Jinny Beyer

Last updated

Jinny Beyer
Born
Geraldine Elizabeth Kahle Beyer

(1941-07-27) July 27, 1941 (age 83)
Denver, Colorado, United States
Occupations
  • Quilter
  • Quilt designer
  • Author
  • Lecturer
  • Teacher
Years active1972–present
Spouse
John Beyer
​
(m. 1962)​
Children3

Geraldine Elizabeth Kahle Beyer (born July 27, 1941) is an American quilt designer, quilter, author, teacher and lecturer. Considered by the quilting industry and the publishing media to be of the first designers to form a fabric collection suited to the needs of quilters, she began her career in India after she had run out of yarn. Beyer's works have won awards in the print media, and she has written about the history of quilting and her techniques. She has designed collections for fabric companies and has taught and lectured on the subject domestically and internationally. Beyer was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame in 1984.

Contents

Early life

Beyer was born in Denver, Colorado on July 27, 1941, [1] to artist Polly Kahle and has three sisters. [2] The family later moved to California, and she was taught knitting and sewing by her mother from an early age. Beyer graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and French in 1962, and earned a Master of Arts degree from Boston University in special education. After she left Boston University, Beyer offered to volunteer for the Malaysian Department of Education. She commenced a program for the deaf in Kuching, Sarawak with help from the department. [2]

Quilting career

In 1972, while residing in India after spells in Borneo, Nepal and South America, [2] she sought a new project after she had run out of yarn. [1] Beyer was given a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt pattern, [2] and cut her first quilt into 600 hexagons of Indian fabrics in the colors dark blue and deep red. [2] [3] Upon returning to the United States, she learned quilting on the top and binding; Beyer was unable to locate another quilter before she came across a meeting held by Hazel Carter near her residence, and showed them a navy-colored Indian Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top, which they praised. Carter encouraged Beyer to enter the 1976 Quilter's Newsletter Magazine's Bicentennial Quilt Contest, which she won with her red, white, and blue Bicentennial Quilt. [2] The victory launched her career. [1]

She entered Good Housekeeping 's 1978 Great American Quilt Contest, and earned national recognition with her first prize victory with her hand-pieced Ray of Light quilt that had American and batik prints. Beyer took ten consecutive months to complete the quilt. [2] She authored her first book, Patchwork Patterns, in 1979 and specialized in drafting techniques. [1] Beyer's second book, The Quilter's Album of Blocks and Borders, [4] in 1980 rationalizes a system proposed by a small number of individuals of eight patterns, [5] and featured 532 pieced block designs and 212 border designs. [4] She wrote a third book, The Quilter's Album of Blocks and Borders, in 1982 to inspire others to produce their own quilt designs. [2] Other books that Beyer authored on the history of quilting and techniques include Medallion Quilts in 1982, The Scrap Look in 1985, Color Confidence for Quilters in 1992, Soft-Edge Piecing in 1995, Designing Tessellations in 1999, Quiltmaking by Hand: Simple Stitches, Exquisite Quilts in 2004, Patchwork Puzzle Balls in 2005, [1] [2] the encyclopedic The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns,:More than 4050 Pieced Blocks for Quilters in 2009 by Breckling Press, [4] and The Golden Album Quilt in 2010. [2]

She was the first quilter to have her independent line of fabrics after she began designing for V.I.P. by Cranston fabric, [2] and introduced the Jinny Beyer Collection for RJR Fabrics in 1985. [3] Beyer had designed more than 2,000 fabrics by 2000, and averaging four to six collections every year. [1] She filmed three videos on quilting between 1987 and 1991, [1] and works as a teacher locally and internationally in countries such as Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada, and Iceland. She ran the Jinny Beyer Seminar on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina from 1981 to 2009, and lectured at an artist and mathematics convention in Stockholm on symmetry in 2000. Beyer was invited to teach at an Australian quilt seminar from 2010 to 2015 and in Ukraine for three years. She also appeared on internet and HGTV television programs to share her methodology and her color and designs to a wider audience. [2]

Personal life

She was married to John Beyer in 1962 until his death in 2020. The couple had two sons (Sean and Darren) and one daughter (Kiran) from the marriage. Beyer is an avid gardener, plays the sitar, takes parts in debates, and took up running at the age of 40. [2]

