Rhonda Bracey: At Random

After the first day of the Quilting Academy, we were invited to travel to San Marcos (about 30 minutes away, but maybe less if we had taken the right turn!) to see Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day store, and attend her 90 minute American Barns Trunk Show.

The store was like many others, though it did have quite a lot of fabric on sale (Yes, I bought some! At sale prices of $4 and $5 a yard, who wouldn’t? especially as fabric in Australia is upwards of $20 a metre.)

The highlight though was the ‘backlot’ tour conducted by Eleanor herself. This is a MAJOR one-woman brand industry! Most of her sales are via the internet and the back area is HUGE. Even at close to 7 pm, many staff were still working, packing orders, cutting fabric for packs, testing new designs, etc. They even have their own art department (for magazines, books, and web), and their own digital printing press for short-run books on demand. Oh, and she has her own recording studio, which is where she held the Trunk Show (and I suspect it was video’d as the full studio lighting was turned on when she came out to perform.)

Some ‘backlot’ pictures; click on a small image to see it full size.