Pokey : QA TV

It's a Wrap! QA TV Series 500 just completed taping...

Pokey — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:44:00 GMT

I've just returned home from Cleveland where we taped our next series of QA TV (airing end of December). This new season promises to be a strong one! Not only did we tape some fabulous segments at International Quilt Festival/Chicago this past April, but we had some rather talented guests joining us on the set this past week.

Some pictures:

No, this is not the new host of Quilting Arts (despite her perfect teeth and colorful disposition). This is a piece by Susan Else, entitled "Nothing to Fear." It's part of the current Quilt National exhibit, and we were fortunate enough to have Kathleen Dawson of the Dairy Barn Arts Center come and bring along some pieces to share.

Kathleen Dawson and I in front of Kathy York's Quilt National quilt: "Little Fishes in the Big City."

Artist (and newest board member to SAQA) Carol Taylor and I pose in front of one of her quilts featuring her narrow piecing technique. Carol also taped a QA Workshop with us.

Jeanne Delpit of Bernina joined me for two segments and she was on hand all week to help artists unfamiliar with Bernina machines to sew on them. Jeanne was such a great help and I am so glad Bernina is the show's sewing machine sponsor! Those babies simply purr...

Beryl Taylor appeared in Season One and I was so glad to have her back! She also taped a workshop, the first in our series of Cloth Paper Scissors workshops. Her mixed-media and creative embroidery work were dazzling (as usual).

Liz DeBellis and I pose before taping her collograph printing segment. Liz is an elementary school art teacher and Quilt National artist, too. Pretty nifty accomplishment for someone under the age of 25!

Another Quilt National artist, Sue Cavanaugh joined me to demonstrate several shibori techniques. (She'll also be featured in an upcoming issue of Quilting Arts.)

Amy Milne of The Alliance for American Quilts, Liz DeBellis, and Michele Muska of Wrights chumming it up in the green room.

Paula Prass, fabric designer for Michael Miller fabrics, came to show us how she makes her framed art quilts. (No, it was not intentional that we coordinate so well with the fabrics in front of us!)

Sometimes I make funny faces on QA TV...and after we finish a segment the director likes to leave those stills on the green room tv to poke fun at me!

Luana Rubin, founder of eQuilter and managing editor extraordinaire, Helen Gregory, smile for me in the green room. Luana taped two very interesting segments with us.

My friend Natalya Aikens came back to tape not just a QA TV segment but a really fabulous workshop, too. Little known fact: She worked on the set as a costume designer for HBO's "Sex and the City."

And yes, I did return to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to see "From Asbury Park to the Promised Land," the special Springsteen exhibit. If you are in the Cleveland area anytime soon, you really must go see this exhibit. And it may look like I'm making an obscene gesture, but I'm actually giving my "hang loose" sign. (What cracks me up about this picture is the woman to the right laughing at me...)

I am afraid those are all the pictures I have of this taping from my camera, but there were many more talented guests! I want to give a special thanks to the show sponsors who make QA TV possible: Interweave, Bernina, Sulky of America, Michael Miller Fabrics, Alexander Henry, Art Gallery Fabrics, eQuilter, Wrights, Electric Quilt Company, Kaleidoscope Collections, Cedar Canyon Textiles, The Warm Company, JT Trading, Hinterberg Designs, and Rowenta. Also a heartfelt thank you to producer Kathie Stull and her assistant, Katherine Lamencusa!!

Other guests who blogged about their experience taping QA TV:

Alma de la Melena Cox

The Last of the Behind-the-scenes Shots for QA TV

Pokey — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:17:00 GMT

As promised, one final posting on the behind-the-scenes action from this latest taping of Quilting Arts TV!

Below is the changing area in the green room, separated by a plywood wall. (At least we have the wall!) Anybody who set up their materials on this side of the room got a bit of a view if the person changing wasn't careful. ;-)

Some of our guests: Lyric Kinard, Shelly Stokes, Sue Kelly, and Joyce Drexler

Below Terry White and I are preparing for her segment. Do you see what I am sitting on? Terry wasn't that much taller than me so I only needed one phone book for a booster seat. (In most instances it was two!)

While some of us were busy on set, others were showing off their varied talents in the green room. Below are Terry White and Melanie Testa as they broke out in song. (I'll give you props if you can figure out what tune this is!)

