Mathematical Quilts
Mascheroni’s Cardioid - Mascheroni constructions are compass only constructions. In 1797, Lorenzo Mascheroni proved that all constructions can be done with a moveable compass alone. (One must imagine that two points determine a straight line). Napoleon was so fascinated with Mascheroni’s work, that he had the mathematician teach his French mathematicians and generals.
Indiana Puzzle - This quilt was made by Diana Venters. Elaine forgot to photograph her red and white version of the quilt before turning it over to the London Science Museum. The quilt pattern is based on squares inscribed in squares. The coloring of the isosceles right triangles is the key to the logarithmic spiral formed here. Poincare Plane - This mathematician lived from 1854 to 1912. The quilt is housed in the London Science Museum. The design is based on a stereographic projection. The coloring of the hyperbolic plane was being investigated. The color is not identical to Escher’s Circle Limit 1. Koch Curve - The fractal based on Helge Von Koch’s work in 1904. Helge lived from 1870-1924. This fractal starts with the equilateral triangle as the initiator. Reiterated is the division of each side into thirds, remove the middle third, and insert two more sides facing outward, of an equilateral triangle. As with all fractals, the actual fractal results at the infinite stage. Clifford Torus - This work stems from work in the late 1800’s. The image of the torus results from projecting a sphere into the fourth dimension. Pioneering work on this topic was done by Thomas Banchoff at Brown University. His work, Beyond The Third Dimension was an inspiration to me, so I quilted his discovery! Sierpinskis Carpet is a fractal design that I created for my son and his wife. Scott and Emily are enjoying this king-sized quilt that begins with a square. The middle third of each side of the square is marked with white. The leftover squares then have the same rule applied to them: Put a white square in the middle of each remaining square. This pattern was continued for 3 iterations--and then was no longer sewable! Some quilts are for sale - please contact Elaine at eellisonelaine@gmail.com for more information and prices.