorating like curtains, napkins, tablecloths, and such. Large triangles from border prints make wonderful pillows. Why, we even have a border print running around the wall like a chair rail in our bathroom. One of the most fun “other” uses of Jinny’s fabric has to be when we see them in garments. Now we know you are thinking of those jackets we’ve all made which basically look like we’re wearing our quilts. While they are cute, what we’re talking about are garments which, at first glance, you would never think used quilting fabric.

Louanne G. from Taylor, Texas wrote to us a while back telling us how her husband loves Jinny’s border prints so Louanne uses them to make his Western shirts. Aussie quilter Esther A. used an Ambrosia fabric to make one of her fun Hawaiian-style shirts.

Since fellow staffers spend many hours surrounded by fabric, they can come up with lots of unique ideas. Kristi has been making dresses for her granddaughter Lorelai since she was a baby. The dresses are precious but can’t outshine such a beautiful model.

When Linda’s grandson Andy was a baby, she made him this cute little jacket with Monochrome fabrics. Proving that her sewing skills were not just for the young, she made her very dapper dad (who’s in his 90’s), a shirt using the Pacific Rim line.

Some of the most amazing clothing, though, comes from our youngest staffer, Dana. Dana has a background in fashion design. A graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, she originally learned to sew by quilting with her grandmother. She does make quilts but her real passion is clothing. She has found a unique way to mix and match some of Jinny’s different collections to showcase her unique style. She says, “Cotton can be a really fun fabric to work with. Although it is not ideal for pieces that need to breathe like pants, it works great for skirts and children’s clothing. It is easy to sew and the range of color and print possibilities is endless.”

So next time you stop by the Studio or your local quilt shop, we hope you’ll look at the fabric in a different light.

Posted on July 16, 2014July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 5 Comments

Nothing Lasts Forever

Nothing lasts forever and no matter how carefully we plan, we eventually run out of a border print used in a favorite quilt design. When that happens, I am faced with the challenge of replacing it with a current fabric. When we update kits, we’ve already done the calculations for you. But what happens if you have an old pattern of mine, you want to use a new border print and you have to figure it out? Let’s take a look at how to replace one border print for another. Sometimes the switch is easy. Some quilts, however, require a little more consideration.

Summer Lily with the original border and the new border.

We recently used up the last bolt of one of our favorite border prints, a lovely teal and blue print that complimented several quilt designs. It was featured on two quilts, Shimmering Sea and Kinabalu in the Ocean colorway. The quilts are very similar in construction style but the symmetry and use of border print are very different. Planning the substitute border print for these two quilts shows just how easy or complex this process can be.

I selected the teal colorway of the Ashford border print. The color balance and flavor were very much the same; both teal and blue with curves and flourishes, but there are a few key differences that I had to take into account when making the switch.

Value: A darker or lighter background behind a print will change the overall value of the border print.
Repeat: The width of the border stripes and the distance between the mirrored elements can change the yardage required to piece the quilt.
Layout: Each of my border prints has a filler strip between the wide and narrow stripes to allow for a ¼ inch seam allowance for each strips. This section is either solid or filled with additional design.

Now, let’s take a look at the two quilts.

Shimmering Sea, does not use the border print in the block. It simply frames the assembled blocks to highlight the rich, jewel tones. The Ashford Border Print is slightly lighter than the original fabric and is slightly narrower. The lighter border print changes the balance of the quilt but requires nothing more than swapping one for the other. The final quilt is slightly smaller and the overall effect is similar.

The Ocean colorway of Kinabalu is another story. In addition to the framing stripes, the border print is used in the block design, fussy cut and filling the corner of each block to accentuate the curved illusion. The 36 blocks require 36 identical triangles cut from the wide section of the border print. The design repeat in this print is 12” between identical images rather than the 9” in the previous border print and the stripe is not wide enough to cut two, point to point one above the other, from each repeat. I can only cut 3 of these identical triangles from each running yard of border stripe. Yikes! That is only 18 triangles per yard of fabric. That yardage adds up quickly and leaves excess waste behind.

By using both mirror images, I can eliminate a good portion of that waste and drop the yardage bock down to a reasonable amount. The triangles from Position 1 will be used in the blocks where the triangles will touch and form a larger mirrored image (see diagram). Triangles cut using position 2 are for the remaining blocks where they will not touch those from Position 1. The variation in triangle design will add to the movement in the quilt design.

Here is what those changes look like in the finished quilt:

You can use this approach in any of my quilt designs that use a border print. Each of the border prints currently in stock has the width and repeat information available. Just click on the small fabric image on our website to view the enlarged fabric with the design information attached (see image below). Calculate the amount you will need for the framing borders by following the pattern and then map out any additional border print you might need to include in the blocks.

