Jo Avery lives in the countryside near Edinburgh in Scotland surrounded by woodland and wildlife. She began her career in textiles and entrepreneurship at age 21 with her first business, Cleopatra’s Needle, which designed and produced needlepoint kits. She learned to make quilts soon after and continued pursuing this as a hobby while raising a family and partnering with her husband Jonathan Avery in their furniture and retail business. A decade ago, she discovered quilting blogs and began her own, myBearpaw. A whole new career sprang from this, teaching crafts and designing quilt and embroidery patterns. She now teaches far and wide, designs quilts and embroideries for several magazines, and organizes quilt retreats, both physical and virtual. She is one-third of the Thread House collective and a certified Aurifilosopher. In 2020 her first solo book, New Patchwork and Quilting Basics, was published by Stash Books.