Sunday, March 06, 2011

twelve by twelve

I have a beautiful book to share with you. Twelve By Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge.


The book is about the 12 x 12 group and their challenges to make 12" square quilts. Rather than go into the details, I'll just send you to their blog to read more. As far as the book goes, it's published by Lark and they always do such a gorgeous job with their books. It's my favorite kind of quilt book = wordy. That is, there are stories to about how the challenge topics were chosen, how the quilters picked what to work on, their techniques for putting the quilts together. Plus, I LOVE pictures of quilters' studios and collections and the book even includes that, as well as biographical details. So much information packed in here.


Holy Cow, the Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge is actually 50% off at Amazon right now. I highly recommend the book anyway, but at this price? Go, go, go. 

My longtime blogging friend Kristin LaFlamme is a member of the 12 x 12 group. Kristin and I actually got to meet in Houston - woohoo! I was also lucky enough to meet her darling (but tired after the long flight from Hawaii and now we're at a quilt show) kids and her generous husband, who is known in Internetlandia as IBOL guy. IBOL = Iraqi Bundles of Love, in which quilters (knitters and anyone else who wants to help) send sewing products and fabric to share with Iraqis, to try and show some love and generosity. Read the IBOL blog to find out more.

So, this is me (on the left in my new Just Bobbin Along necklace that I bought at the show but you can buy here) and Kristin:


I have been working my way through the 12 x 12 book, savoring it slowly, but not doing much fiction reading. I go through booms and busts. Partly because once I get really hooked into a novel I can't put it down and I stay up until 3am reading it (just like I did all throughout my school years - not very bright).

TV has been really pathetic lately. When my sweetie was home we finally got to watch the rest of Burn Notice season 4. I hope he's not reading this, but I thought it was really disappointing. The whole Jesse thing just took too much time away from the main characters whom I all love. Not to mention that I am so tired of the whole Burn Notice thing. Let it go already.

Also finished The Closer's most recent season. (Can I just say how annoying it is for some of these summer programs to take a break in the middle of their already short season? gah). That show just doesn't intrigue me or make me laugh the way it used to. Always have too many kinda preachy episodes. But it did have one of my favorite episodes ever, The Layover, with Flynn and Provenza. I love those guys.

Hee hee hee. I was looking for a Closer clip to show you and came across this Sesame Street takeoff. It's short and a hoot:



Have ya'all seen Downton Abbey? Fantastic show. I had to order the dvd before the show even finished airing on Masterpiece Theater. Here is a quote from Jace Lacob's Daily Beast article on the show
Downton Abbey offers a lavish take on the period drama, depicting the lives of the wealthy Crawley family and their servants at an English stately home just prior to World War I. When the sinking of the Titanic takes the lives of the next two heirs to a vast estate, the Crawley family is left with a dilemma as the next in line to inherit is a distant cousin, a middle-class solicitor whom none of them know.
Whee, so looking forward to the sequel, filming soon in the U.K.  Man, it's gonna take forever to get here!

Okay, so not only do I have a thing for shows made from Jane Austen's books, but also for shows set in this later time. The writer of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellows, also did Gosford Park which I love and is set in the same time period. Edwardian, right? Speaking of which...

Has anyone else ever seen the U.K. series Flambards? It's about a teenage girl Christina who's been orphaned and sent off to live with her mean uncle and his two sons. The elder is very virile and horsey and the younger, William, is crippled and extremely intelligent (and of course despised by his father and brother). Oh, and the good looking stable boy. So there are horses, early motor cars and aeroplanes and it's just fabulous. And uh oh, World War I is looming...

The show aired on PBS when I was about 16 - the perfect age for the show. I sooo loved it. Taped it on the VCR and watched it over and over and over again. When it played ten years later, I watched it all over again, sucking a roommate right into it too. Just writing this makes me realize how much I loved this show and the books (starting with Flambards) it was based on. I had to go see if it was on DVD and it looks like there is an old crummy transfer available and a new dvd set is coming out next month. But has it been remastered?

So funny thinking about this show as an adult because there is all this romantic tension between Christina and her cousins. Kinda icky. Hmmm, maybe it was a step-uncle or something. It appears I don't remember the ENTIRE thing as well as I thought. I could certainly tell you all the plot points though and about the adventurous Dorothy in her motor car....

