Behind the Scenes at Quilting Arts TV

We flew to Cleveland, Ohio last week to film three segments for Quilting Arts TV. We met up with our colleague Jane Haworth (pronounce it like Howard, but replace the “d” with “th”) at the airport for a red-eye flight to Cleveland. The bad part about taking a night flight is that you usually arrive early in the morning. When you arrive early, of course your room isn’t ready. But at the Hampton Inn in Solon, they really do their best to make you comfortable. The lovely Michele let us partake of the breakfast while we were waiting.

After a quick nap, we headed to the studio so we could familiarize ourselves with the process. Susan Brubaker Knapp, the host of Quilting Arts TV, has all her garments organized by episode because the episodes are not shot in order. You can check the board to see what Susan will be wearing when you shoot your segment. We spent a lot of time deciding what to wear!

In the green room, we were able to watch other artists tape their segments. That’s Lyric Kinard on the TV monitor being ignored by Joe Cunningham, Kris, and Jane.

We each had a big tray to put all of our stuff on for each segment. That’s Tamara Leberer  (right) showing a visitor her work and Enid Gjelten Weichselbaum making a face in the background.

 

That’s the production coordinator Katherine Lamancusa and Quilting Arts associate editor Kristine Lundblad looking at the schedule. Everything is flexible, especially when hurricane Florence is heading toward the homes of the host and one of the guests. We ended up filming our segments one after another at the end of the day to accommodate those needing to leave early.

On the day of the shoot, we arrived early to get our makeup professionally done. Karen makes you up to still look like you when all the camera lights wash you out.

Then you wait, and wait, and have lunch, and wait some more. Suddenly it’s your turn. You put on the new clothes you purchased and head into the studio. Producer Kathie Stull asks what you’re going to be doing, has people dress the set, and gives Susan some cues. And 5, 4, 3, …. Susan starts and we’re off. Our first segment on using technology to assess value didn’t go as smoothly as everyone else’s. We’ll blame that on the fact that there were two of us, and we were moving from table to quilt and back. We think Jane took this photo from the green room right when we heard we had to re-shoot the entire segment.

Change clothes and repeat the process 2 more times, once for showing how to make a pattern from a photo and once about how we collaborate. These segments went much more smoothly. Film a couple of videos for Instagram, take some photos, and we’re done!

 

 

Did you noticed something about people’s names? I think your name has to begin with a K to work here. Kris thinks the studio is hers.

We’ll let you know when our segments air on PBS and when you can download the videos. We might even have a viewing party. Leave us a comment if you want an invitation!