Graeco-Latin squares

Haven't made one but I think I might now that I know about them! I've been collecting fabric for a quilt for DH but haven't figured out a pattern yet. Since he is a math whiz this would be very cool to use. Now I just need to check fabric yardages .......woohoo!!

Allison

Jack Camp> Anyone here made a Graeco-Latin square quilt?

Fascinating! I would probably spend years trying to get a colour pattern to work!!! So, I think I'll leave this one alone >gAnyone here made a Graeco-Latin square quilt?

Not difficult to make, but - as I've just written in my reply - how to 'pattern' the large square colours? Probably an unending task. A scrappy-loving (or random placement) person (like yourself!) would probably enjoy it - I would need to make *some* patterns at least! . In message , Roberta writes

You can't. The pattern in that diagram is it, you can't change anything (well, there may be a few more arrangements that fit the problem, but at most 7 more, and it took a supercomputer 2000 hours of thinking to show there are no more than that). You could use a different set of 10 colours for the small squares without changing the basic logic, but permuting the colours so that red and blue squares swap places isn't going to get you anything more ordered.

In a sense it's the *least* patterned arrangement you can get.

We've picked out a bunch of saturated colours with subtle and rather similar texture patterns.

This might have been a better thing to send into interstellar space to say "hey, we're intelligent life" than what they put in the Voyager probes.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === ==== Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557 CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

Ah well, then, I'll stop now- while I'm on the level >g< . In message , Jack Campin - bogus address writes

C'mon Pat, where's your mathematical sense of adventure? You could probably run this one up in an afternoon!!! Cheers Bronnie

Perhaps! But, it's not the quilt-making that is the difficulty - it's the placement. And, as Jack says that is almost the only possible way they can be arranged, and as greater mathematicians than I (by a long chalk I'm sure!) cannot find a way of altering it. I might try a x5 to see how I get on - just drawing and colouring! But, don't hold your breath >g< I have a 1" Dear Jane extract to think about >gg< . In message , Bronnie writes

That makes my head hurt! joan :>

that seems like a lot of hoo haa and trouble to go to use up some of your scraps and make it appear to be random. i much prefer a real random as long as the overall look is somewhat balanced.

snorfle, j.

"Jack Campin - bogus address" wrote... Anyone here made a Graeco-Latin square quilt?

We're thinking of making one for somebody whose mind works that way (a composer who writes serial music). Something like this:

That 10x10 design was only discovered in 1959 (after nearly 200 years during which most mathematicians thought it was impossible) and its theory is pretty complicated. Should keep the recipient's mind well occupied trying to figure out how on earth it works.

But you could make it about the quilt-making: Use any other two-colour block of your choice. It would still illustrate the same principle, but not in a very obvious way.

Hanne > Perhaps!

I'm thinking >g< ... ... . In message , Hanne Gottliebsen writes

Are you kidding??? I was thinking about this on the way home last night, going in my mind: nine-patch, HST, ... - until I realised the "Any two-colour block will work". So now the opportunities are truly endless :-)

I even think a series of minis would be totally cool.

Hanne > I'm thinking >g< ... ...

Just looking at the picture took me back a few steps. I couldn't really process it at all. I am sure it would be a wild looking quilt if you could master it. julia

There's a picture of one here:

(not mine...)

Hanne in London

I thought the colours of that one were a bit muddy and uninspired, but some of the other stuff on that site is fantastic.

The Menaechmus parabola construction and the Cosmati tiles (page 3) use some of the most precise piecing I've ever seen.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === ==== Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557 CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

I've just had a quick look through, and saved the site! Some gorgeous work there. . In message , Jack Campin - bogus address writes

how about some of the simpler DJ blocks? j.

"Hanne Gottliebsen" wrote... Are you kidding??? I was thinking about this on the way home last night, going in my mind: nine-patch, HST, ... - until I realised the "Any two-colour block will work". So now the opportunities are truly endless :-)

I even think a series of minis would be totally cool.

Hanne in London