Amanda Daly

Amanda Daly
I've been passionately working with fabric for more than 25 years . . . relax with me as you read about my life and my quilts

Thursday 30 January 2014

1.618 Textiles Across the Tasman

A few months ago, while teaching at S.A. Quilt Encounter, a group of teachers hatched a plan to form a friendship / challenge group. We call ourselves "Textiles Across the Tasman" and the group includes

Katrina Hadjemichael, Rachelle Dennenny, Pam Furniss, Kay Haerland and Amanda Daly as the Australian members and Jacqui Karl and Juliet Fitness as the New Zealand members.

I persuaded the group to include 1.618 to the name and to set down the size and shape of the quilts to conform to the golden ratio (1.618 ratio of length to width). Those of you who know me well, might already be running for cover when I get started on this topic. I've been passionate about using this ratio as a design tool along with the related Fibonacci Number Sequence for years.

We had a bit of a shaky start but finally we have all finished our first challenge. The theme was "Pattern" and after initially playing around with other ideas and getting nowhere fast, I finally decided to keep it simple and depict a paper dressmaking pattern. In what seems like a past life, it is so many years ago, I used to make my own clothes (with more enthusiasm than skill). So I created pattern number 1618. This is quite a different style for me, no raw edge applique and no fabric folding.

The other ladies are now (or shortly will be) uploading photos of their quilts onto our newly created blog;

www.textilesacrossthetasman.wordpress.com - take a look and visit every 3 months for more finished challenges.