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Meet Jan Bevan: A Life in Textiles and a Workshop Called Florence
Annual Online Retreat, Behind the Stitches - 13th October 2026
From designing furnishing fabrics to discovering a love of quilting, Jan Bevan has spent much of her life working with textiles. This January, she'll be joining The Quilters' Guild's People & Places Online Retreat to share her travelling sewing caddy project, Florence.
From textile design to quilting
Jan studied textiles at university and began her career in the design studio at John Lewis in 1970. She later established her own design studio, specialising in woven furnishing fabrics, which she ran until 2000.
It was during her recovery from breast cancer that a friend took her to the Malvern quilt show. Inspired by what she saw, Jan signed up for a week at La Maison du Patchwork in France, where she developed her quilting skills and made a lifelong friend.
Jan subsequently joined the Contemporary section of The Quilters' Guild, enjoying the opportunity to experiment with techniques and create journal quilts.
She has exhibited at The Festival of Quilts, won prizes and continues to enjoy teaching and giving talks in the South East. She also has a small longarm quilting frame in her studio and has taught quilting segments for Master Quilter.
Meet Florence
At our annual online retreat, Jan will introduce Florence, a travelling sewing caddy featuring a quilted outer cover, internal pockets and a zip fastening.
The project can be made using patchwork squares, coordinating fabrics or leftover quilt blocks. Jan has even used part of a small quilt in one of her samples.
As her photographs show, different fabric choices can give Florence a completely different look.
Join us in January
Jan is one of the guest speakers at People & Places, The Quilters' Guild's annual online retreat on 23 & 24 January 2027.
Tickets are £55 for both days, with access to session recordings for 28 days. The retreat is exclusively for Guild members, and buy your tickets here. Bookings open in November 2026.
Not yet a member? Join The Quilters' Guild to take part.
Follow Jan on Instagram @janbevan or find her on Facebook at Quilting talk by Jan.
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