Posted on 13 Comments

Staff Profile- Linda

lindas photo updatedWhile the Studio bears my name, it is pretty obvious that it takes a number of people to keep it running. I am blessed with a wonderful staff that carries on the day to day operations. They allow me to focus on designing and teaching, yet I seem to get a lot of the credit for what happens behind the scenes. I want to take the opportunity to focus on my amazing staff by occasionally doing profiles to give them the recognition they so deserve.  For the first profile, I couldn’t think of anyone better to start with than Linda Marcinowski.

Linda has been on staff at the Studio longer than anyone else, having started in the summer of 2002. Many of you have been greeted by her friendly smile and welcome along with her remarkable memory for customers’ names and their stories. While Linda learned to sew clothing from her grandmother when she was only seven years old, it wasn’t until years later, in 1998, that she took up quilting. As an Army wife, she was invited to a welcome coffee and joined a quilt group headed by the general’s wife. Linda taught herself to quilt to keep up with the others in the group. Jinny’s techniques were her favorites and she had learned much from Jinny’s books. Once her children were grown, Linda needed something to do, and started working at the Studio.

Linda with Sunset Walk and Four Seasons
Linda with Sunset Walk and Four Seasons, both Studio designs

Linda, having started when the brick and mortar shop was fairly new and the business was smaller, has done just about everything. She worked on the newsletter, made shop samples, set up booths for quilt shows, been a member of the seminar staff, and even became certified in thimble fitter in 2005.

Wonderful One Fabric Quilt and Coventry, both Jinny Beyer Designs
Linda with her Wonderful One Fabric Quilt and Coventry in both colorways!

What she enjoys most, though, is meeting the customers, seeing what they are working on, and helping them with their projects. She says, “It makes my day. I love the amazing, different people I meet and the stories they tell.” One of her favorite things to do is play with Jinny’s border prints, figuring out more and more things to create with them.

Linda at cutting tableHaving been a military wife for many years and the travel it entails and now with her two daughters married, you may think that Linda and her husband lead a quiet life. Two years ago, her adorable little grandson, Andy, came into their lives and now there is a granddaughter due within the next couple of weeks. “Oma” Linda doesn’t have the quilting time she once did.

Linda & Andy
Linda & Andy

Stop by to meet Linda and the rest of my fabulous staff this summer. We have new fabrics arriving, exciting classes, and we’ll be participating in the Row by Row Experience shop hop.

Posted on 8 Comments

A Peek at Spring Quilt Market

International Quilt Market Pittsburgh 2014
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 1 Comment

Me & Heartbleed

heartbleedAlthough I use a computer all the time when designing my fabrics and quilts, my staff will be the first to tell you that I’m not really a very technical person. So all the chatter about the Heartbleed bug on the internet had me confused and concerned.

Fortunately, I have very good technical people working for me and they were able help me understand what was going on AND take care of the issue quickly. I thought you might be interested in what I learned:

1) Heartbleed is the name given to a bug in a key piece of internet security software that about two-third of websites use — including jinnybeyer.com.

2) The bug was discovered BEFORE any known attacks were made taking advantage of that bug.

3) Most banks and financial services companies, and some super-big online stores such as Amazon, were never vulnerable to Heartbleed.

4) The bug is relatively easy to fix.  Many large websites (such as Google) have already made their fixes. We made the fix to jinnybeyer.com last week, on April 11. I knew that we do not store credit card information on our website and was relieved to learn that the company which takes care of that for us was never vulnerable to Heartbleed.

5) Some security experts are suggesting changing passwords on websites once the fix has been made to that site. As a result, we are suggesting to customers who have accounts on jinnybeyer.com that they change their passwords.  If you have an account on jinnybeyer.com, you can change the password here.  And I guess I’ll be changing passwords on some of my favorite websites, too!

I love what technology brings to my quilting world, and I’ve certainly done my share of shopping online. But I really do wish that we could somehow get only the good from the internet and not all the negative possibilities.  That being said, I am grateful to my crack staff who keeps me in the know on these issues and to the people and companies I rely on to keep our website running safely and reliably.

Posted on 2 Comments

Yesterday, Today, & Temari

I have an incredible group of people who work at the Studio. It is always hard to find suitable ways to tell them thank you for all they do. It is particularly hard at holiday time to come up with an unusual gift.

photo 2

Last fall, my husband’s college roommate and his wife came for a visit and stayed with us for a few days. The woman loved my quilting and shared that she was a temari ball maker. She brought up several web sites and showed me photos of balls she has made.

How could a quilter not be enthralled with these amazing geometric pieces of art? I was definitely intrigued. I went to Quilt Market in Houston shortly after their visit and my publisher had a couple of temari ball books written by a well known temari ball maker, Barbara Suess.

IMG_0248

Bottom line, I decided to invite Barbara to come teach at my shop for two days. One day would be for the general public and the other day would be a special workshop for all my staff. I decided that this would be a perfect Christmas present. So when we had our holiday staff dinner, I presented them with Barbara’s book, Japanese Temari, gave them a Yazzi bag to house their Temari project and told them the date of the workshop.

IMG_0240

We had the workshop last week and it was fabulous! Barbara and her two protégés were wonderful instructors.  Starting with a knee-high stocking filled with rice hulls, the wrapping then began, with yarn first followed by thread. Soon the design took form with colorful perle cotton. Kristi finished her ball first and I made the biggest mess. We all had a great time and each of us produced a beautiful temari ball.

IMG_0249

If you have made any of my patchwork puzzle balls you will definitely be intrigued by these.

Posted on 88 Comments

Welcome to My Blog

I’m so excited to launch my blog, Jinny’s Corner!  Each week we’ll share news, tips and techniques, stories and other quilting-related information.  I hope you’ll visit here often.

photo (23)

Since this is a new feature, I thought I would answer some questions that you might be asking.

Can I receive new posts via email? Yes! To receive links to new Jinny’s Corner blog posts, just provide your email address in the box at the right on the blog home page. Each time we publish a new post, you’ll get an emailed link. It’s that easy.

You can also add our RSS blog feed to Live Bookmarks, MyYahoo, MyGoogle, MyMSN, Google Reader, etc. by clicking on the Subscribe to our Feed box at the right on the home page.

What if I have questions or comments on a particular post? We’d love to hear from you! Please leave us your comments in the box provided at the end of each post.

Can I catch up on posts I’ve missed?  Yes! A list of recent posts and complete blog Archives can be found at the right on the blog home page.

I hope you enjoy my blog. Please let me know what you think, and if there’s any particular quilting topic you’d like to read about.

My studio in historic Great Falls, Virginia
My studio in historic Great Falls, Virginia

Happy Quilting!

Jinny Beyer blog