Alexandria Library

 

THE GREAT LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA 

The great Library of Alexandria, Egypt was one of the largest and most significant Libraries of the ancient world but details of it are a mixture of history and legend. Alexandria came to be regarded as the capital of knowledge and learning. Many important and influential scholars worked at the library during the 3^rd and 2^nd centuries BCE. Ptolomy 1 may have laid the groundwork for the library but it did not come into being until the reign of Ptolomy 11 (283 – 246 BCE ) The library was built in the Brucheion  (Royal Quarter) of Alexandria as part of the Mouseion, or Seat of the Muses, the ancient centre of learning.

The library, or part thereof, was accidently burned down by Julius Caesar during his Civil War in 48 BCE. Sadly, the library dwindled during the Roman Period due to lack of funding and support.

According to legend, the Syracusan inventor Archimedes, while studying at the library of Alexandria, invented the Archimedes’ screw, a pump for pulling water up from below.

The later Kingdoms and Empires of the Near East, also had long traditions of book collecting. Fascinating!

                           

                          This facade is all the remains of the Library in Alexandria

 

I have already apologised in an earlier mail for my late entry. I am really sorry, but a huge queen size quilt I was commissioned to do, railroaded this library blog off the tracks. I was finding it difficult to complete this big project in my small flat, so I hopped on a bus with my suitcase crammed full of fabric, travelled for 9 hours to my sister in the low veld for help. 3 busy weeks later, I returned home with the completed top layer. The design was taken from paintings by an Austrian artist called Hundertwasser. This is the result so far.

   Allison.                               

LIBRARY TEASER

   I'm afraid that my quilt is not finished yet. I have been inspired by a library in Manchester where I worked in in the 1980's. I am pleased with the  print that I have done but the way in which I was going to use it simply hasn't worked. The sheer fabric that I was originally going to use turned out to not be sheer enough and it looked as though my library was in the fog (well, it is Manchester after all!). I found other sheers that worked well, except that the transfer print that I did on them was too faint. So it is back to the drawing board. I decided not to do anything this weekend as I was blocked, hoping that leaving my brain to mull it over on its own, whilst I did something else, would work. It didn't, and I feel somewhat paralyzed. Perhaps tomorrow will be better - I hope!

And another one for Birmingham!!!

 Hi everyone

Sorry for the late arrival. I have been frantically stitching all afternoon to get the last bits finished. It took w-a-y longer than I had anticipated.

Like Linda, Linda and Phil  I chose the library in Birmingham (does that make a 'bingo'?), not because it is my favourite, but because I couldn't resist the shapes on the exterior - they just shout 'QUILT' don't they?

I have been wanting to try this idea out for ages, so I decided to go for it. It has been reasonably successful - although I don't think my contribution warrants being called a  finished piece, but I have loved trying out the idea and I think it could be turned into a cool quilt in the future. I hope you like it!

 

It is made from folded and stitched dyed cotton organdie (the red/orange parts), and the pages of an old book that I laminated to polyester organza (the black and white parts). Here is a side view so you can perhaps get a better idea of what is going on.

 

The pieces are stitched together to form a pieces quilt top then the whole thing has been stitched onto  tulle, which is virtually invisible. My idea would be to make more of these panels and stitch them together, with the colours gradually changing and blending from yellow to green to blue. But it is a mighty fiddly job!

I have absolutely loved making it, but I need a rest from it for a while - but I do want to try and finish it - maybe next year!

Thanks for a brilliant challenge Dianne.

Masset Library

 When I first thought of the idea of libraries I thought of the high arches and looks of old venerable institutions.  And then I was going to do something about our Bibliothèque National here in Montreal - but with Covid, didn't want to go and take pictures.  And then I remembered a library we passed by when we were in Masset on Haida Gwaii and that was it!  It wasn't open at the time so I didn't get to see inside.  

Haida Gwaii is such a special place - you immediately become absorbed involved with the environment there.  It is simply a part of life and you can see how the stories have evolved using the animals and flora and fauna.   So I have taken Haida art figures and floated them around the library, trying to symbolize the importance of stories be they written or oral.   

