One Moment: Taping for Quilting Arts TV

Although I’ve still not recovered from jet lag and adrenaline hangover, I just had to tell you all how fantastic taping my 2 segments of Quilting Arts TV was!

Because my plane arrived too late for me to get to the studio the afternoon before my taping date, I made sure to get there bright and early (7:15AM) so I could absorb as much as I could. I poked my head in the studio and snapped a couple of pix, but was a bit overwhelmed with it all, plus the main camera guy (oh, I forget his name and he’s so nice) came in so I skedaddled. Look at all those cameras, lights, and cables:

I then went back to the “green room” (which is actually green!), unpacked my stuff and started visiting with the other guests, as well as Pokey (the host and editor of Quilting Arts),  Managing editor Helen Gregory and Assistant Editor Pippa Eccles. (See Pokey’s and Pippa’s blog posts for more info). Also Pokey’s Mom showed up late in the day – although this is the 7th season, her Mom has never been on the set!

Anyway, the day was a blast. I wasn’t taping til later, so I just hung around and talked – there were lots of folks to talk to, and LOTS to talk about! First of all, I met two artists whose work I’ve been admiring for awhile…what was so funny was that when I met Victoria and Deidre, I didn’t realize who they were until I saw them with their quilts. When I saw Victoria holding one of her stunning “work quilts” I exclaimed ” you’re THE Silly BooDilly!!!!” (which of course is the name of her blog!) I think that she was happy to be recognized this way, and I was just glad to tell her how awesome her work was in person. (She also admired the scarf I wore for the 1st segment, and it went so well with what she was wearing, I gave it to her when I was done wearing it on camera – she was so excited! Doesn’t it look great on her?)

And then, Deidre held up one of her quilts and I exclaim “You’re Deidre ADAMS!” SHe looked a bit confused, as I’d already been introduced to her…but the name didn’t make any sense til I saw the quilt! I am SUCH a visual person! Anyway it was great to also tell her how awesome her work was!Other truly talented folks present included: Susan Brubaker Knapp, Jeannie Palmer Moore, Jamie Fingal, Leslie Tucker Jenison, and Pearl Krush.

While trying to figure out what I would be showing on camera, I got lots of help from Jeannie Cook-Delpit, (director of national events for Bernina) setting up and teaching me how to use their top-of-the-line sewing machine (hubba hubba). I did not take many pix at all, I was so preoccupied with the upcoming taping and/or having too much fun gabbing. I was really quite flummoxed as to figure out what I would actually be doing on camera – I had step outs, each one labelled with what I wanted to use that one to illustrate, but I also knew that I had too much for the 10 minutes alloted to each segment… It turns out that this is all decided right before you do the segment! So, after lunch, I changed into my on camera outfit #1 and the makeup lady touched up my eyes (big surprise, I’m not good at wearing makeup!) and then it was my turn! Pippa and Helen and I grabbed the stuff for the messenger bag episode and headed out to the set. I lay it all out, and then explained how I made the bag/what I thought I could or should show to Pokey (the host), Pippa, Helen, Kathie Stull (the producer) and the nice man behind the camera whose name I forget. Then Pokey, Kathie and I discussed what I would show/do, Kathie made a big pile in the right order and it was SHOWTIME! GULP!

We start with a bit of fake smiling/pretend talking and then Pokey introduces me, I say hi and she starts asking questions. We actually stopped after 15 seconds because something wasn’t right…(a message into Pokey’s ear), so we started again…and that was it! It was actually easier to do it on camera than it it was explaining it to everyone myself because Pokey was always asking just the right question. At one point I skipped a step and she just said “now, what do you do with…” and I was able to explain that too. It really was not too terrifying, and we did the whole 11 minutes in one take (after that false start). Easy peasy! (HAH!) I went back to the green room and everyone told me that I did well, so I was a happy camper. I then got changed, and we set up and filmed the mod houses too. Again, it was very easy to follow Pokey’s lead…and I could tell when we were running out of time and didn’t try to add the last step that we had missed. A big PHEW!!!!!!

And so it was over! Then I hung out in the green room til just about the end of the day and then ended by going out to dinner with Pearl, who was staying in my hotel.

So, my moment? Well, obviously I had tons of special moments throughout the day, but the biggest moment was realizing that I had been myself on camera. I was Candy, with all my crazy little noises, and funny expressions. My nervousness had not prevented me from being exactly who I was, and my time in the classroom and talking about my art with folks at art shows had prepared me for this. I was genuinely me…take me or leave me! Truly, all I could have asked for. And please know, all you wonderful blog reading, tweeting friends, that you gave me the courage to attempt this…thank you thank you thank you!

alamodestuff Linda has started a weekly meetup based on taking a moment each week to really notice something as you go about your daily grind life. I need to do this. You may want to too – read more about it here: