Well, perhaps it would be uncouth to the Crawleys and to Mr. Carson. Everyone else downstairs would be tweeting, pinning and Facebooking along with the rest of us I’m sure!
Once again, because I still don’t have my quilt top basted, I didn’t have any tangible hand work to do while watching “Downton Abbey” on Sunday night. As the clock ticked toward 10:00 and the story wasn’t being wrapped up, I realized that it was a 2-hour episode. Since I had nothing quilt-related in front of me and I knew I wasn’t going to get anything done after the show was over, I started paying more attention to the way the costume design reflected what was going on in the episode.
The use of color to mark the passage of time in this episode was particularly noticeable, from black mourning clothes in the beginning, to the blues and lavenders worn at the christening (indicating half-mourning from what I’ve read, although Baby Sibyl was baptized within a few weeks after birth — would they really have gone to half-mourning so soon?)…
… to the creams and whites worn at the cricket match.
Not to mention Edith’s on-trend wardrobe for when she goes to London, signifying that she’s a modern 1920s woman, or cousin Rose’s red-hot number she wore in the jazz club. (Am I the only one who had a Carrie Bradshaw flashback as Rose, with those bouncing blonde curls, trotted down the city street to flag down a taxi to go meet her suitor?)
Marking a sample piece of fabric -- no light table needed!
As for my quilt, I’ve been mulling over my options for marking the top. All this time I was figuring I would create templates by punching holes in photocopies of my chosen motifs and running a pounce over them, perhaps with some cinnamon mixed in to show on my white fabric. But then I realized I’m marking white fabric and we have a glass-top coffee table — why make things more involved than they need to be? I can just lay my photocopies under the quilt top and use the coffee table as a light table for marking. In fact, the fabric is so pale and the photocopies so dark, I can do it without a light table.
My gray quilting pencil seems to show up just fine on this fabric.
I also decided, as much as I want to be working on the real thing, that it’s a good idea to test different marking tools on a leftover piece of my white fabric before I start marking the actual quilt top. This way I can preview how my marked lines will show up in different lighting conditions and how well they may wash out. Since it’s been awhile since I last hand quilted a large project, I’ll get to practice my stitch. I’ll also be auditioning different motifs to see how well they translate from the page to quilted motifs. Once I start doing my actual quilting, I don’t want any surprises.
We still have one more episode of DA season 3 to make use of this printable door hanger from thepixelboutique.com — from what I hear, we’re going to need it!
Downton Abbey door hanger from thepixelboutique.com
Click here to read about the beginning of the DASI.
Click here for the week 1 update.
Click here for the weeks 2 & 3 update.
Click here for the week 4 update.
Click here for the week 5 update.
Thanks for the link love. I hope your readers do use and enjoy the Downton Abbey printable door hanger. I know I’ll be using it to watch the season premier this week!
Cricket has always been played with the men wearing white, whatever country they are from.
I expect the ladies wor light colours to the Christening as the babe was baptised in the Catholic Church, otherwise I expect the ladies would have still worn the black of mourning.
I don’t think any of the “downstairs” staff would have know what “tweeting”, Facebook, or even a computer was.