NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/alt/pagan/14754

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-31 | 2.1 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!usc!news.service.uci.edu!skid.ps.uci.edu!cortese
From: [e-mail] (Janis Maria Cortese)
Subject: Re: Quilts (was: Re: sowing bags)
Nntp-Posting-Host: skid.ps.uci.edu
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Lines: 36
Date: 31 Dec 92 21:46:16 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dawn Hardin) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Steve Boylan) writes:
>>
>> In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Dawn Hardin) writes:
>>
>> If I may continue the high-falutin' talk, the problem with the five-
>> pointed star is that it yields a pentagon as your basic building block,
>> and the pentagon won't tesselate the plane.  (For those of you who
>> AREN'T math dweebs and don't have a dictionary handy, pentagons won't
>> fit together neatly to cover a plane.)
>>
>> Eight-pointed stars are usually embedded in a square, and six-pointed
>> stars in a hexagon.  Both tesselate.
>>
>> To use five-pointed stars, you'll have to make them part of a design
>> that isn't based on the pentagram.  For example, you can put a
>> pentacle inside a square or hexagon.
>
>Hexagons, squares, and equilateral triangles are the only REGULAR
>tesselations, but there are other IRREGULAR tesselations including
>things like Escher's fish and birds.  (And wouldn't that make a lovely

Escher's fish and birds are based in triangles and hexagons; they are
not irregular.  He did periodically fill planes irregularly (pun
intended), but usually stuck to tilings that had three or six way symmetry.

>pieces would all end up with bias cuts, so the fabric would stretch and
>not be as strong.

Just quilt the hell out of it, with a VERY strong backing, like muslin
that has been washed like hell and softened.  Crazy quilts are known to
survive generations, and they certainly have bias cuts.

Blessings,
Janis