Jeanne Delpit and I with the Bernina 440 on Saturday afternoon, just after the taping wrapped up. You can tell by our exuberant smiles that we were pretty darn happy with how everything turned out.

Helen Gregory and I had a couple of hours Saturday afternoon before our flight took off, so guess where we went...

Yes, back to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

I hope you enjoyed some of the behind-the-scenes posts for QA TV and got a glimpse of our experience taping. For those heading to Chicago for the Spring International Quilt Festival, we'll be taping in the Make It University!(TM) area for the following series of QA TV. Hope to see you, and thanks for reading!

It's good to be home...

QA TV Taping Pt III

Pokey — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:13:00 GMT

More images from our QA TV taping last week...

Luana Rubin of eQuilter.com joined us this season! Here she is with our very own Helen Gregory and the Bernina 830.

Pokey with Jay McCarroll just before his first segment taped. (I know this will come as a shock to many of you: Jay's segments are rather humorous.)

Jay models in the green room with Jamie Fingal's heavy metal mouse.

Alisa Burke, Pokey, and Jeanne Delpit of Bernina. OK, kind of a geeky picture but we were having fun! Alisa made her paper and plastic recycled purses for her segment.

Above: Malka Dubrawsky with me getting ready to overdye commercial fabrics.
Malka is a safety girl and donned her respirator for mixing the dye powders, something she also did for the taping. It was funny listening to her try and talk through that thing!

Today, I have two bonus videos for you.

Jamie Fingal shares with Alisa Burke her tip for cleaning her studio:
(Please visit the site to view this media)And Jay humored everyone whe he did a promo for Steam-a-Seam. Jay swears by Steam-a-Seam and uses it in everything he does (including his Chrysler Building dress from "Project Runway"), so he was happy to give this promo for them. I took this little video from the control room, and you can see Jay on the monitor juggling two boxes of Steam-a-Seam: (Please visit the site to view this media)

Quilting Arts TV Series 400 Taping Pt. II

Pokey — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:18:00 GMT

Quilting Arts TV taping for Series 400 has officially completed, and over the course of this week I will be posting photos and short videos to give you a flavor of what transpired on and off camera. I have more than 200 pictures and I'll also be loading them in a separate picture album since I can't possibly place them all in the blog. Many thanks to Helen Gregory for taking most of these pictures!

The boisterous bunch from our first day of taping...
Maria Elkins, Susan Jackson, Loralie, Julie Fei-Fan Balzar, Pokey, Laura Wasilowski, Yvonne Porcella, and Frieda Anderson.

My art quilting mentor and friend Yvonne Porcella demonstrated some of her embellishment techniques.

You can tell by my outfit that Laura Wasilowski (with me below) and Yvonne appear in the same episode together. Actually now that I think of it, they launch the season since they both appear in Episode 401. They set the tone for a very colorful season!

Laura and Frieda ham it up (as usual) in the green room by giving their best Wallace and Gromit impressions: O(Please visit the site to view this media)ur early morning ritual and a behind-the-scenes look at the studio. Warning, this is not an extraterrestrial on the set. It's me; you're getting a candid view of what it takes to get me to look the way I do on set. (Lots of spackle and shellac!) (Please visit the site to view this media)

QA TV Series 200 Sneak Peek

Pokey — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:11:27 GMT

We’ve started taping for Series 200 of QA TV and I thought to give you a special, behind-the-scenes sneak-peek at how we put this together.

It all begins months in advance when Kathie Stull (owner/producer) and I discuss the themes for each episode. At minimum, I’m typically responsible for a three-minute segment per episode, and in theory, I’ve got them all “stepped out” days in advance. Alas, that didn’t happen this time around since we have a bit going on at QA headquarters, so I did as much as I physically could before I left Boston, then finished the rest in my hotel room. While people were dancing the night away at Singles Night in the hotel bar downstairs (yikes, what a scene), I was safely ensconced in my hotel room and sewed my heart out whilst watching a kazillion shows on A & E...

The next morning I taped all of my opens and closes (that's 13 wardrobe changes in about two hours). Over the course of the week, we tape multiple segments from each episode every day, depending upon guests' schedules. I’m not so good at remembering what I'm supposed to wear each episode, so I have a little help via a visual aid on the studio set door...