Okay, that's enough of a novel to write for today. Oh wait. If I forget to put kitty pics in a blog post (again) my husband will kill me (with his sadness). While he was home, he managed to get some rare shots of all four kitties in the same place. Of course there was sunshine:


ah sunshine

18 comments:

DianeY said...

Thanks for the Sesame St video-too funny! I still get some chuckles from the Closer. Sometimes I find a rerun I missed & do love some of the old ones!

YankeeQuilter said...

I love Downton Abbey...DVD's are set to arrive on Monday. I could watch it multiple times just for the costumes but the one liners are great too!

Tazzie said...

I have been soooo looking forward to seeing Downton Abbey here, and I'm so pleased to hear that you've loved it. I'm thinking I may order the DVD as based on all the reviews. Sounds like we both like a lot of the same shows.
*hugs*
Tazzie
:-)

Eileen said...

Came across "Downtown Abbey" on netflix today...watching the 6th episode now and one more to go. Enjoying it!

Rosemary B❤️ said...

Great photo... but you don't look lazy.
Both of you look perky. :-)

Diane Perin said...

Thank you for the wonderful review of the Twelve by Twelve book. I'm so glad you are enjoying it!

And it sounds like we like the same type of tv, too. I just got the Downton Abbey dvds, as I missed the first episode and did not want to jump in out of order! I am looking forward to watching it.

Terry Grant said...

So glad you are enjoying our book! And thanks for the kind words. We love "wordy" too, and hope our words add more meaning the beautiful book Lark produced.

Diane said...

yayyyyyy kitty pix!!!

Kathy said...

LOVE "Downtown Abbey", have a new DVR, addicting!

VivJM said...

I've been loving the twelve by twelve book too. I love reading each bit from the different artists about how they arrived at their ideas. Very inspirational, and beautiful pics.

Clare said...

War clouds over Downton: A host of new faces as ITV starts filming second series of hit drama | Mail Online http://tinyurl.com/4ssj9ry

Another Tonya book recommendation. I'll take a look.

Lovely piccie of les chattes

Lynda said...

Downton Abbey was so good! It showed a fabulous snapshot of a doomed world, just before WW1 and the changes it made to society. Loved it! (Also I'm a sucker for books. Going on Amazon asap!)

Rosalyn Manesse said...

What a beautiful book. It's inspiring to see some really serious quilting. I love TV, too.

Chris said...

YES!! Wasn't "The Layover" one of the best The Closer episodes ever! I Love Provenza.

Thanks for the nice review on the 12 X 12 book.

Anonymous said...

I love Flambards too! I was a newlywed and there were very few TV channels were we lived, thank God for PBS. My husband gave me the complete series on DVD for our anniversary. We have watched it over and over again. The 3 DVDs came as a boxed set. I think he found it on Amazon. Hope you find the DVDs.

Kim said...

Oh lucky me......we have the best library system and I just ordered the Flambards and Downton Abbey......so I can see what you are talking about.......love the Brits and especially Maggie Smith.....oh who will ever be able to replace her?

Are we all getting excited for the royal wedding coming up? My daughter was born in 1981 and I remember breastfeeding my daughter while watching Diane get married.....my daughter just turned 30! About time for another great wedding!

Love those kitties!
Glad you are on the mend.....
Happy Sewing

LynAnne Smucker said...

I remember watching the whole Flambards series when my family briefly lived in Wales (1980-81 or so) and I totally loved it. Now I'm not alone in being totally cuaught up/obcessed with Flambards.
You might like the BBC series Wives and Daughters based on the Elizabeth Gaskell novel and I also really recommend a more recent series Lost in Austen, in which a modern London single girl ends up switching places with Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Predijuce and messing up all the romantic intrique. Its funny and really hits the right notes as the main character grapples with some of the reality of the historical period of Austen's novel. Hope your knee continues to improve. I've really enjoyed reading your blog and seeing your quilts.

Kristin L said...

Thanks for the glowing review. It is so nice to hear that our book is being well received.

Haven't watched these particular shows (well, I was watching The Closer, until there were no more new episodes). I'm replacing The Closer with The Good Wife and Harry's Law. Gotta love the strong women.