Friday, August 21, 2009

The Shape(s) of things to come . . .

Think of the individual shapes in the tile . . . the tile is comprised of five distinct shapes (the two corner shapes are identical).



When these shapes touch the shapes in other tiles, they form a new shape. These new shapes occur where corners meet and where sides touch.

These shapes may be open or closed. The shapes in the example above are open because they do not end at the sides of the block; they leave "openings" at every side. It may take more tiles to close the shapes.


This shape crosses six tiles before it closes.

Some shapes never close. I call them "stripes."


There are unique shapes for each unique arrangement of tiles . . . what shapes are in YOUR blocks??



Thank you for reading . . . please leave a comment and follow this blog. Or, join the Yahoo! group.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for the "stretching of my mind" I haven't thought of the symmetry like this before. I really appreciate all your hard work and willingness to share with us and teaching us. I am thinking of using black, red (muted with black) and white for my tiles.
    Amanda in Coffeyville, KS

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  2. You're very welcome, Amanda . . .

    I'd be interested in seeing the patterns you come up with. Have you considered joining the Yahoo! group and sharing??

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  3. This is fascinating! I really like how the "tiles" can make so many different designs appear.

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  4. Thank you, Carin . . . for me, it's the "only quilt pattern" I'll ever need.

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