My Joyful Journey: Behind the Scenes

It was an honor to tape an upcoming show for The Quilt Show recently. It is the "reveal" show for the 2020 Block of the Month quilt. The show will air December 29, 2019 so I still cannot show the actual Block of the Month quilt YET. As soon as I can, I will.

Twice a year the folks from The Quilt Show go to Denver, Colorado to tape 12 shows each time, 24 studio shows a year and a couple "on the road" shows. Here is the home studio:

In this building--a huge building with really tight security:

Just some quick shots to give you an idea of what happens.
Before the live audience appears:

The control room:

I watched 3 shows before my own show. The first features Amy Milne, Director of the Quilt Alliance. I met Amy last year when she came to Huntsville to video several of us for the "Save Our Stories" project. Her show was about how to inspire and encourage kids to quilt. Before taping, everyone meets with Shelly Heesacker, the Producer, to get everything prepared:

A delightful addition to the team was the 8 year old daughter of one of the crew:

With her Dad

Doing the "cold open" with Justin:

Talking to the audience with Shelly:

The best thing about that show was once she was shown the "Kid's Can Quilt Kit", she used every moment to sew on her block--she was hooked! You will love seeing her in action.

The afternoon taping featured Kim Lacy--her painted landscape mosaics are beautiful:

The next day the morning guest was Karlee Porter, a 28 year old who is making her mark in the quilt world with "graffiti" quilting and "hand lettering":

She has a lot to offer and it is good to know the quilt world has her in it, I think the future of quilting is secure:

When it was my turn, the time seemed to go by in a flash. But it is a long 4+ hours to produce 40 minutes of content. Some photos I can't show yet, here are a few I can.

Pre-sewing before taping to speed things up:

We featured some previous Block of the Month quilts. This 2017 Halo Star Medallion is by my friend and Sunday Sew and Sew, Janet N:

This Mini Ruffled Roses by Annis Clapp is small, about 30" I think, amazing:

This Fiesta Halo Medallion was made by Joyce Triezenberg and she was in the audience. She let us borrow it for the taping:

One of my co-workers in Houston lives in Colorado and made the journey to support me at my taping. Thanks, Anne, for being in the audience--what a special treat that was. Here we are in front of my Ruffled Roses, the 2011 Block of the Month quilt:

It was a special honor to be asked to make the 2020 Block of the Month and to be the Guest Artist who gets to reveal it. I've been a fan of The Quilt Show since it began, more than 12 years ago. These people have become friends.

Anyone who attends a taping sees the incredible amount of work, equipment, crew efforts, planning and do-overs that are necessary to produce a top-notch professional video production.

After the final show of this taping season ended, these amazing people posed for a picture. It's a WRAP, until next time: