Millau Bridge

Finally I have managed to finish my bridge piece. Sorry it's taken so long. After our trip to Romania I started thinking about which bridge to choose, but knowing we had a trip to Norway and Sweden coming up very shortly I waited as I knew we were returning across 'THE Bridge', the Öresund Brudge which connects Sweden and Denmark and is over 8 kilmetres long. It was a great experience to drive across, but like many bridges, the best views were always going to be taken from any other view point than the bridge itself, and we didn't have time to detour to look at the bridge from any other angle. So, on our return, I went for my second choice, the Millau Bridge in southern France. This is a multispan cable-stayed bridge and is (unless a taller one has been built since September 2020) the tallest bridge in the world having a structural height of 336.4 metres. Even better from my point of view is that the mororway that crosses it has a services close to the bridge that doubles as a viewing point. We crossed it in September 2016 on our way to Barcelona on yet another car trip. Its hard to see the scale of it but if you look closely at the photo you can just see the tops of cars on the bridge itself.

I decided to keep the work very simplistic, and to attempt to give the idea of it's scale by using neutral colours that imply you are looking from a distance. I'm not sure I suceeded - it has just ended up looking rather dull. I also had forgotten the challenge of using rayon threads - despite several extra stitches at the end of each section they still tend to unravel.

And perhaps more stitching in the background would have helped! One last challenge for me, monolithic, then I shall goodbye to this group. I will be sad to go, but I know I'm unable to commit to completing work on schedule at the moment.

And the last subject is...

 Architectural Monoliths!   A 'giant' of a subject.  Wikipedia's definition is:

Monolithic architecture describes buildings which are carved, cast or excavated from a single piece of material, historically from rock. The most basic form of monolithic architecture is a rock-cut building, such as the monolithic churches of Ethiopia built by the Zagwe dynasty, or the Pancha Rathas in India.

I think any building that has a single construction material can be described as monolithic when the end result gives the impression of being constructed out of a single piece of the material - concrete, steel, etc.

For images:  https://tinyurl.com/2e9nawe8 

Don't panic!   It's a really interesting challenge.  Thanks Allison.

Hilary

second bridge quilt using 'bridge as 'connection'.

 

AIR BRIDGE

 No other type of bridge has played such a significant role in my life as the air bridge. I had the good fortune to be born an Australian and with it, the privellege of having a passport that allowed me to travel easily - to visit and, in some cases, live in a wide range of countries. 

Of course, the more I travelled, the more long-distant connections I formed and before I knew it, I was living in another country to family and my closest friends and it wasn't until COVID hit that I realised just how much I had taken for granted that airbridge that had hitherto enabled me to visit my significant people.  

Now, the air bridge can't fully serve its function as a bridge to the traveller without offering you a plane to sit on part-way through the journey! I was going to have a less identifiable airliner but ended up choosing to represent Air New Zealand. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, as NZ was my adopted home for many years, I have probably flown with them more than any other airline. Secondly, during all the stresses of the last 2.5 years with my freedom to travel to and from NZ so severely restricted, Air NZ were just wonderful from when I had my meltdown at Sydney airport when I was told I couldn't fly to NZ, to crediting flights, changing flights, providing great inflight service and so on. And, thirdly, I love their logo - the Koru - not only because of its visual appeal but because it symbolises 'new life, growth, strength and peace' (Wikipedia).

The background fabric is from a piece I bought from the Apple Basket quilt shop in Kaiwaka, north of Auckland. Mum and I had been in there a number of times together and I had shown her this fabric on one of our visits but didn't get it at the time as, well, I was having a rare moment of constraint in a patchwork shop! I bought it after mum died knowing there would be something I could do with it. And, here it is as the perfect backdrop to the air bridge! I can find on that fabric cities and countries that are meaningful to me. (It is just a pity that Europe is not featured.)

The airbridge is flattened-out left-over binding I very conveniently came across. I concertinaed it and - voila - we have an air bridge!

The bridge of friendship

 

I used a metaphorical approach to create the theme of this piece - bridges.

The gesture of shaking hands is often used for making friends and exchanging greetings, so I used "the bridge of friendship" as the source of inspiration for this piece.

The influence of covid now avoids physical contact. The simple handshake has become rare in the past. Therefore, I designed this work as an interactive.

There are two pockets on the back that are not interchangeable. When you put your hand in it, it looks like you are shaking hands with the person next to you.

Very interesting and meaningful piece !

Momo

THE ROLLING BRIDGE

 The rolling bridge was conceived by Thomas Heatherwick.  It consists of eight triangular  sections hinged at the walkway level and connected above by two-part links that can be collapsed towards the deck by hydraulic cylinders mounted vertically between the sections. When extended,  it resembles a conventional steel and timber footbridge and is 12 meters long.  To allow the passage of boats,  the hydraulic pistons are activated and the bridge curls up until its 2 ends join.  The bridge  won the the British Constructional Steelwork Associations  British Structural Steel Design Award.