I have used my picture of the library itself printed on fabric.  And once again, my piece needs to be finished with a border of some kind.  I just can't make up my mind - 1/4" binding, 2" black frame, facing, wrapping around a wood base......  I'm open to suggestions.

Birmingham Library

" I had a few moments of panic" when I saw the list of published posts and saw 'my' name against my chosen library but it seems that coincidence is at play as I have chosen the same subject as Linda F.  
I've only read Linda's introduction so it will be interesting to see how our interpretations compare. 

I loved the new Birmingham library the moment I entered. The space invites you to explore and on the day I visited there were plenty of people doing that but it was the way the space wrapped around you that I wanted to capture.

I decided to use a skeleton drawing of the galleries then filled the shapes with various fabrics and quilting patterns. The top layer, repeated further down, was made when working through exercises from "Intentional Printing" and drove the colour scheme. The bottom layer reflects the external cladding on the building was fun to do. The blue circles were printed before I stitched the larger orange ones.

Before books and libraries...

My inspiration came through an unrelated link and it clicked immediately.  What are libraries? - repositories of facts, stories, history, events.  When you didn't have a written language and you had no paper or books you used what was around you - surfaces in caves and you used pictures.  Rock art is found all over the world but my inspiration are the rock paintings in Twyfelfontein in Namibia.  Painted by the San (Bushmen) peoples they tell of hunts, give us an idea of the animals they knew and about their lives.  It is rich source of material.

Twyfelfontein and me

I have used my embroidery machine, acrylic paint, free machine quilting.  My hand was a bit of tongue in cheek last minute addition (the paint isn't dry yet) because I was struggling to work out how to add hands - the carved into rock ones, the type which are silhouettes made by blowing dye around your hand (would have been nice but should have been added earlier) or the stencilled kind.  I am still trying to work out how to 'knock back' the whole thing.  Not sure if a wash of thin paint or splatter or dabbing a sponge will do it, but it is all too fresh!

Thanks, Dianne, I have really enjoyed this.

Hilary

Next Challenge

I had an immediate idea when this challenge was first agreed, and despite looking at all sorts of other inspirations and architects, I failed to find a topic that apppeals so much as this one. So our next challenge is simply - DOORS

Birmingham Library

I had a few momens of panic when I saw this challenge, but then remembered a visit I made to Birmingham Library in 2019 as part of a city tour we had organised for our European friends in the car club. I particularly loved the outside of the library, and then, when you go inside, the wonderful feeling of space and the blue colour repeated everywhere.

The outside also incorporates a roof garden with a view over the city (though that was mainly a building site when we visited).

I know I have a tendancy to be over literal when I use photos, and I really tried hard not to do a straight translation this time - but I still erred in that direction. I did the inside of the library first, choosing fabrics from diferent countries for the racks of books, imagining books ranged in geographical sections. I had planned to do much more quilting - the upper railings and the actual bookcases, but was having so many problems with my machine missing stitches that I kept the stitching to a minimum on the upper levels. Finally I free stitched the outside pattern using organza and dissolvable fabric. This took much longer than I had expected, and then, when it was finished, I decided it obscured the inside of the library too much, so cut out almost all of the organza before overlaying it. I've not had time to do the binding yet - tonight's job! Despite all the problems I loved this topic - there are so many lovely libaries out there!

Street library - Brisbane

 

I loved this topic and had a flood of ideas. I decided it had to be a library I could visit. I decided on street libraries and heard there was one a few streets from me. So off I went only to be disappointed to find it was no longer there. I knew there were street libraries in Brisbane where I go reasonably often so googled those. I chose an image and planned to go and see it for myself and work from my own photos but, well, the Queensland border closed and then I finally got the all clear to travel to NZ to be with my mother (where I am now) so I couldn’t get to Brisbane. However, I went ahead with the project using this image from https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/street-libraries-spread-around-brisbane-20180219-p4z0uk.html as I know one day I will get to see it!

