Jinny Beyer

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.

Early life Beyer was born in Denver, Colorado on July 27, 1941. Her mother is artist Polly Kahle and she has three sisters.

Quilting career In 1972, while residing in India after spells in Borneo, Nepal and South America, 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. and featured 532 pieced block designs and 212 border designs. and The Golden Album Quilt in 2010. She was inspired by Indian designs and fabric. 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. Her Ray of Light quilt was selected as one of Quilter's Newsletter 's "100 Best American Quilts of the 20th Century" in 1999, and readers of American Quilter's Society magazine named her its "American Quilter" in mid-2004.