When not quilting I also work in TV & Film and last year I was the prop buyer on ITV’s drama Flesh & Blood, one of the props was a quilt that Imelda Staunton’s character, Mary, makes throughout the program. So I offered to make the quilt. The quilt was meant to be made from other characters childhood clothes, so I bought vintage clothes on eBay and went to car boot sales and second hand markets to get more garments, I also bought vintage fat quarters and some solid fat quarters online.
When filming you don’t film in chronological order, so the first scene we filmed with the quilt was when the quilt had been finished, after this I then had to unpick it so the top was half made so that Imelda’s character could be filmed sewing the quilt. I had to teach Imelda how to use the sewing machine and how to sew the pieces together and how to quilt it, I have to say, she’s absolutely lovely and once she’d had a few goes really got into it!
Below are some photos of the quilt in progress and some screen grabs from the actual show. The last photo is me practicing on the machine I bought.