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2019 Baby Lock Tech

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Convention for Baby Lock Sewing Machine Retailers

I’ve been hankering to go to Baby Lock Tech (BLT) in St. Louis, Missouri for some years now. It’s an instructive and information filled 4-day convention for Baby Lock Retailers in North America.

The Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse in St. Louis.
The Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse in St. Louis.

2019 was the first year Canadian retailers were able to participate. I won’t go into a whole explanation here, but the reason for that has to do with the Canadian rights selling back to the American mother company.

Items from Baby Lock Tech Convention
Key fobs, in-the-hoop glasses cases and inspirational pillows!

Workshops and new techniques

Prior to our arrival at Baby Lock Tech, we picked from a selection of classes offered. The new Altair and Solaris sewing machines and the Triumph Sergers were there for use in the many hands-on workshops. It’s always great to learn some new techniques and to come home with special projects to share with you!

Kathy enjoyed a class with Eleanor Burns while I had fun on the Solaris Sewing Machine.

It can’t be all about work though. Dividing the day were multiple spreads of food.

A little lite snack anyone?

I’m sure not one bit of it was good for us though. Trying to find a vegetable or fruit amongst the buffet tables was definitely a challenge. What you could find were pastries, chocolate, ice cream, popcorn, cupcakes, cookies etc. Tip: Pack food if you are a vegetarian like me.

Along with the classes, BLT was a great place to meet old friends and make new ones, to find out how others ran their business and to do a little brainstorming –with a glass of wine!

L to R, Rhonda Pierce (Schmetz Needles), Pat Sloan (quilt and fabric designer, author and lecturer), Jasmin Karimjee (Ottawa Sewing Centre), Brenda Miller (ABQ Sewing Studio and amongbrendasquilts.com), Gail Yellen (Gail Patrice Design), Kathy Wodrich.

How we got to St. Louis

Not wanting to travel alone, I enlisted Kathy, my sister-in-law, to come along for the ride, and what a long ride it was. It takes about 13 hours from Port Huron, Michigan to the Gateway Station in St. Louis by Amtrack train.

Getting on the train
There’s a connection at Union Station in Chicago on the way to St. Louis.

After arriving, we took some time to see what was within walking distance of the hotel, having worked a spare day into our itinerary.

We were mere steps from the famed Gateway Arch near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Although we didn’t take the elevator ride to the viewing windows on the Arch we did visit the St. Louis museum directly under it and took a paddle-wheel boat ride on the muddy Mississippi.

The Tom Sawyer riverboat
The Tom Sawyer. The view from the river is mostly industrial.
Campbell House in St. Louis
Campbell House

Packing as much as possible into our day we also visited Campbell House, a gracious old home practically untouched by time. Built in 1851, it was the home of fur trader Robert Campbell, his wife, and three children.

Robert Campbell helped to blaze the Oregon Trail and was instrumental in turning St. Louis into a city from a frontier town. The home had only been lived in by three generations of the family when it was donated in the 1930s. It still contains most of its original furnishings and décor.

The Wilcox & Gibbs Sewing Machine (New York) was invented in 1871. This one is found in the housekeeper’s room at Campbell House.

Even the arrangement of the furniture remains the same thanks to a series of 60 photographs of the interior taken in the 1880’s. You’ll still find a potted palm keeping company with the bust of Caesar Augustus in the front foyer.


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