I used fabric from my mother’s stash (thanks mum 😊), drew the books and lettering with textile pens, machine appliqued and machine quilted.

By way of showing that there were books inside the fridge (also from the above link), I used print fabric for the backing.

Helsinki University Library

At first I thought this was going to be really difficult until I found so many absolutely beautiful libraries around the world.  It was a difficult choice, but for those who know me well I do like curves so when I saw some of the images of the Helsinki University Library I was hooked.  This is therefore my inspiration for my piece.

You will see that in the one image there is a touch of dark red which I placed in my piece to give it a focal point and to bring in a touch of colour.

I really enjoyed working on this piece.

BIRMINGHAM INSPIRATION

 After trolling the world libraries the moment the Birmingham Library came up and with my love of free motion quilting, this was the one. 

I started with dyeing the cloth in the two shades of yellow and blue and the intention was to fade the fabric out to bare cloth on the left.  This proved harder than I thought so after a couple of attempts I chose the better of the bunch and painted the left hand side using white paint. The intention with the fading out was to also fade out the circles towards the left.  I felt it was becoming too flat and uninteresting as I worked my way across so stopped at an angle and then added rows of curvy lines resembling book shelves giving me an outside/inside perspective.

Again it needed a focal point, something to lift it, hence the tree silhouette.  The final bit was grounding the roots which need a bit more tweeking.  I ran out of time as I am sitting in the bush on the banks of the Crocodile River overlooking the Kruger National Park while I load this post.

I need to also knock back the binding with more colour as it is too 'white'. 

After my initial panic attack when I read the challenge, I actually enjoyed completing this piece as it certainly made me think. 

And the winner is.......

 With the help of my random number selector (Robbie - choose a number from 1 to 8!)  the next architectural designer is Linda Forey.  

I noticed that there are a number of drafts sitting on our site.  If you want them to come up on Nov 30th they need to be post dated and published.  

Dianne

Library in Alexandria ,Egypt

The Library in Alexandria is the most ancient library that we know of . It contained valuable scrolls of the ancient world which were lost when Julius Caesar burnt it down during his campaign in Egypt. It was only rebuilt in the 20th century and has a back wall which ,on the exterior has images of ancient heiroglyphics .The woman depicted comes from a frieze on the wall of Tutankhamen's tomb.

Virtual reality tour

 One of the things that inspired me to suggest this was a virtual reality tour of 10 libraries in a video created by Robert Lepage, a local brilliant director.  I have no idea where or how you would be able to see it, but there is a 4 minute trailer that you can watch.  The beginning is how our tour started, in what seems to be a small, personal library.  Then you go into a room with lamps with green shades and you put on the VR glasses.  And then you can see all the libraries -some very old, and look around at all there is to see in them.  It's very moving.  You get just a hint of it in the last minute.  If you ever have a chance to see "the Library at Night" it is well worth it.

https://www.mcq.org/en/exposition?id=425961

If the link doesn't work, google The library at night and then click on the trailer.

LIbrary challenge - thank you

It's been a while but I'm finally making a piece that is talking to me, and it's all down to Dianne's choice for our next challenge. Thank you. I'm thoroughly enjoying the process of choosing fabrics and filling spaces with quilting. I suspect the final piece isn't going to be too exciting but falling back in love with the process definitely is

We have an amazing library in the John Rylands Library in Manchester - https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/rylands/visit/. There are lots of amazing images on Google, once you get past the Harry Potter shots, but the history of the library and its' collections are interesting too.

But in the end this wasn't the library for me, or at least not at the moment when a visit isn't sensible. I've moved on to a library I visited just before our UK lockdown the impact of which I can still recall.  

This badly lit photo isn't giving much away, though some may guess my inspiration source from it, but you can't have a blog post without a photo! 

