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Sunday, April 4, 2010

Playing with Fibonacci

Wonky Shoo Fly

I was reading virtualquilter.wordpress.com the other day. Judy was using Fibonacci series numbers to determine sizes for her quilt borders. I started wondering, what if Fibonacci numbers were used to determine block proportions? So today I am going to redesign a Shoo Fly block using Fibonacci proportions and see what turns up.

I am not going to explain Fibonacci numbers, you can find that elsewhere.  I am only going to tell you that they are the numbers in this sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, etc.

Normally a Shoo Fly block is made on a Ninepatch grid with all the squares the same size.
What if I change the grid so that it is based on the numbers 2, 3 and 5 from the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, etc.)?

I get a wonky looking Shoo Fly block.
What if I take 4 wonky Shoo Fly blocks, rotate them, and join them so that the 5 x 5 corner squares are in the center?
What if I take 4 wonky Shoo Fly blocks, rotate them, and join them so that the 2 x 2 corner squares are in the center?
What if I take 4 wonky Shoo Fly blocks, rotate them, and join them so that the 2 x 5 corner rectangles are in the center?










The Shoo Fly block has taken on a totally new and exciting look.

For more ideas using Shoo Fly blocks go to My Posts by Subject in the sidebar on the right and click on Shoo Fly

4 comments:

  1. West Michigan QuilterApril 4, 2010 at 3:43 PM

    I love this idea. The block you created is so interesting and more to my liking. What a great idea you had. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wayne KollingerApril 4, 2010 at 4:04 PM

    West Michigan Quilter

    I'm glad you like my wonky Shoo Fly block.

    Taking a second look at it, I think that the second version would also be interesting on point.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 4, 2010 at 4:43 PM

    Wayne,

    Wow!

    Now you have distorted Shoo Fly it would make a great corner block for borders sized in 2, 3 and 5 units! Which means if you wanted more borders you could distort any suitable block for the corners!

    Thank you for the link, thank you for the idea!

    Judy B

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wayne KollingerApril 5, 2010 at 11:10 AM

    Judy

    Your idea of using a wonky Shoo Fly block as a border corner sounds like an excellent idea to me. I may have to try it.

    ReplyDelete