Guest Taping

Katie Pasquini-Masopust (affectionately known as Katie P-M) is not only a founding Rock Star in the art quilt world but she—as we Bostonians like to put it—has a wicked sense of humor! I am SO honored to kick off the season with her!

And Judy Coates Perez (soon-to-be Cover Girl of Cloth Paper Scissors) was back to tape a cool segment on painted batting.

While the rest of the taping was taking place, the ladies of Sulky of America were busy in industry, knitting outside the green room. I cracked up when I saw them and had to snap a shot...

Okay, one may ask, what's up with the rubber fish fetish on QA TV (many an r-rated joke took place before the segment). As our features editor, Cate Prato (former Boston Globe writer) likes to say: It takes an x-rated mind to produce a g-rated paper. The same thinking can be applied to TV...

Here's Jane Davila, the artist extraordinaire who uses the fish. If you watch next season of QA TV, all will be explained to you...

Here we have Rayna Gillman and Claire Fenton. Not only highly talented artists but girls who know how to par-tay...

Look what they brought Helen Gregory (managing editor) and I the next day:

Question: What time of the day do you think this picture was taken?:

a. 5:00 PM
b. 12:30 PM
c. 8:24 AM

If you answered C, you'd be right!

If you want more behind-the-scenes info check back Super Bowl Sunday when I will be back home reminiscing on the taping, and watching my Patriots kick some Giants you-know-what.

If you have not gotten QA TV in your area yet, there's still hope! A number of cities are picking it up beginning in March, so check your local listings in early spring.

It's a Wrap!

Pokey — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:34:36 GMT

We just finished taping the first series of Quilting Arts for PBS, and I have a few more pictures to share with you...

The queen of complex cloth, Jane Dunnewold. She'll appear in our very first episode and I'm feeling pretty lucky that she'll be setting the tone!

Speaking of Lucky...

We have Susan ("Lucky") Shie, too, in this series. She'll be showing us how she gets copious amount of writing onto her diary quilts.

Jeannie Sumrall Ajero demo'd a neat digital technique to create her beautiful landscape quilt that celebrates her trip to the far east.

Since I was a bit shorter than many of the guests, want to know how I appear so tall while sitting down?

Check out the yellow pages next to the printer. My very own high-tech booster seat!

Quilting Arts will begin airing the very end of this year. Check your local PBS stations the end of December to see when/if it will air in your area. At this time I don't have information on Quilting Arts airing in international markets, but if that changes, I'll let you know. When DVDs become available I'll also share any information I have from Kathie Stull Productions--owner/producer of the show who will have them available.

In gratitude, I'd like to thank the following people for making Quilting Arts TV a reality:

First and foremost, Kathie Stull (owner/producer). Thank you for all of the hard work you did on every facet of the production, and for the faith you had in Quilting Arts Magazine and its community. I'd also like to thank Kathie for being so supportive of me as a host, my first time out of the gate.

Interweave Press-- Also for having faith in a girl like me. (We did it!)

My editorial and design staff: Barbara, Cate, Helen, and Larissa. For being such a supportive sounding board as they listened to me natter on and fret before I left. Also for helping collect props for the set and design board, for shopping for vintage items (and I know that was painful), keeping me organized, stitching those adorable quilt blocks, and for holding down the fort while I was away.

Mike Murphy (director) and the video-editing, sound, and camera crew. They were all so kind, funny, and patient with me--no matter how many takes it took to get some of those closes.

Katherine (Kathie's assistant)-- For always being such a calm, assuring presence, for making sure I was hydrated, and double-checking I didn't goof on wardrobe changes.

Karen, the talented make-up artist. She made us all feel and look like rock stars, and every day she left us presents in the make-up room so we'd stay fresh throughout the day. (Photo by Pam RuBert)

All of the wonderful underwriters who made this possible, many of whom came to the set and shared funny and candid conversations in the green room with me. (And I promise, what happens in the green room, stays in the green room.)

The quilt artists who enthusiastically said yes when I asked them if they would want to join us for the first season. You all made this so much fun. Thank you!

John-- For taking Saturday afternoon to fix all of the toilet dispensers in the house and for cleaning out the fridge. I honestly didn't realize we had salad dressing in there...from 2002.

And last but not least, our animal children for giving me a laugh when I got home. I landed late last night, went straight to bed, and woke up to this site this morning (it's wonderful to be home):

QA TV Becomes a Reality!