Mies Van der Rohe

   I didn’t enjoy this challenge as I am not a fan of modern architecture. It is  too cold, bleak and clinical for my taste. All I could see were the straight lines disappearing into the distance (I wish I’d found that staircase!), so I tried to do something with those. Like Rosemary I liked the view of the buildings when looking up, and decided to use that in an abstract quilt. My original design was similar to Rosemary’s, but it was in plain colours: blue to represent the sky and I decided on an orange to represent the building. It was really boring as there was nothing to hold the interest, the lines just leading the eye off the quilt. Finally I decided to make four ‘buildings’ leading into the centre of the quilt, changing the colours around as the orange was a bit too overwhelming. I hand dyed some ombré fabrics, which took two attempts to get something that I could use. The blue fabric could have done with being a bit darker at the centre. I experimented with using inktense to darken it on some scraps, but it was too patchy, and when I tried using Markal with a stencil brush, the colour didn’t really go, so in the end I left it as it was as I was worried about ruining it. I hated it, and felt that I’d just made a glorified quilt block! However, once I’d quilted in the black lines, I decided it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. It hasn’t photographed very well, the blue looking a uniform colour however I photograph it. The only way that you can see a difference is in the black and white photo.

Seagram Image chosen

This is the image of the Seagram Building which I chose to interpret. I liked the perspective .

Mies van der Rohe

 Here is Rosemary's piece.  

If anyone is using a Mac and would like to help her be able to upload an image and not just text, both she and I will be very grateful.  It just isn't logical.

Hilary

The library???

 My first thought was panic but this was quickly replaced by thoughts about a potential source of inspiration - one to be explored before committing to publically!

Then I remembered a "library" created many years ago for a dear friend. At the time I belonged to a round robin group of seven friends and we went through the usual styles of round robins before breaking out and making our own rules. This friend invited us to each make a bookshelf  which she added to to make this bookcase. I'm not embarrassed to admit that given my friends antipathy to dusting I made the shelf with the, now faded, polish spray and duster lingering amongst the books.

What Will You Put on My Bookcase?

​by Margaret Menzies

The Library

 Over the millennia libraries have been built to store knowledge and in later years, to share that knowledge on a wider basis.  These buildings were important within each society and in current times they are also considered an important place for people to meet and learn and exchange ideas.  As a result they were often built as very impressive buildings.  Or not.  Some are just small log cabins - whatever works in the locale.  

We have all been to libraries, our own and as visitors to others.  I'm partly influenced by a virtual reality "movie" of Great libraries of the world that I watched and I can't seem to  now find a link to it.  But I do see that Harvard has a virtual tour of their library which is quite interesting.  

I hope you have fun with this. 

Westmount Square

 I can't believe I got this finished before the end of the day!!  My eyes are crossed from sewing all the lines.  And it's not quite finished - it needs a back and a border.  I use an iron on fleece on which I quilt and sew/embroider directly.  And I haven't decided whether more squiggly lines would be good in the sky.  I was trying for a more organic contrast to the straight lines. 

The building was completed in 1967 just in time for our Expo 67.  If you would like to read a bit about it Heather has done a nice post which is in June .   I found most of Mies's buildings very stark, and rather boring.  I know he designed chairs, a few of which are in this building's lobby.  I didn't see  his Barcelona Pavillion  in my search and which obviously held a lot more interest.  

I've based my quilt on a photo off the internet.  I had quite a few that I had taken, but now seem to have lost.  I liked the fact that one building was reflected in the other.  

PERSPECTIVE INTERPRETATION Allison Moorcroft

 

Mies van der Rohe     Perspective Interpretation.

Excellent celebrity choice but what a challenge! His work is so modern, stylized, clinical and simplified. A true exercise in perspective lines, vanishing points and reflections.

Initially I wanted to interpret his art form as a precise photographic copy of straight lines but found it difficult not to embellish with cords and twirly lines, but I did sneak in some embroidery on the walls and for emphasizing the perspective lines. I used a self-dyed fabric for the sky and an organza overlay to darken the hue of the water in the pool. For the grey panels I found a fabric I had sprayed – with car spray – and it was just perfect!

Thank goodness we have 3 months to create our pieces!

Looking forward to our next challenge.

Allison