Another Christmas project done and dusted. I'm still trying to work out what possessed me to entertain a block with 75 pieces in it... While finishing it today I put the BBC Jane Eyre (Zelah whatserface and Timothy Dalton, 1983) on the DVD player, but didn't watch much because I was looking at what I was quilting/binding. A kinda talking book.
a) I found Rochester a bit too demanding and contrary. An elusive charm (unlike, say, Darcy). Jane a bit prissy. And the way he kept going on about her being an elf/fairy etc. erk. In a crinoline? With that many white lace collars?
b) they've sure improved the lighting in more recent bonnet dramas. This one looked entirely lit by fluorescent lights, from above. Just like they had in the mid nineteenth century.
c) maybe it's the way it was filmed (on video instead of film, or some medium that hasn't lasted so well?), but it seemed drained of colour - browns, greys, very muted in decor, clothes, interiors. I'm sure I've read that Victorian times included some outrageously bright colours, particularly after the discovery of aniline dyes.
d) it may be 'period' but it's still interesting to note the prism of its time of making - it has a late 1970s/early 1980s feel about its costume, here and there - in the hair, perhaps some fabrics. Make it again now, and even though its period would be the same, the representation of the period would be different, however much each production's designers strove for authenticity.
Still, 330 minutes later the partially quilted quilt had been fully quilted, binding and hanging sleeve attached and hand-sewn down, threads snipped off front and back, label made and sewn on. Finito (except for the instructions). Amusingly enough, these are 'reproduction' fabrics, a Judie Rothermel 19thC range called "Spirit of the Season".
Although it's far from Christmas time yet, it's definitely been a cold winter so far. The paper said today that's because of global warming - high pressure systems bringing clear skies and cold nights. Brrr. Well, brrr for Australia. None of my Christmas quilts are ever used in Australia's December for warmth, but they work for decoration. Ho ho ho.
No comments:
Post a Comment