Pokey — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:05:56 GMT

We're mid-way through taping Quilting Arts TV so I thought it would be fun to share my journey with you thus far. Let the pictures do the talking...

I had to chuckle when I boarded my flight to the taping and saw this on the back of the seat in front of me. We've all seen this critical, life-saving tip a million times before, but it's one I never really considered until now. Having never hosted a TV show, never seen the set before, met the crew, etc., I think subconciously I was hoping for some sort of life line.

The first hurdle: The Set

Kathie Stull (owner/producer of the show) invited me to be a part of the design process for the set and I was honored to be asked. She and I consulted with my friend Bette Troy who is a world-renowned photo stylist and has styled TV commercials as well as some of the fashion catalogs we all love. Since Bette knows me well and she's also a fiber artist, she came up with a clean, invigorating look that she presented to Kathie and me. Fabrics, paint colors, accent pieces, furniture…we all wanted them be fresh, fun, artful––something that would be indicative of Quilting Arts and also my dream studio. However, when you talk about concepts and colors over the phone, you don't have that visual sense for how things will come together on the set. And I'll admit, I didn't get much sleep the end of August before I left for the taping because it was so important to me how the set looked. Imagine my delight when Kathie created this set...

The walls are apple green, one of my favorite colors. And there's bead board!

And a hutch!

And a window accented with nine-patch blocks my editorial staff made (thanks Cate, Barb, and Helen).

This is my studio with my design wall before I clutter it with all the things that inspire me. I was so overjoyed when I saw the set, I started to tear up. It was exactly what I'd want for my own quilting studio. (John, you'd better be taking notes...)

Day Two

I've just completed taping all 13 openers. (I'm smiling because it was my first task and I lived to tell about it.) I love this jacket (lots of hand stitching on in). The morning after I purchased it, I saw Meredith Vieira wearing it on "The Today Show." Hey...if it's good enough for Meredith, it's good enough for me!

The next day the fun began because I have guests/friends with me. Every single one of them did a bang-up job on camera and we created quite a raucous in the green room.

Here my friend from St. Paul Wendy Richardson (Quilt Tapestry Studio) and Michelle Muska from Wrights realize they have a connection from the past (this pin cushion has quite the story behind it). When it dawned on them they knew each other, they screamed so loudly, we heard them in the sound-proof studio. Leave it to quilters to make so much noise...

Laura Cater-Woods, Pam RuBert, and Wendy Richardson glamming up for the camera. They all did so well in their segments, these are smiles of jobs well done!

Laura Cater-Woods and I after the end of a hard day's work.

From left to right: Me (obviously having a bad hair moment), Judy Coates Perez, Frances Holliday Alford, and Lesley Riley.

Here's Frances and me getting ready for her segment. Check out all of the bead/found object mixes Frances has on set. You will NOT believe what she'll put on a quilt. (I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. It's top secret until the episode airs.)

Here Lesley Riley is talking to herself as she practices her segment. Isn't she cute?

Shelly Stokes from Cedar Canyon Textiles. You would never guess she hadn't been on TV before. Total natural...

The only shot I have of me with my good friend Beryl Taylor. I swear I'm not about to punch her.

Alison and Tracy Stillwell, the ArtGirlz. They NEVER fail to make me laugh. They promise me that when I'm ready, they'll give me a mohawk, which they'll happily do in their own backyard. "It's so freeing," Tracy told me. After all of the hair problems I've had on set, I'm looking forward to it.

But what really had me laughing was what the ArtGirlz gave me. Tracy, Allison, and I have had many deep, philisophical discussions about...well... the reality show, "Survivor." I have a handful of TV shows I'm obsessed with--"Sopranos" for one (:::cough:::cough:::) and also "Survivor." Imagine my glee when Tracy and Allison gave me my very own Survivor buff! How many quilting hosts can boast they've been gifted their own Survivor buff?!

This Survivor buff will most definitely make a cameo appearance at Make It University next month (preview night of Quilt Festival begins on Halloween, after all).

We've been having so much fun and we've still to tape such art quilting celebrities as Jane Dunnewold, Susan ("Lucky") Shie, and others that will bedazzle you.

Direct blog links for guests who have blogged about their Quilting Arts TV taping so far:

Frances Holliday Alford

Laura Cater-Woods

Will report back when we're finished!