Cast of Downton Abbey Visits the Set of Quilting Arts TV!

Well, maybe that header is a tad misleading…but I got you to read this far, right?

I owe the final entry on the QA TV taping that took place last week, and a little known show on PBS called Downton Abbey made it’s way on set, thanks to Cheryl Sleboda…

Me with my friend Cheryl Sleboda who taped a whopping five segments for this next season.

A fellow die-hard Downton Abbey fan, Cheryl demonstrated how she made small portraits of Downton Abbey characters based on her cartooning and sketching techniques. In the picture below (if you squint), you can get a glimpse of the steps she took to make portraits of Sybil, Edith,  Cora, and even the Dowager Countess!

Closest to Cheryl, you can see the “step-outs” to create Lady Mary.

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I also taped a segment on International Quilt Festival’s Pet Project to raise funds for Friends for Life, Houston’s premiere no-kill animal shelter. I am hoping thousands of PBS viewers  take my request to heart, and send in pet postcards for this next fall’s show (or better yet, come in person)!

Above I’m holding a postcard I made featuring my beloved Lou Lou.

I was so happy to get Sue Bliewiess to tape with us finally. A fellow Boston girl, she is very, very talented and makes the most adorable pet postcards. She did a lengthy segment, explaining her techniques for creating them.

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My friend Judy Coates Perez came back this season to tape two segments on dying and fabric painting, and she looked fantastic with her new Farah Fawcett hairdo!

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Linda McLaughlin taped a couple of segments, one on a variation of deconstructed screen printing (which was so cool and I will be trying this weekend), and a segment on “365 Days of 65” where she hand-stitched small quilt squares every single day during the year of her 65th birthday.

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Her newly adopted discipline of daily hand stitching inspired other finished works, including this black and white quilt that I was rather tempted to steal off the set…

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The very colorful Dianne Springer was a newbie to QATV, but she was a total pro on camera as she demonstrated how she takes scraps of fabrics to create a vibrant mailbox that will definitely set one apart from the neighbors!

Fellow thermofax screen passionista, Lynn Krawczyk was back this season, too, to demonstrate how to turn one’s love of surface design techniques into wearable art and home dec. projects.

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Silk dyer Marlene Glickman was back, too, to demonstrate a unique way of creating fabric collage using elusive bits of dyed sheers.

Modern Quilter Debbie Grifka demonstrated five small modern quilt projects that were so clever and that all can be completed in an afternoon. (By the look of my bangs in the shot below, it seems Judy Perez wasn’t the only one channeling Farah Fawcett!)

And lastly, Heather Jones was back this season to demonstrate other modern quilting techniques…some of which she will be demonstrating at Open Studios at International Quilt Festival/ Cincinnati next week! The guy between us is Mike Murphy, our Director. (He loves to ham it up.)

And speaking of behind-the scenes folks…here are another couple of guys that I stare at all day:

Floor director Billy with camera man, Brandon (and Hulk Hogan in the middle).

Have a great weekend, everybody!