Jo Avery's bright and brilliant improv quilts

November 11, 2025

In addition to the many, many quilts on display at the Festival of Quilts there’s also galleries dotted around the exhibition space, and one of my favourites was Jo Avery’s Textile Gallery. I love her brightly coloured bold quilts and it was great to see them up close and first hand.

The gallery was in celebration of Jo’s new book - Journey to the Centre of a Quilter in which she shares her inspiration and the importance of play. I don’t have the book, but it’s definitely a contender for my Christmas List - though I’m under no illusion that my quilts would ever be as fabulous as these, though I think they’d have their own level of fabulousness!

JO AVERY’S TEXTILE GALLERY, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

Even in these smaller spaces the walls were loaded with quilts, and it was hard to know where to look, or where to start but my feet led me to those that most appealed to me, funny how that happens when our brains aren’t sure isn’t it?

What caught my eye about the quilt above is the detail in the quilting, which stands out with the light thread on the dark background. And then looking at the main motif, and seeing the amount of detail there too. Totally mind blown.

I loved the improv quilt below, and then loved it even more when I saw it was called Jukebox.

JUKEBOX, JO AVERY’S TEXTILE GALLERY, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

But again the detail is mind blowing, and the size of this one - it’s 142cm by 217cm - and actually reminds me of a jukebox we had in our childhood home, which was I’m sure, equally as big.

What Jo’s quilts made me realise was how simple shapes repeated can be so effective, and look anything but simple as the quilts above and below both demonstrate.

And when those shapes are repeated and mixed with other shapes such as the houses or the wavy landscapes below, they become something truly fantastic.

POPLARS, JO AVERY’S TEXTILE GALLERY, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

This one brought me straight back to that time I tried quilting in a circle, which was one of the most stressful quilting sessions I’ve had so far, but this one makes me want to try again. Though on a much smaller scale!

What I also liked is how Jo’s style of quilting also works for flower shapes, and this Dream Flower quilt below is stunning in its boldness - I’d say simplicity, but there is nothing simple about the detail here, as each petal contains a different improv pieced or organic applique pattern.

DREAM FLOWER, JO AVERY’S TEXTILE GALLERY, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

The last quilt I’m sharing here today is this Giant Trilobite (which are extinct marine arthropods - I just had to Google it) and once again it features the bright colours, the circles and more improv pieced and needle-turn applique patterned segments.

GIANT TRILOBITE, JO AVERY’S TEXTILE GALLERY, FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2025

Aren’t they all amazing?

If you enjoyed this post from my visit to the Festival of Quilts 2025 then please do check out my other posts from the show. Even though my mind was blown by the sheer volume of quilts on display, I’m pretty sure I’ll be going again!

Additions and acquisitions to my craft room this October

November 5, 2025

With crafting now seemingly part of my everyday life I think it’s true that buying, or acquiring, new supplies is a separate hobby to actually using them. And while I have plans to start using much of my stash it’s likely that there will always be new things entering the room.

My crafting outputs have definitely increased - you’ll have seen posts on my newly put into practice skills proclaiming my pouch love, and the updates to my quilty plans, and the accountability these posts bring is good, and that’s where this series of posts comes in. I’ll share the new things that have crossed the craft room threshold in the last month. Some months will be leaner than others, and some of the things I'll share I may have already been included in other posts on my blog.

Last month I said I wanted to make more clothes, and planned to start making some culottes. After a conversation at my Monday night sewing group where one lady asked if I had an invisible zipper foot - I don’t! - I set about ordering myself one. After a bit of a delay, it was due by the end of October but still hasn’t arrived yet - and is now due hopefully by the middle of December, so it looks like the culottes will either be a just-before-Christmas thing, or a next-year-thing.

While I’m on last month, I’ve already repurposed my old and much loved Joules t-shirt has into a new project bag, which is already in use. I used material from another top I loved as the lining, and it’s currently holding material for another project I haven’t told you about yet (but all in good time!).

last month it was a t-shirt, this month it's a project bag - and in use

Knowledge and truth

Probably the most valuable addition this month is my increased knowledge and confidence following my Bernina training day in London. It really was worth the time, and I’ve made a few changes to my set-up since then which have really helped me. So if you get a new machine and are offered training on it definitely take it up, and if it’s offered when you collect your machine and you think that might be too soon for you, then ask if it can be deferred.

The notes and one of the samples from my Bernina training course

And the truth? Well, I think I’m a Fabricologist.

But I think I love that - and I definitely love this greeting card which I picked up at the Festival of Quilts back in the summer, and have now framed. I can’t decide exactly where to hang this, so instead I have it propped up against a jar of ribbons where I can see it, and it makes me smile every time I do.

