The “Quilter’s Dream Retreat” last weekend was fabulous! It was held Dec. 5-7, 2013 at the Westin Hotel in Itasca, IL, sponsored by Fabrics Etc of Bensenville, IL (www.fabricsetc2.com) and Baby Lock, maker of fabulous sewing machines (www.babylock.com), and of course, with special guest speaker, Eleanor Burns of “Quilt in a Day” (www.quiltinaday.com)
Not only did we enjoy being spoiled by the staff of Fabrics Etc and Baby Lock, but we had the opportunity to meet and spend time with Eleanor Burns, the First Lady of Quilting as she shared one of her newest books, “Quilts from El’s Kitchen” (https://www.quiltinaday.com/shoponline/books_display.asp?i=46506)
I enjoyed sewing on the new Baby Lock Ovation serger! What a great machine…ExtraordinAir Threading, automatic thread delivery, 8 thread, extra throat space and so many more options.
We serged an entire quilt using Eleanor’s “Braid in a Day” signature pattern. Fast, Easy and Beautiful! The Bali fabrics and batiks were gorgeous.
I have enough left over fabric to make another laptop quilt! How fun!
On Saturday, I attended Eleanor’s class as she taught us the techniques for creating 4 of the quilt blocks from El’s Kitchen book! In that class we used the wonderful Aria Baby Lock machine! I want BOTH the Ovation and the Aria! Many gals ordered their machines and took them home with them! I wish I had been one of them! It will happen soon!!
Here are the Kitchen Cup and Kitchen Apron blocks I made in Eleanor’s class… (below right) Aren’t they adorable? They were so fun… Eleanor taught us some great techniques which made creating each block fast, fun and easy!
Here’s the Kitchen Cactus (above) and the Broken Dishes block (below right) …
I had the opportunity to meet Eleanor Burns as she signed my book. What a gracious woman! Very kind and very knowledgeable.
During my Saturday class, I made sure I got a picture of us together….
This next week I will be putting the Kitchen quilt together with its applique borders and I”ll post it when it’s complete!
Make sure you pop over to all the websites I noted for some great ideas, patterns, and sales!!
