Hillary Goodwin/QuiltCon Trunk Show and colorful kits for Houston

 

I recently attended a local event at Meissner Sewing in Sacramento that included a Hillary Goodwin talk and Trunk Show. The store was also festooned with some of the notable quilts from QuiltCon 2022. For those of you who do not know the name, Hillary Goodwin is a local wearable and quilt artist as well as an ER doc! She won Best of Show at QuiltCon with this quilt:

This quilt was not available for the Meissner event as it was traveling. It speaks to the hard times that health care professional endured during the Pandemic. I wish I had the statement for the quilt but I do not.

Hillary was an absolute delight! She is very down-to-earth, charming, talented and apparently blessed with abundant energy as she is an ER doctor, Mom and is always making some amazing garment or quilt. I was especially interested in her garments. She has an excellent Instagram feed if you care to follow her. If you are a garment maker, you will understand how remarkable this photo is:

That is a Marimekko print with a huuuuge repeat. She matched the seam. OMG, she matched the seam!

A few of her garments:

The QuiltCon trunk show is still up at Meissner, so locals, get down to the main store to see the show! There are some spectacular quilts on display. Here are just a few:

Aaaand, there’s been Houston kit prep going on:

I got all 450 quilt sandwiches cut, assembled, secured and separated into individual kits for each student. And they fit in perfectly to this box:

I am thrilled to have this portion of my Houston shipping done. This part took me maybe 30 hrs?

And then came the prep for my 3 hour Sheers class. That class filled almost immediately, which pleased me. I love teaching classes about how to use sheers! Every student seems to have fun with them, no matter their level of experience. Until now, I have offered a material fee in exchange for the ability to go through my sheers and take what is needed. That was not going to work in a 3 hour class, so I needed to prepare individual kits for each student. I had NO idea what I was in for:

I had to first iron probably 50 yards of sheer fabric. I cut 5″ squares and assembled 24 different fabrics into each kit. What you see above is I’m guessing, another 30 hrs. I know, that sounds ridiculous. Here’s the deal with working with sheers and trying to make kits:
– They are sheer, that means they weigh nothing. So just walk by and watch them fly.
– They stick to each other. You try to move one on top just an oochy to the side, and the whole pile comes with it.
– Just to create stacks and put one piece of sheer on top on each of 24 piles means you have to pick up each little piece with 2 hands and carefully place it on the stack. Otherwise you might cause the whole pile to go askew and pick up pieces from the next pile.

It took for. ever. to just create the piles! And then I realized: 5″ squares are too big for this project! And, giving my students 24 pieces to play with on a 15″ square that will finish out to 12″, that is just too much for that space and that time period.

I decided to do it all over again, with 4″ squares and kits with a total of 15 fabrics.  Aren’t they  gorgeous?

It sure created a mess in my studio, layers and layers of sheers, over every bit of floor space!

And all that work condensed into this tiny pile:

I decided I needed one more quick sample before I shipped it all off:

That was a fun romp! I added a simple non-bound border that could be done in class:

Oh I love a good triple stitch!

MORE BIG NEWS!

Registration for Craft Napa, Uncorked at Home open today, Sept 15 at 9AM PST! The entire event is virtual. Go to the site and choose classes now and be at the keyboard at 9AM. Last year some classes filled almost immediately.

I’ll be teaching “Sheer Paneled Jean Jacket” on Friday, January 13:

This is going to be So. Much. Fun! New free motion quilters will have a blast; this does not require perfect free motion quilting; it’s supposed to be sloppy woppy! If needed, I can kit the class for those who have difficulty sourcing fun sheers. I hope to “see” you there!

I’ll share at:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
and
Finished or Not Friday