This bridge was completed in 2004 as part of the Grand Union Canal office and retail development project at Paddington Basin,  London. 

Applique,  paint, stitching form the background.  The rolled up and the fully rolled out images are painted stitch and tear which painted proved to be quite tolerant of the cutting and stitching. The bridge rolled out also proved a problem as I could not get the whole bridge in without minimizing the scale of the bridge. I also would have preferred to have got a 2d effect of the bridge but time was not on my side as I to finish it before I left for the UK.   Other than that I am quite happy with the result.  

Forth into the Future

 Almost straight away I knew which bridge I would use having seen an episode of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year being set on the banks just below the Forth Railway Bridge.  But...I failed spectacularly in my plan to create something abstract or even impressionistic.  I just don't seem to be able to loosen up.  One day maybe?

I also made a bit of hash of this piece in not thinking the process through thoroughly first.  I should have completed all of the far side of the bridge first, and then added the near side.  It meant a lot of splicing in small pieces!  Lesson leant.

It is a mix of commercial and hand dyed fabrics, Inktense painting, raw-edge applique and machine quilting. Edge satin stitched.  It measures 14.5" x 20"

Hilary

PS  I will reveal Allison's choice of theme soon and also start the ball rolling on what Series 5 will be all about.  H

Le Pont des Templiers

   The oldest bridge in the Ile de France ( the Paris region) is about fifty minutes walk from where we live. We cross over the bridge, and on the other side of the motorway there is a pleasant walk through the woods along  the banks of the river Yvette, then through a little arboretum, which is at the back of some housing, then along the banks of the Rouillon stream. The Templars' Bridge, the last vestige of the Templar Commandery of Balizy founded in 1288, is located in the hamlet of Balizy in Longjumeau. It is the oldest bridge in the Ile de France region, classified as a historical monument in 1930. The bridge has two parts: a main arch that spans the Rouillon, and two smaller arches. All three are Romanesque. At the downstream end of the bridge inderneath the largest arch is the Jerusalem cross, symbol of the Order of the Temple.

   When I first started thinking about this subject, I was considering doing a sketch map of our walk along with a picture of the bridge itself, but I couldn't get it all to fit together, so eventually decided to just show the bridge. At first I was  going to print the image, but it didn't work, so I drew it, coloured it in with markal paintstiks, then quilted it. The stream that runs beneath the bridge is rather small and sluggish, but in my version it seems to have become a stronger flowing river! 

Jacques Cartier Bridge

 As you may or may not know, Montreal is an island in the middle of the St Lawrence river.  Consequently bridges play an important part in the livelihood of the city.  In early days canoes and boats provided crossings as did ice bridges that could be traversed by horse and buggies and even for a few years, a train.  We still have ice bridges - these are opened and maintained and checked regularly for safety for cars in the winter months.  But they don't cross the main river, just smaller parts.

The Jacques Cartier was built in 1930 and is still in use today - carrying over 30 million cars per year.  And it's only one of several bridges and a tunnel.  It is lit up for various celebrations, pride week amongst them and I wanted to capture the idea of light and colour. 

Another activity is a fireworks competition every summer hence the "stars".  

 I look forward to our next challenge and to continuing with the group.

MONET'S BRIDGE

 I was inspired by this piece by Monet who painted 12 different aspects of this bridge during the different seasons of the year, therefore there are many varied pieces of his work.  Yes I have used mosaics yet again to depict the water and water lilies, which in fabric is not the easiest to do, but this was the only way I could possibly achieve any semblance of water.  I did a bit of painting over them but it tended to flatten the overall look, so here we are again using tiny pieces of the various colours.  I also used a lot of paint on the background as the only background fabric I took to the UK on holiday was quite dark, but on my return I used quite a bit of paint to lighten it.  I also quilted the background with a lot of threadwork.  I really enjoyed this subject, so thank you Momo for choosing it for us.

BRIDGE

My choice was to do a suspension bridge using the design the right way up and then upside down.  The wavy blue pattern on each side of the bridge indicates the water flowing under the bridge.  Here is the final piece.

PUBLISHED ON BEHALF OF ROSEMARY

Domed rood

I've finally finished my Islamic piece. I initally thought about a lot of the decoration you find on these buildings, but realised that wasn't really fulfilling the brief. I've always tried to work from my own photos whenever possible for all our challenges, so I went back through all my photos from India, initially think of doing something using the outline of the Taj Mahal. Instead of which I found the following photo - the inside of a doom looking directly up.

This appealed to me as I can't resist circular symmetry, and I loved the way the structure formed a pattern. I've fussy cut fabric for the decoration, and used quilting for the lines. I hope this gives a sense of one of the pervading characteristics of Islamic artitecture - light, open spaces.

One of the reaons I was so late on this challenge (apart from the three week road trip to Romania) was that our son got married (actually a civil partnership) last weekend. Here are the happy couple, being photographed by his twin sister, He made/adapted his own outfit, I made Becky's silk waistcost!