Visualizing mathematics with quilts

Abstract

I grew up with sewing machines and power tools. The basement of my family home in Michigan was full of all kinds of drills, saws, and a sewing machine. My mother and father taught me how to use these machines. I remember always doing things with my hands and wanting to be a visual artist. When it came time to attend a university, my practical-minded mother insisted that I study ‘something that would enable me to support myself’. I laugh, as I recall my youth. I took my mother’s advice and eventually earned a B.A. in Mathematics, an M.A. in Mathematics Education, and an Ed.S. in Educational Administration. Teaching at West Lafayette High School in West Lafayette, Indiana, along with a mathematical methods class to future teachers at Purdue University, I found a strong desire to include mathematically inspired art in my classrooms. At this point, I had been investigating various media including drawing, photography, bronze, painting, and stained glass. In 1980 I discovered a book that changed my life: Geometry and the Visual Arts, by British mathematician Daniel Pedoe. Each page of Daniel’s book spoke to me. I knew I was on to something as I completedmy reading. Themedium of fabric was interesting as it could combinemathematical ideas, colour, texture, shape, perspective, and is totally hands-on. Fabric would allowme to include mathematical ideas for teaching plus give me the ability to hang the mathematical quilts in my classroom. I began generatingmathematical quilts specifically for the classroom. I co-authoredwith Dr. Diana Venters, two books on using quilts as the springboard for explaining mathematical theorems and formulas in the classroom. As students investigated the mathematics in each quilt, lesson plans evolved that could be included in a book on mathematical quilts. Mathematical Quilts andMore Mathematical Quilts resulted. I continue to learn more mathematics and generate more mathematical quilts even though I am retired. To date, I have generated 67 mathematical quilts. The quilts encompass roughly 4,000 years of recordedmathematics. Beginning in 2,000 B.C.E. to the present, 67 quilts represent most of the significant time periods for mathematics. All of my quilts are needle-turned versus using a fused raw edge technique. Ninety percent of my quilts are hand-quilted and are made of 100% cotton. The London Science Museum owns 6 of my quilts in their permanent collection.