math – Geeky Girl Engineer

Bargello Quilt

Posted on February 8, 2023 by geek

I made my first bargello quilt. I have been exploring the different patterns that can be formed using a bargello technique. For my first, I decided to so something simple, and I designed it to look like a parabola. I also quilted it by connecting the corners of the pieces to emphasize the parabolic shape. I like parabolic shapes. Also I love fluid dynamics, and the velocity profile of laminar flow forms a parabola. While I named this quilt Parabola. I could have named it laminar flow. Also, I am a nerd.

All the fabric is from Island Batik, Gemstones and Rainbow Days series.

Parabola quilt, a bargello quilt

Bletchley Park

Posted on January 8, 2023 by geek

As I am in London, I took a short train to Bletchley Park to see where the British codebreakers worked during World War II. I had read about this place before, so it was neat to see it in person. You can tour the mansion where they originally worker as well as most of the other buildings that were added on later. They also have exhibits explaining how they decrypted codes and machines that were built to aid in decryption. To be honest, even though I understand the basics of decryption, I still had trouble following much of what was explained. However, it was still interesting to see. Also the mansion is beautiful, and the newer buildings are pretty much what you would expect of a WWII government building.

Bletchley Park the original mansion

Bletchley Park inside

Bletchley Park ballroom

Bletchley Park offices

Bletchley Park new building

Enigma machine

While walking to the mansion, there was a fenced off area where there was a hole, so of course, I had to investigate. I’m walking around this historic site reading about cryptography, and I, being me, have to go investigate any hole in the ground, especially when pipes are involved.

Maintenance on pipes underneath

Mathemalchemy

Posted on June 3, 2022 by geek

I finally got to National Academy of Sciences to see Mathemalchemy before it closes. The exhibit shows the beauty of the art in math, or perhaps of the math in art. I love examining the math in nature and the beauty of it. This art exhibits gave me some ideas for things that are already percolating in my head that I want to make. Possibly because I am really into sewing and quilting at the moment, the Cryptography Quilt was my favorite part. Its construction is impressive.

Mathemalchemy

Yarn and metal shapes

Nautilus

Landscape

Sea life

Seashore

Cryptography Quilt

Curio Shop

Stitched Fibonacci Spiral

Posted on October 9, 2020 by geek

I finished my big COVID-19 stay at home project! I love and am fascinated by the Fironacci sequence, so I decided to stitch it. I love the way it came out. I used a different color and different stitch for each square. I calculated where each of the spiral stitches needed to go, rounding as close as possible. One nice thing about stitching on a grid, is that it makes it easy to figure out where the spiral goes. I used an evenweave linen fabric to ensure each stitch went over the same width of thread. For those who want the particulars, I used a 28 count evenweave stitched over 1. For those who really want more particulars, I have placed the design pattern I devised in a table below. The entire pattern is 377 by 610 squares, which is about 13.5 x 21.7 inches or 34.2 x 55.3 cm.

Below is a table of the pattern I used. Size is based on stitching over one on a 28-count linen. Colors are DMC. Stitches and their names are from “Stitches To Go” by Suzanne Howren and Beth Robertson.

area	sequence	size (in)	stitch	color 1	color 2	color 3
0	0	0
1	1	0.036	diagonal (/)	815
2	1	0.036	diagonal (\)	326
3	2	0.071	cross stitch	817
4	3	0.107	2 parallel lines	349
5	5	0.179	criss cross hungarian	606	608
6	8	0.286	arrowhead	740	741
7	13	0.464	shadow square	743	744	745
8	21	0.750	double stitch variation	307	973
9	34	1.214	reversed scotch	700	701
10	55	1.964	cameo	909	911
11	89	3.179	dutch	995	996
12	144	5.143	chinese rice	796	797
13	233	8.321	lightning	155	3746
14	377	13.464	floral	208	209	3837