Impact

Encyclopædia Britannica and RJR Fabrics credited her for being one of the first designers to form a fabric collection suited to the needs of quilters. [1] [3] Beyer uses high-technology computer programs to produce new designs, [6] and used color shading techniques; [3] she told her students to eschew this method in favor by doing their designs by hand as much as possible. [6] She was inspired by Indian designs and fabric, [6]

She was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame in 1984 to honor her "outstanding contributions to the world of quilting". [1] [3] In 1995, Beyer was made a recipient of the annual Silver Star Award at the International Quilt Festival "to honor a person who is active in the quilt world today, and whose work presents a lasting influence on today's quilting and the future of the art", and the International Quilt Market named her the winner of the Michael Kile Award of Achievement to recognize her "commitment to creativity and excellence in the quilting industry" the following year. [2] Her Ray of Light quilt was selected as one of Quilter's Newsletter's "100 Best American Quilts of the 20th Century" in 1999, [3] and readers of American Quilter's Society magazine named her its "American Quilter" in mid-2004. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quilting</span> Process of sewing layers of fabric together to make a padded material

Quilting is the process of joining a minimum of three layers of fabric together either through stitching manually using a needle and thread, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting system. An array of stitches is passed through all layers of the fabric to create a three-dimensional padded surface. The three layers are typically referred to as the top fabric or quilt top, batting or insulating material, and the backing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patchwork</span> Needlework with fabric pieces sewn together

Patchwork or "pieced work" is a form of needlework that involves sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design. The larger design is usually based on repeating patterns built up with different fabric shapes. These shapes are carefully measured and cut, basic geometric shapes making them easy to piece together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quilt</span> Bedcover made of multiple layers of fabric

A quilt is a multi-layered textile, traditionally composed of two or more layers of fabric or fiber. Commonly three layers are used with a filler material. These layers traditionally include a woven cloth top, a layer of batting or wadding, and a woven back combined using the techniques of quilting. This is the process of sewing on the face of the fabric, and not just the edges, to combine the three layers together to reinforce the material. Stitching patterns can be a decorative element. A single piece of fabric can be used for the top of a quilt, but in many cases the top is created from smaller fabric pieces joined, or patchwork. The pattern and color of these pieces creates the design. Quilts may contain valuable historical information about their creators, "visualizing particular segments of history in tangible, textured ways".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appliqué</span> Piece of textile ornament, or work created by applying such ornaments to a ground fabric

Appliqué is ornamental needlework in which pieces or patches of fabric in different shapes and patterns are sewn or stuck onto a larger piece to form a picture or pattern. It is commonly used as decoration, especially on garments. The technique is accomplished either by hand stitching or machine. Appliqué is commonly practised with textiles, but the term may be applied to similar techniques used on different materials. In the context of ceramics, for example, an appliqué is a separate piece of clay added to the primary work, generally for the purpose of decoration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patchwork quilt</span> Quilt with a design of pieces of fabric

A patchwork quilt is a quilt in which the top layer may consist of pieces of fabric sewn together to form a design. Originally, this was to make full use of leftover scraps of fabric, but now fabric is often bought specially for a specific design. Fabrics are now often sold in quarter meters. A "fat quarter" is one square meter folded into four and cut along the folds, thus giving a relatively square piece of fabric 50 cm on a side, as opposed to buying a quarter of a meter off the roll, resulting in a long thin piece that is only 25 cm wide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bargello (needlework)</span> Embroidery worked with vertical stitches offset to form a zigzag or similar geometric design

Bargello is a type of needlepoint embroidery consisting of upright flat stitches laid in a mathematical pattern to create motifs. The name originates from a series of chairs found in the Bargello palace in Florence, which have a "flame stitch" pattern.

Frank Havrah "Kaffe" Fassett, MBE is an American-born, British-based artist who is best known for his colourful designs in the decorative arts—needlepoint, patchwork, knitting, painting and ceramics. While still a child, Fassett renamed himself after an Egyptian boy character from the book Boy of the Pyramid by Ruth Fosdick Jones. His name rhymes with 'safe asset'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of quilting</span>

The history of quilting, the stitching together of layers of padding and fabric, may date back as far as 3400 BCE. For much of its history, quilting was primarily a practical technique to provide physical protection and insulation. However, decorative elements were often also present, and many quilts are now primarily art pieces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Textile design</span> Creation of designs for the manufacturing of woven, knitted or printed fabrics

Textile design, also known as textile geometry, is the creative and technical process by which thread or yarn fibers are interlaced to form a piece of cloth or fabric, which is subsequently printed upon or otherwise adorned. Textile design is further broken down into three major disciplines: printed textile design, woven textile design, and mixed media textile design. Each uses different methods to produce a fabric for variable uses and markets. Textile design as an industry is involved in other disciplines such as fashion, interior design, and fine arts.

