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

This is an interpretation of the marble staircase at the Villa Tugendhat which was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich and can be found in the Czech Republic. I am having trouble getting the colour of the photo to resemble the actual colour. This is the best but you can't see the stitching in the black. Picture of that at the end of the post.

I found the photo on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/559290847459235323/

I have been wanting to try botanic/eco dyeing and got it into my head that I would create a marbled effect on fabric through cold bundling with bits of rust and leaves. However, I left it way too late to start so I ended up making a dye bath of eucalyptus leaves and one of hibiscus flowers and try and marble with paint. I submerged zarashi, linen and muslin which had been soaked in a pre-mordant bath of watered down skim milk. Apparently, this helps cellulose fabric take up eucalyptus much better. I was a bit hasty with each stage resulting in very subtle colours but I love them. 

I decided to go with eucalyptus zarashi for the stairs and attempted to get a bit of marbling happening. It used a bit of this and a bit of that! I painted on the dregs of my morning coffee, used a few light dabs of a shiny white water colour paint and also inktense. The machine quilting is pretty simple, or should I say, minimalist as you can see in this photo.

Very pleased with what I learned about dyeing through this project.

Just tried to get a better shot.... lightened it so you can see the stitching Rosemary. :-)

NY Memories

 I wasn't looking forward to this challenge as I felt it was way out of my comfort zone.  I've never been sure about modern architecture, though funnily enough our new house extension could almost have been designed by Miles van de Rohe.  I also realised that with every other challenge we have done I have always managed to find a personal connection, or a photo I have personally taken, that I could use for inspiration.

My first look at the work of Miles van de Rohe mentioned a few of his famous designs, and I instantly knew I had found my topic.  Back in 1983 Rolls Royce sent my husband to work in the marketing department in New York, and at that time the office in Manhattan was situated in the Seagram Building, designed by Miles van de Rohe!!

This was the photo I found on the web.  I wanted to keep away from the front entrance area, and the straight lines appealed to me.

I initially decided to do the piece by hand using English paper piecing techniques, so drew the image I wanted using Illustrator, then printed it our at the correct size and cut it up.  I quickly realised I could save some time by doing most of the basting my machine, then after joining some of the vertical sections by hand I reverted to machine sewing to put the rest together.  I was disappointed when I finally assembled the whole piece to discover some of the lines did not line up, but I had no time left to remake the piece.  One the whole I am pleased with the result.

Collages

Having begun my  thinking around the angular buildings Mies is known for my research led me to his collages - https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/industry/mies-van-der-rohe-collages/  Their simplicity was irresistible and I also learned that Mies embraced and populariised a favourite saying "Less is more". 

 

Museum for a Small City Project, Interior perspectives. 1941 – 1943. MoMA
Mies van der Rohe Archive. © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

I've found myself working in a range of styles since our lives have been impacted by the virus, trying not to do what I always do, but nothing can match the pleasure I got from placing that turquoise square just where I felt it needed to go.

I didn't think through the quilting when I put this together and having stitched it I know I would do this differently next time, and there will be a next time - time to go back to being me!