Long time readers will remember our July 2004 introduction to Eldrid, a very talented quilter, teacher, and designer of extraordinarily lovely, unique quilts.If you have not already read about her, be sure to click on the link above. You will not want to miss reading her interesting story.

When I first me Eldrid online I was immediately impressed by the uniqueness of her Kameleon Quilts not only because they are beautiful, but especially because their looks can be changed by buttoning their three-dimensional flaps in different directions and in a variety of combinations resulting in completely distinctive looks. During our first interview, I mentioned my thoughts that the popular North American TV show Simply Quilts would surely be interested in Eldrid being a guest of Alex Anderson.

It is my pleasure to be able to share with you Eldrid's own story of her adventure with Alex and Simply Quilts:

I sent Alex an email with a brief explanation of my work and referred her to my website. To my surprise, I received a very nice reply from her the following day. The date happened to be April 1st, but the message was not, in fact, an April Fool's joke. Alex invited me to send her a packet presenting the Kameleon Quilt concept and promised to make sure it would get into the right hands.

I spent a couple of days putting together photos and descriptions, and also put together a Power Point presentation on CD. It included animations showing how the quilts work. I sent it all off and although I did not expect to hear anything right away, the weeks passed by. Sometimes it would cross my mind that this particular day could be the one in which I would find a reply in my Inbox. I would download with anticipation, but find nothing. The months continued to pass, and I thought, "Surely I should have heard something by now if they are at all interested," but still found nothing. Finally I accustomed myself to the thought that nothing would come out of this after all, but that at least I had tried.

Then, in late November when I had almost forgotten about the whole thing, I received an email from a producer at Weller/Grossman Productions asking if I would be available to fly out to Los Angeles to tape a Simply Quilts episode in January 2005!

Would I be available? What I felt right then was that ten wild horses could not stop me from going (although I admit that I am terrified of horses). Getting back to reality, there was the question of my day job and getting leave. This had to be sorted out before I could give a definite answer, so I calmed down and called my boss, explaining the situation.

"What! Are you going to Hollywood?" he shouted on the phone. I got my leave.

Someone must have overheard his loud, excited conversation because the next thing I knew the local radio station called for an interview. I had to convince the reporter that I did not know all the facts yet - and I didn't - but that I would probably have more information in a week or so. We agreed that he should call me again later. After all, I did not have a final confirmation that I was "on" yet, just an inquiry as to whether I was available. The reporter called back a couple of times, but I happened to be out each time, so the interview never did take place. Just as well, I think.

As soon as my leave was sorted out, I sent a reply to the producer stating that I was free to come. Before long she telephoned. We had a nice chat and I reckon the call was partly to check on my English language skills. I soon received a confirmation that they really wanted me on the show along with a bundle of very useful, detailed information about what to do and not do, and what to expect and not to expect, along with legal documents to sign and return.

Behind the Scenes

However, I had a serious handicap. I had never ever seen an episode of Simply Quilts or any other quilt show on TV. I had studied the various projects and photos on the HGTV web site, so had a fairly good idea of what would be expected, but had never actually seen what went on in the program itself.

I explained my dilemma to the producer. She was very understanding and sent me a tape of a previous episode even though doing so was not their normal policy. This was a big help, in spite of the difference between American and European VCR systems which made the picture black and white and very stripey. I could hear the sound very well and was able to make out the structure of the program.

I now had a hectic period ahead of me with a list of deadlines to meet; signed documents to return, notes for the script, written instructions for their web site, and the project itself. I thought that "notes for the script" sounded so good! Up until this point a script was something other important or lucky people made, mostly in novels. Suddenly there I was doing the task myself and without even the time to enjoy it properly. Come to think of it, they didn’t in the novels either. It was always hectic work long into the nights.

My original plan was to demonstrate Kameleon Quilt #1, Night and Day which I have taught at workshops, but never in as short time span as fifteen minutes (three segments of five minutes each) which was the allotted time on the show. I decided that it had far too much of everything, fabrics, blocks,

triangles, and that I needed a simplified version. This meant having to make a new quilt, plus all the blocks and parts at their various stages of finishing for the demonstration.

Going to the nearest quilt shop to buy fabric takes 6 hours travelling back and forth, which meant wasting an entire day, so my stash came in handy as it has done on many occasions. To make sure the fabrics I had chosen would be enough for everything, I also reduced the size of the blocks and flaps compared to the original. This meant I would need new templates, measurements, and fabric calculations - in short, a whole new pattern.

After spending a week finishing off some commissioned work I was doing, which was another deadline I had to meet, I started sewing and making notes along the way, and through it all kept pondering on how to go about the presentation, which parts should go into which segment, and what details to include. Later, when I started timing my presentation, I pondered the reverse problem - what details to exclude.

December arrived and it was time to book the flight and arrange for accommodations in order to get the early-booking, lower prices. My husband managed to take some time off his work so that he could come with me and we planned to stay an extra ten days and make a holiday out of the trip. My

January can often be a nightmare for travelling, and this one was no exception. Every second or third day there was a new storm, causing the flights across the mountains to be cancelled, the roads to be closed, and sometimes even the ferry from our island had to be cancelled. As the day neared, I made frantic calculations on the calendar for every new storm that arrived. Would Thursday be stormy or calm?

As it happened, there was a lull on the day we left, so in spite of all my fears, everything went as planned and we landed in warm and sunny California on Saturday morning. What a relief and what a difference in weather and temperature! We enjoyed the few days before my taping, did some sightseeing and shopping, and also spent some time making final adjustments to my presentation.

Eldrid and her Simply Quilts adventure
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