Marie Daugherty Webster was a quilt designer, quilt producer, and businesswoman, as well as a lecturer and author of Quilts, Their Story, and How to Make Them (1915), the first American book about the history of quilting, reprinted many times since. She also ran the Practical Patchwork Company, a quilt pattern-making business from her home in Wabash, Indiana, for more than thirty years. Webster's appliquéd quilts influenced modern quilting designs of the early twentieth century. Her quilts have been featured in museums and gallery exhibition in the United States and Japan. The Indianapolis Museum of Art holds the largest collection of her quilts in the United States. Webster was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame in 1991. The Marie Webster House, her former residence in Marion, Indiana, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993, and serves as the present-day home of the Quilters Hall of Fame.

Quilt art, sometimes known as art quilting, mixed media art quilts or fiber art quilts, is an art form that uses both modern and traditional quilting techniques to create art objects. Practitioners of quilt art create it based on their experiences, imagery, and ideas, rather than traditional patterns. Quilt art is typically hung or mounted.

In patchwork, foundation piecing was originally a method used to stabilize pieces of fabric that were stitched together. It first became popular in the 18th and 19th centuries in England, although a 15th-century Italian piece, the Impruneta cushion owned by Antonio degli Agli, may have used foundation piecing. A similar process popular in Britain is English paper piecing.

Mimi Dietrich is an American quilter, quilting instructor, author of 17 books about quilting and a member of the Quilter's Hall of Fame. A lifelong resident of Maryland, she lives in the Baltimore County community of Catonsville. Her first book, Happy Endings: Finishing the Edges of Your Quilts, was originally published in 1987. Her books and workshops focus mainly on applique techniques and Baltimore Album Quilts. In total, her books have sold over a half million copies.

The Hat and Fragrance Textile Gallery is an exhibit space at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont which houses quilts, hatboxes, and various other textiles. The name "Hat and Fragrance" refers both to Electra Havemeyer Webb's collection of hatboxes and to the fragrant, herbal sachets used to preserve textiles. In 1954, Shelburne Museum was the first museum to exhibit quilts as works of art; prior to this exhibition quilts were only shown as accessories in historic houses.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese patchwork</span> Traditional Chinese patchwork

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Cecelia Tapplette Pedescleaux, also known as Cely, is an African-American quilter of traditional and art quilts, inspired by historians, other African-American quilters, and quilt designs used during the Underground Railroad to communicate messages to slaves seeking freedom. Her quilts have been shown in China, France, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and in other locations in the United States. A solo show of 75 of her quilts were shown at the Le Musée de Free People of Color in New Orleans (2013–2014).

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan McCord</span> American quilter

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Maria Horner</span> American painter

Anna Maria Horner is an artist, author and fabric designer in Nashville, Tennessee, known for her colorful fabric designs, quilts, and sewing patterns. In addition to teaching classes and selling items globally under her namesake brand, she has written several books about sewing, quilting, and needlework. Horner has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and been featured in Better Homes and Gardens. In May 2015 she opened Craft South, a craft store and studio in Nashville.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Joan Brick, Cindy. "Jinny Beyer". Encyclopædia Britannica . Archived from the original on July 30, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Meyer, Suellen (1984). "Jinny Beyer". Quilters Hall of Fame. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Jinny Beyer". RJR Fabrics. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 Quinlan, N. J. (February 2010). "Beyer, Jinny. The quilter's album of patchwork patterns: more than 4,050 pieced blocks for quilters" . CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries . 47 (6): 1036. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2020– via Gale In Context: Biography.
  5. ↑ Forrest, John; Blincoe, Deborah (January 19, 2011). The Natural History of the Traditional Quilt. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN   978-0-292-78918-0. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 Boston, Gabriella (August 29, 2001). "Quilting for a lifetime" . The Washington Times . p. 1. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2020– via Gale In Context: Biography.
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