Why didn't I pay more attention in Math class?

All of you quilters who follow my Blog are likely wondering when I'm going to stop talking about gardening and get back to quilting! Well the sad truth is I do more gardening than quilting through the summer, although I do hope to accomplish more this summer than I usually do... we'll see how that goes!! What's that saying...."The best laid plans of mice and men..."

Although I did accomplish some gardening tasks today, I want to tell you about the wonderful lecture I attended tonight. It was in conjunction with a MITACS conference going on at UNB. (Thats Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems) Award-winning quilter Gerda De Vries, who is a Math Professor at U. of Alberta is in town and gave a wonderful talk on Math and Quilts, titled "Making Mathematics with Needle and Thread: Quilts as Mathematical Objects". I must admit, I have never been a lover of Math, and I was worried that this talk might be way over my head. But it was most enjoyable. Although there were lots of mathematical terms, none of them in my usual vocabulary, I could certainly appreciate the beauty of her designs and the perfection of her work. She is obviously a quilter who cares a great deal about accuracy and technical perfection. You can visit her website here to view some of her many award-winning quilts. Those of you who have been CQA/ACC members for a while will no doubt remember "Fibrations" which was the cover quilt for the 2002 NJS Catalogue. Gerda is also a regular supporter of CQA's Trend-Tex Challenge.

Although I can't define "fractal" or "algorithmic design", there were lots of math terms that I could identify in relation to quilts (I impressed myself!!): tesselation, symmetry, Sudoku, spirals, the Golden Ratio... why I even knew what the Fibonacci Sequence is!!! There was even a little humour- a quilt called Apple Pi, using the Pi symbol - you know 3.14159..... I LOVE humour in quilts! I think there may even have been some inspiraton there for a future project with the Fusion group...

So, all in all, a very enjoyable hour. Too bad the timing had not been different; Gerda would have made a wonderful speaker for our Guild... I have included two of Gerda's photos of her quilts with this post- aren't they amazing? The top one is called "Cyclic Permutations" and the bottom one is "Bubb'Illusion II". If you ever have a chance to meet Gerda, attend one of her lectures or view her quilts, be sure to take advantage. You will not regret it. My quote below is from her lecture, although I have heard it elsewhere... Thanks Gerda for a wonderful hour...

Piece,

Linda

"Life is what happens when you are planning other things".