"It takes ages to finish a quilt you're not working on!"

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

My Day at the Roadshow!

I am SO glad I was able to go to this event, and rather annoyed at myself for not asking for extra tickets, as so many others did - each person was allowed to ask for up to four tickets, but I only requested one. I was offered another ticket by a friend at 9 pm on Tuesday night, so I phoned five people who I knew would love to go, but they all had other commitments for today. And they all would have enjoyed themselves as much as me, I am sure. The weather forecast for Melbourne was very cold and rainy, with possible hail and thunderstorms. When I left home at 10.30 am it was blue skies and sunshine. When I left to come home at 5 pm, the same! As I was inside the nice warm Exhibition Building all day, I had no idea what was happening outside; apparently it was snowing in some parts of Melbourne!!
Ticket holders were warned there would be long queues, and there certainly were - just like you see on the English Roadshow! But the atmosphere there was so exciting and so much was happening that you just forgot about your cold and aching feet! Everybody in the queues were excited and wanting to talk to the next person about what they had to show, and of course the cameramen were setting up their gear in various spots, causing more excitement if it was near where you were standing! Most of the items that I could see being filmed were ceramics, furniture, or paintings - much like it is in England, so I knew it was most unlikely that I would be chosen. But some of the filming was near my queue, so I suspect I might be in the background in some of their shots!
I had two bites of the cherry on my linen. I was sent first to the queue for "Miscellaneous" items, as they didn't have a specific expert on linen. My 'expert' was the Englishman Tim Wonnacott - tall and dark with a moustache. He didn't really seem to know much about textiles, but he was very friendly and polite about my pieces, saying what I already know, and that is, it is difficult to put a value on them. So I trotted off to join the queue for "Australiana", and saw an Australian gentleman, who was surprisingly enthusiastic about my pieces. He had a close look at the stitching, commenting on the quality of it, and that the linen had been well preserved. He was of the opinion that individual pieces would not be worth a lot of money except to another collector like myself, but he felt that as a collection, it would be of great interest to the Australian Museum. That made my day!
Well, that is more than enough to write about my experiences today, but I am still on a 'high', so please forgive me, if you have actually read this far! I have had lots of lovely comments on my photos today - thanks to all of you. I will respond to them soon - possibly tomorrow when I have come down to earth :-) Footnote: There will be some photos on ebay Australia's collectables discussion board in the next day or so, but my own photos won't be ready to put on here until I finish the film in the camera. Don't hold your breath!

8 comments:

Linda said...

Sounds like it was a lovely day - and even if you don't make it to air, you can say "I was there!!!!".

Cannot wait to see the pictures. :)

And it only reinforces how important it is that you keep collecting - everyone is collecting china etc - you are performing a public service in preserving really interesting cultural material (pardon the pun!)

Miss Robyn said...

so glad that you had a great time and yes it was snowing in lots of places. here is a saying from 'country living' that you might like ~ * linen is one of life's enduring luxuries * only improving with age & use *
must go check the rest of your latest posts...havent seen all the pics yet !

Sharon said...

I am glad you had such a great day... I thought of you often and wondered how you were doing... What a positive response to your collection and I guess you were told what you you already suspected as far as it was concerned...

Finding My Way said...

Gina,
It sounds so exciting! I'm so happy you enjoyed yourself. :-) I was watching the news last night and saw pictures of the snow and people throwing snowballs at one another. It's hard to even picture it since we've had nothing but 90 plus days. I'll be leaving soon for a trip and I'm praying we have dry weather. Today is dark, wet, gloomy. But my lawn so badly needs the rain. Anywho...Don't want to ramble, just happy you had a great day.
Hugs,
Patty

Maggie Ann said...

How lovely an experience you've had. I'm just 'eating up' your commentary of the day. You know how you go into museums and the clothing and such are behind glass walls and its so interesting to see. You're doing that kind of thing too. Looking forward to seeing the pictures. Your mentioned having film in the camera...what- no digital camera yet? 'lol'....just kidding.

Kali said...

I'm so jealous! (lol)
How exciting for you!! I've enjoyed reading your blog & am just going back to have another look!

Gina E. said...

Hi Friends! Thank you all for your comments; I just love reading responses to my posts, and I try to reciprocate to all of you, either here, or on your blogs. I have filched some photos of me that were taken by the friend I met at the Roadshow. She posted them on eBay, so I have saved them to my hard drive, and am going to put them on here. Can't wait until my film is developed...yeah, okay Maggie Ann - I am sure you know all about my digital camera woes!!!!

Danielle said...

Lucky you. This sounds like so much fun!!