Ed Marcum's article

Her quilting show covers a patchwork of topics.
Martha Rose Woodward, who has made quilts since she was a little girl, now has a program on Community Television in which she shows how to make quilts. Actually, through her show, Homespun Hobbies, Woodward deals with a number of hobbies plus whatever topic she finds of interest, from Knoxville’s Sunsphere to making the perfect tomato sandwich.
Provided by: Ed Marcum
Martha Rose Woodward, who has made quilts since she was a little girl, now has a program on Community Television in which she shows how to make quilts. Actually, through her show, Homespun Hobbies, Woodward deals with a number of hobbies plus whatever topic she finds of interest, from Knoxville’s Sunsphere to making the perfect tomato sandwich.:Homespun Hobbies came about by chance. Martha Rose Woodward, seen here in her Oakwood-Lincoln Park home with her dog, Bailey, made a deal to teach a friend how to make quilts if the friend would show her how to use a video camera. Then, Woodward learned that Community Television offered further training classes and a chance to appear on TV.:";
Contributed by: YourHub.com on 11/22/2006
BY ED MARCUM
marcum@knews.com
Martha Rose Woodward, leaned toward the television in her North Knoxville home as she gave a tour through episodes of her community-access TV show.
She had reached the ending montage for a segment shot at the home of Suzann Emery, West Knoxville resident who has a crafts business called Ivy Vine. Images from around the home and in the yard flicked across the screen until footage of some flowers appeared.
"Okay, you're going to see a bee in a minute," Woodward said. "There he is."
A bee appeared on the screen, buzzed around the petals of one flower for a few seconds and flew off.
"That took me 45 minutes to do," said Woodward, explaining that she had to wait for a bee to appear, try to catch it on her video camera, screen the results to find the bee footage and edit it into the montage.
Putting together a TV show takes a lot more time and effort than most people realize, said Woodward, whose show, Homespun Hobbies, appears at 3:15 p.m. each Tuesday and 8:15 p.m. each Friday on Community Television Channel 12 on Comcast cable.
It proved to be quite a challenge for a retired schoolteacher looking for a creative outlet said Woodward, who spent 24 years as a Talented and Gifted program teacher with Knox County Schools.
The staff at Community Television will train novices on TV production. For four weeks, Woodward spent three hours a week in classes learning how to film, transfer video to computer, edit video, do transitions and other effects, add sound, add text, add music, transfer the video to a data disk and perform other functions.
This all came about rather haphazardly. Woodward, who lives in the Oakwood/Lincoln Park community, said she had no great desire to be on TV Things just fell in place for it to happen.
Woodward, 58, who grew up on a farm in Middle Tennessee and moved to Knoxville in 1975, learned to make quilts as a child. She devoted much time to making quilts after she retired in 1999.
Not long ago, Woodward's friend, Vickie Fox, owner of Sly as a Fox Detective Agency, asked Woodward to show her how to make a simple quilt. As Woodward showed Fox a book with examples of her quilts, Fox said Woodward should make a video of her quilts.
The two agreed that Fox would show her how to use video equipment if Woodward would teach her friend to make a quilt.
"It was about that same time when I heard an interview on the radio with David Vogel, the general manager for Community Television in Knoxville," Woodward said.
She was intrigued as Vogel spoke on how the public could take classes and learn to produce their own programs for Channel 12, and decided to do that.
She admits, the process did not go smoothly at first. There was a lot of information to absorb and there were frustrating days when Woodward could not get things to work as they should.
"I would leave out of there and I would just sit in the car and cry and cry and think these people probably think I am the dumbest old woman," she said.
"And then I would call and say I don't know if I'm going to come back or not; I know you think I am stupid and they would say 'we don't think you are stupid, just come back,"' she said.
What finally worked for her was to take things step-by-step-just focus on learning one thing, such as camera transitions or adding text, instead of trying to master it all at once. Gradually, everything started coming together and since April, Woodward has produced 27 installments of Homespun Hobbies, which is a 15-minute program.
It started as a show primarily about making quilts, and then Woodward started dealing with other hobbies. Now, she pretty much does the show about anything she chooses. Topics have included thrift-store shopping, Habitat for Humanity, bathroom remodeling, the Sunsphere, the Amish, the proper way to make a tomato sandwich and others.
"I do shows on my friends or anything I think is interesting," she said.
The thrift store episode involved Woodward and daughter Ashley Rose Penery looking for bargains. Woodward also has a daughter, Erin Akroush and a son, Barrett Woodward.
Several things drive her desire to do her show besides the fact she has such fun making the episodes, Woodward said. One is the need to be creative.
"It frees my mind. I think creative people have this thing inside that needs to come out and when I am doing this, I am using all my creativity," she said.
There are other reasons. Woodward has had cancer, which has left her partially disabled and she has to use portable oxygen equipment. This added an extra challenge to doing a TV show, but extra drive as well, she said.
"A lot of it is making a historical record. I know it's going to sound corny, but when you almost die, like I did, you start thinking, I should leave something for my kids to know me," she said.
Woodward figures her show is probably watched by just a handful of people, but she still has definite ideas about what the program should accomplish.
"There is just so much bad on TV. We need a respite from the gloom and doom," she said.
"I just want to do something that is uplifting: here is something you can do, here is a recipe you can use, here's a way you can make a quilt if you've never made one," she said.
Woodward said she is always looking for people with interesting hobbies for her show and can be reached at 865-951-0319.