At a recent dinner party I described this quilt to several individuals who were interested in seeing it. Therefore, I've posted it here along with an explanation of its design concept.
This quilt depicts the musical composition Ode to Joy by mapping the musical notation to a color-based representation. Each vocal part (S,A,T,B) is shown on a separate line with multiple stanzas on the quilt. Each note on the scale is given a color. The value of the color indicates its octave within the piece with lower octaves having a darker value. The length of the note determines the length of the associated color of fabric. So a whole note is given a base unit of 1 with half notes represented by 1/2 the length , quarter notes by 1/4 etc. Flats are shaded with black tulle and sharps are highlighted with bright stitching. Finally a random free-form quilting of the word Joy is done across the surface of the quilt.
If you can read music and understand the mapping you should be able to play the composition by 'reading' my quilt!
Enjoy the Ode to Joy.
Dual tessellations depicts the mathematical concept of tessellation – the regular tiling of polygons across a two dimensional plane. This quilt considers the more advanced concept of dual tessellations where one polygon type (an equilateral triangle) is the dual of another (a hexagon). (see figure). The major triangles are constructed from either three equal triangles or three kites that also form the structure of the hexagon, allowing the bridging between triangles and hexagons while still tiling the surface. The quilt design proceeds top to bottom beginning with triangles and morphing into hexagons. Different values of purple in the dual-colored taffetas further reinforce the duality of the design. Finally, the quilt was not squared off as is typically done to further emphasize the fundamental tiling units. For more information on tessellations, and dual tessellations in particular, see http://mathworld.wolfram.com/DualTessellation.html .
