March is National Quilting Month, and I took this opportunity to delve into some of the history and math associated with this traditional American craft.
Geometry is clearly at the heart of quilt making, and I thought it might be a good exercise for students to recreate some of the traditional quilt patterns with Geometiles. So I printed up some pictures — you can find them here— and provided a box of Geometiles right isosceles triangles at a table at a math festival. I left everything on a table, and when I came back here is what I found.
The elementary school boys figured out how to make the Flying Geese and Shoo Fly Quilt blocks in the above photos entirely on their own! The students found that, in the Flying Geese pattern, they can make a larger yellow isosceles triangle (the “the goose”) out of two 45-45-90 triangle tiles, and that they can make the squares in the Shoo Fly pattern out of the same two tiles, but connected differently:
Moreover, they found that with Geometiles, they can add another dimension to quilt making by folding the “quilts” into cubes— and improvising their own color scheme:
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The table attracted attention from another student’s grandmother, who is an avid quilter. She noted that she has made all the patterns I had displayed on the cards. She was kind enough to send me a quilt pattern for the Shoo Fly Quilt that she inherited from her grandmother:
Note the date on the patent! It is not clear exactly what the patent is for. The Shoo Fly Pattern existed at least since the 1800’s— way before 1934! It seems fairly obvious to me that you need 4 white square, 1 print square, and 4 each of the right isosceles triangles in white and in print. I can’t imagine that communicating this information is patentable. Regardless of these unanswered patent questions, it was very interesting to find this nearly 100 year old paper record for a design that is still very much alive.
This was my first foray into the world of quilts and Geometiles, and it’s just the beginning. Stay tuned!