Is there a pattern on our website where you would like to change the border or color? This is your chance to play around, experiment and have fun!

Posted on May 21, 2014July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 8 Comments

A Peek at Spring Quilt Market

International Quilt Market Pittsburgh 2014

If you are in the quilt business, you know to save a few days each May for the Spring Quilt Market. This industry trade show gives me the opportunity to meet shop owners and show them my new fabrics and quilt designs. As a shop owner myself, I’m able to meet the vendors with whom I do business, to discover new products to carry in the Studio, to see old friends and make new ones.

Before market begins is something called “Schoolhouse” where manufacturers, publishers and designers like me get to present our latest products. Shop owners can hear first-hand about the merchandise they will be selling from the people who created them. I spoke about my Palette Pixie Strips and their accompanying quilts, my new calipers and, most exciting, my next fabric collection, Bedfordshire.

market schoolhouse — Upcoming Collection for 2014 – Bedfordshire

Once Market begins, retailers have the opportunity to visit hundreds of booths with every kind of product which could possibly be of interest to quilters. I shopped for interesting patterns and new notions to carry in the Studio and online. Much of my time, though, is spent in the RJR booth meeting shop owners and learning about their customers’ interests.

marketrjr2 — How do you like the quilt in the middle? You get a sneak peek at the quilt I designed for my Bedfordshire collection.

What I probably enjoy most are the wonderful people I get to meet, those whose products I sell (and use!) and other designers.

market people photo — Top left: Audrey Brendel of Pin Peddlers
Top right: Jenny Doan of The Missouri Star Quilt Company
Lower left: Kathy Thompson of Quilters Dream
Lower right: Eleanor Burns

Of course, one of my favorite things to do is looking at all the quilts. Even though I have been designing fabric for many years, I still get a thrill when I come across quilts in other booths which have my fabrics in them. Here are two I spotted. Didn’t these quilters do a wonderful job?

quilts from market — Gayle Ropp of Backroom Quilter, Twelve Days of Baltimore by Pearl Pereira – quilted by Karen Marchetti

Inspiring. That’s the word I would use to sum up Market. The room was filled with a creative spirit. Handwork seems to be celebrating a resurgence. It was exciting to see this interest in a skill you and I have loved for years.

Also, I was so encouraged to see the number of young people there who have entered the business presenting their designs and products. They give the industry a sense of vitality and reminded that quilting should be FUN. Yes, market is always inspiring and I’ve brought back some new products and ideas I can’t wait to share with you in the coming months.

Posted on February 12, 2014July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer

Jinny’s Lapis & Jade quilt featured in McCall’s Quilting magazine

Lapis & Jade is a new Jinny Beyer quilt featured in the March/April 2014 issue of McCall’s Quilting magazine.

The quilt features the batik fabrics from Jinny’s Malam collection, artfully shaded in diamond blocks. Kits are available exclusively from Jinny Beyer Studio.

Photo courtesy of McCall’s Quilting magazine.

Posted on October 3, 2013July 29, 2022 by Jinny Beyer — 5 Comments

My Journey to Indonesia

I recently returned from a fabulous trip to Indonesia. The trip was in two parts. First I visited the company in Solo that is printing my batik collections. I was able to see the entire process from start to finish. Everything is done by hand and it is amazing to watch the process. I came away in awe that we pay so little per yard for the amount of labor that goes into each pattern.

The second part of my journey was spent in Bali. Jim West the founder of the tour company “Sew Many Places” asked me to be the guest quilter on his Bali tour. It was spectacular. Jim certainly knows how to run a tour. We stayed in a first class resort and took day trips from there. We did lots of sight seeing, sewing and eating the delicious Indonesian food! Here are a few photos I’d like to share from my trip.

Did you know?

Indonesia is made up of a series of islands. Each Island has it own language and many sub languages and dialects. In fact there are more than 700 living languages spoken in the country. Other than Indonesian (the official language) the next most used is Javanese and then Sudanese.
The art of batik making in Indonesia was developed on the island of Java. When selecting the name for my batik collection, I chose the word malam, the Javanese word for wax. This was confusing to some people because malam is also a word in the Indonesian language that means night.
In the process of batik making:

The cloth is dyed one or more colors.
Next the cap (pronounced chop) is dipped into melted wax and then pressed onto the fabric. The cap is made from copper and it takes anywhere from 10 days to a month to create the cap.
After the wax is stamped onto the fabric, the cloth is bleached. The places where there is wax will not bleach and will retain the color of the original dye.
Then the cloth is again dyed the desired color for the background to the cap design.
The fabric is then boiled to melt and remove the wax.
Finally it will be sent to the “finishing” facility to go through the process of setting the dyes.
The cloth is dyed one or more colors.

Happy Quilting!