One of the pioneering women of quilting, Jinny Beyer was the first designers to create a line of fabric exclusively for quilters. She alone is responsible for setting the industry standard for quality and design for quilters all over the world. Jinny’s strength as a designer lies in her contemporary, sophisticated styling and in her remarkable sense of color and shading, a skill which she honed while living in India and making her first quilt. Jinny pieces and quilts by hand. An award-wining quilter, Jinny is best known for her color shading technique used to create dimensional designs that stretch the imaginations of quilters, challenging them to go one step beyond and expand their skill levels.
Jinny designs three major collections a year for RJR and several groupings of basics to support her collections. Her most successful basics line, The Jinny Beyer Palette, features 150 tonal and multiscreen tonal designs set in a complete spectrum of color. The Palette fabrics are gradually shaded to educate quilters on how to blend colors and create effective color combinations in quilts. In addition to the Palette, Jinny is known for her signature fabric, the border stripe, which she showcases in every major collection.
Jinny Beyer began her first quilt while living in India, using Indian fabrics in colors of deep red and dark blue. The darker hues became a hallmark of her future quilts. In 1978, Ray of Light won first place among 10,000 entries in Good Housekeeping’s Great American Quilt Contest. Jinny’s Bicentennial Quilt was awarded first place in the 1979 Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine contest. In 1984, Jinny was inducted into The Quilters Hall of Fame, a non-profit organization dedicated to honoring those who have made outstanding contributions to the world of quilting. Jinny received the Silver Star Award at the International Quilt Festival in 1995, given annually to living persons who have made a lasting and positive impact on the field of quilting and textile art over their careers. She received the Michael Kile Award of Achievement in 1996. Created in honor of the late Michael Kile, publisher of The Quilt Digest Press, the Michael Kile Award is given to people in the industry who share Michael’s commitment to excellence and have made contributions that will have a long-lasting effect on the quilting industry. Jinny’s quilt Ray of Light was chosen as one of the 100 Best American Quilts of the 20th Century in 1999, published by Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine.
Jinny Beyer lectures all over the world. Quilters can learn about her techniques at her annual Jinny Beyer Seminar at Hilton Head. She has published dozens of books by McGraw-Hill and Breckling Press.