We're going to be on BBC Flog It soon!
2 December 2015
A few months ago, back in June in fact when summer was in full fling, we had a visit from the BBC Flog It team. For those of you not familiar with the programme, Flog It is an extremely popular antiques show along the lines of The Antiques Roadshow. But with an added twist! Paul Martin and his team of experts invite members of the public to bring their antiques to be viewed and valued, with an option to sell at auction.
At intervals in the programme visits are made to local visitor attractions such as castles, museums and art galleries, and The Quilt Association was invited, along with our resident quilt group - Welsh Heritage Quilters - to feature in one of these programme inserts. We were absolutely delighted to accept the invitation, and spent a thoroughly enjoyable day of filming with the Flog It team.
Doreen Gough (QA trustee, exhibitions organiser and resident quilt expert) spent some time being filmed with Paul as together they looked at some of our favourites from the heritage quilt collection. Here they are studying the Military Quilt, which was pieced from uniform fabrics - most likely by an ex-soldier convalescing at a home near Talgarth in South Powys sometime in the 19th century.
Paul Martin was also filmed with the Welsh Heritage Quilters quilt group as they met for their weekly sewing session. They shared with him some of their latest creations, including a strippy quilt, Buy Local hangings, an elaborate sewing box, and other stunning pieces. Paul was keen to find out more about why they enjoyed belonging to the group and what had inspired them to take up quilting and patchwork in the first place.
The BBC film crew then moved to to shoot a scene with the WHQ group stretching a new sample quilt. Paul learned how a quilt is made with its three layer sandwich of top, wadding and backing fabric.
The filming went very smoothly. We all learnt to keep quiet at the appropriate time, and also how patient people working in this field have to be as there are so many unexpected interruptions in the form of noisy jets flying over and ruining the sound or even rain pouring down onto the roof (it was a British summer after all!). But the day had been very carefully planned and by 4pm we were all done.
Sheila and Jackie from the quilt group sew quietly for the BBC film crew.
All in all we had a lovely day with the Flog It team, and really look forward to seeing the segment in a forthcoming programme. We are waiting to hear the final broadcast date - sometime coming up soon we believe - and will post an update here when we find out so that you can tune in too.