A Fabricologist greeting card framed - the definition is: A dedicated quilter with a key eye for patterns and a passion for collecting a vast fabric stash. Always ready to transform fabric into beautiful creations.

Learning from a fail

Despite my newfound knowledge I still had a spectacular fail when switching between my Bernina and my ‘take to’ machine, and worse is I knew it could happen and yet it still did! The smaller subsets of this block were sewn on my Bernina with a patchwork foot, when I assembled the complete block I used my ‘take to’ machine which didn’t.

A badly sewn and mismatched seams 'basket' block, that isn't even square

Which as you can see meant my seams were out - by quite a lot! I even reminded myself mentally before I started of this potential issue, but carried on regardless happily sewing a very mismatched block. It’s the first time that I’ve decided to completely abandon a block, but it was probably easiest - thankfully as you’ll have seen the replacement block turned out ok.

To avoid restarting blocks becoming a regular occurrence I decided to get myself a 1/4” foot for my ‘take to’ machine - and it seems my timing was ok after all, as this was in the sale and cost me less than a tenner. I think it will be money well spent!

The new patchwork foot on my 'take to' machine - which should prevent more badly sewn blocks

Fuelling my Fabricologist

I do like a stash sale, and follow a few people on Instagram who do this occasionally. I was pleased to spot a ‘low volume’ stash sale taking place, as buying low volume fabrics isn’t my forte. I’m drawn to the bright and bold colours more naturally, but I know that not everything can be bright and bold…

These are gorgeous though aren’t they? I’m hoping that the two silver/grey and white fat quarters on the right will work well with the various grey fabrics I’ve been collecting for my extended Floral Fancy panels, when I get to them. I have no immediate plans for the other fat quarters but at around twenty pounds I was pleased to get these, and I’ll have them for when the perfect project turns up, which I’m sure it will.

I also had a bit of a splurge on these Spread the Word fat quarters which I spotted in one of the Sew Hot newsletters, I was even more pleased to spot in a subsequent newsletter that these were included in the 20% off sale. When I saw them initially I was struggling to choose between them and with the reduced price I decided to have the full bundle, which with postage was around £35. I’m fascinated by words, and so words on material is a no brainer for me - these are likely to be admired for a little time before they actually get used, but we’ll see.

It’s on the wall!

Huge progress - the Vogue pattern pages picture is now on the wall, and looking fab. I’m really happy with how they were framed, and even happier to get them on the wall where they can be admired every day.

So that’s a wander through the new things in my craft room this past month - I’m off to the Knit and Stitch Show in Harrogate later in November and I’m looking forward to seeing the quilts there, and checking out what the suppliers have that I can’t live without.

Check out my previous updates for other additions and acquisitions, and let me know below what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.

Celebrating flora in the Gargano Peninsula

October 30, 2025

One of the features and highlights across all of our walks exploring (a very small part of) the Gargano Peninsula was the flora we encountered along the way. In my posts from each walk I’ve shared some of that, but I’ve so much more to share and that’s what I’m going to touch on today. I’ve picked my absolute favourite photos from many, many more and while I don’t necessarily know what every plant is, I know they are all beautiful, sometimes quite different ways.

You’ll not be surprised to learn that the majority of my photos, and those in this post, come from the most challenging walk of the holiday - the one where we went down, up and up some more! But as hard as I found the walk, especially the last of the ups and I absolutely wouldn’t want to do it again, it was also amazing and I’m glad we did it. I’m even more glad we completed it before the rain came!

A sharp spiky thistle with purple flower you wouldn't want to mess with

possibly fennel seedheads - lime green and complete with a bug or two

The hardy Cistus growing amongst rocks, but still flowering (just one mind!)

Two pine cones among the bare branches, all greyed with the weather and silver lichen

A great big puff ball of a plant - think at least 3 times the size of a dandelion

Honeysuck with its delicate dancing trendils

But it wasn’t just that walk, as we walked back down to the coast the next day these lilies growing alongside the roadside were stunning, as were the hibiscus growing through another wire mesh fence much later in the day.

A mass of white lilies behind a mesh fence, not sure if that's for their safety or mine!

Another mesh fence, this time with a possibly hibiscus flowering through it - yellow flowers and long scarlet tendrils

Our last hotel also had impressive grounds, and glorious plants including long time favourites of mine, the passion flower and red hot pokers.

five stems of red hot poker flowers with a spikier than usual looking base

A pale blue head of a flower, not a hydrangea but that kind of shape

The scent too as we left the main complex and walked back to our room was absolutely divine. It’s true that many things make a great holiday, and this had everything we could have wanted, so if you get the chance to explore for yourself then most definitely go.