Guicy Guice and Annie Unrein

Every year, the Quilt Gallery likes to offer something back to the community of quilters that supports the store. This year, they brought in Guiseppe Ribaudo—who designs under the name Guicy Guice—and Annie Unrein, owner of byAnnie. Each of these sewing rock stars presented a three-hour lecture. I attended both.

Guiseppe gave a presentation on color theory.

I know the basics, but he did an even deeper dive and applied it to quilt design. I learned so much. One of the points he made was that “low volume” is a bit of a misnomer. Low volume fabrics—as the term is currently used—are subtle, light-colored fabrics featuring delicate prints. He said that they should more properly be called “low value” fabrics. I understand his point completely. Good luck getting quilters to change. 🫤

At the end of the lecture, he split attendees into seven groups and sent them out into the store to gather bolts of fabric. Each group was given a specific color:

He then showed us how to mix and match those bolts of fabric to create different quilt combinations.

Guiseppe was a designer for Andover Fabrics but recently moved over to Free Spirit. During his presentation, he also gave us a bit of a glimpse into what it’s like to be a fabric designer.

The store offered a light lunch, and at 12:30, Annie Unrein began her presentation.

Annie is a bag designer whose company, byAnnie, has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 10 years or so. I’ve made half a dozen of her designs, including the Place for Everything Tote pattern I just finished. The story of how she started and grew the company was fascinating and she filled her presentation with lots of tips and tricks for making her bags.

I also got to meet one of my podcast listeners. I was at the back of the room during Annie’s presentation when one of the store staff came back and whispered in my ear that one of my podcast listeners was up at the front of the store. I ducked out and went to meet her—she didn’t know I was at the store. Her name is Cindy and she and her husband were driving across the country from Michigan to Seattle. I should have taken a photo with her but I wasn’t thinking fast enough.

She’s the third or fourth not-local podcast listener who has come to the store this summer.

One of the lecture attendees was Cassandra Zaniboni, who recently moved from Oregon to Kalispell. She is a young mother of three who designs for Windham Fabrics. The store is carrying her new line, Willow Bend. I chatted with her for a couple of minutes, too.

It was such an amazing day.

Getting home was not so amazing; I left the store, stopped at the bank to deposit a check, then went to Walmart to pick up a few items. It took me 52 minutes to get home. The traffic was absolutely insane. I used to be able to get to town or from town to home in 25 minutes, tops.

Today looks like the last hot day on the schedule; after this, we drop back down into the 70s. I’m ready for it.