Chapter 9: Fibonnacci is golden

I thought that I hadn't heard of either Fibonnacci or the golden section before and, although I grasped the sequence quickly enough, it took me a while to get my head around working with it to produce patchwork designs. Actually, whilst looking for something else I came across this image in one of my needlelace books so it turned out that I had actually heard of it before - it just hadn't registered in my maths-averse brain.

Fig.1

 

Fig.2 

The first exercise was to cut four patterned papers into Fibonnacci proportions (1cm; 2cm; 3cm and 5cm wide), stick them down and then cut into strips, again in the Fibonnacci sequence and lay them down with small gaps between. (Fig.2)

 

Fig.3

Next I again cut four different patterned papers into the Fibonnacci sequence, again cut at right angles into the Fibonnacci sequence, making two strips of each size. I then laid these in alternating directions to make this pattern, which expands as it moves outwards in both directions. (Fig.3)

 

Fig.4 

Figure 4 shows one patterned and one plain paper cut in the Fibonnacci sequence laid with gaps, which are also in the Fibonnacci sequence between the strips.

 

Fig.5

Figure 5 has again one patterned and one plain paper cut in the Fibonnacci sequence. This sheet was then cut at right angles in the Fibonnacci sequence, again with two strips of each width. These strips were then laid with alternate strips flipped. This pattern reminded me of some of Bridget Riley's geometric paintings as you can see the beginnings of a piece that appears to bend.

 

Fig.6 

In Figure 6, five strips of patterned paper were copied and doubled up, cut into equal strips and arranged in a stepped design to give a 'fractured' appearance. For something which is actually so precisely cut, this design has a surprisingly random appearance. With the paper that looks a little like leopard spots this is reminiscent of how well camouflaged big cats are when in their native landscape.

 

Fig.7 

This has exactly the same sequence of papers as in Figure 6 above, but this time arranged in an overlapping square.

 

Fig.8

In Figure 8 the same sequence of papers was used again but this time the resulting sheet was cut at a 45 degree angle and some strips were flipped to mix up the pattern even more.

 Fig.9

My final design with this sequence of patterns is shown in Figure 9 where the sheet has been cut into four triangles which have then been put together to form an 'on point' square.

The Golden Section:

The golden section is a series of squares whose dimensions fit the Fibonnacci series, a design often found in nature, for example in a snail's shell, or the pattern of seeds on a sunflower centre.

I began by drawing my own version of this, connecting the corners to show the resulting spiral.

 

Fig.10

I then made a copy of this in patterned papers (sample 9 in Figure 10, above).

 

 

Fig.11

I made a block design using the golden section  ...

 

 

Fig.12

... and finally two more versions on a theme, both of which would make interesting patchwork quilts!

This chapter caused me quite a few headaches as I struggled to get my head around how to cut the pieces to such a strict ratio. My attempts at patchwork in the past have only consisted of scrap quilts and one Liberty masterpiece made from a pattern, but that is only a log cabin design. Having worked my way through these exercises though I'm feeling much more confident so more ambitious quilts may well follow.