September 29, 2009

1.7 Designing a Well Constructed Experiment


When you want to test something new out, you can create a mini experiment. The time and energy may set some limits on how much or how elaborately you can test something.

For crocheters (& knitters too, right?), isn't this a "swatch" - a small piece of "fabric" created using the needles and yarn that you want to use, making a certain number of stitches, so you can test to find out how big of object the pattern will create. To change the results of this test, you either, a) change the amount of tension you put in the piece, b) change the yarn, or c) change the needles. (See an article by Craftzine.com blog for a little bit more on this)

For some experiments you may hate the original test swatch, and start over from scratch with all three new things. But if you "kind of like it" to create a well constructed experiment, you want to change only one thing. You create one swatch with different needles but the same yarn, a third swatch with different yarn, but the same needles, and compare. This way you know the difference the needles make, and what difference the yarn makes - but you have to make 3 swatches for this.

For quilting, if you would want to test a thread, you would divide the same batting up into small pieces - one piece for each thread you want to test, and have a top and a backing fabric the same for each test piece, then stitch similar designs with similar stitch length (use a walking foot on all test patterns and do criss crosses on each test piece for example). You stitch with each thread onto your quilt test pattern, and decide what you like best.

Keeping things the same in science is a controlled variable. The batting, the top and backing fabric, the stitch length are all controlled variables in the example above. It makes for good science to have a lot of controlled variables, and then only change one thing. Otherwise, if you change the batting, backing fabric, stitch length, and thread, you get a different result, but you don't know what caused it. This will give you a well constructed experiment.

Getting a completely different result because of changing all the variables isn't always bad. But it will not help you figure out differences in specific items easily. From a scientific approach, the better the experiment, the better knowledge you gain as a result, but maybe most of the results are not pretty, so more results could = more failures. (which isn't always bad in crafting & experiments).
Remember that a failed experiment is still a good experiment.

I am trying to figure out if my applique quilt will work good for embroidery. I made a sample block of the same applique fabrics, patterns, technique, backing fabric, applique thread, and now I am making my only major difference the embroidery. Well the overall pattern isn't the same exactly, but it will give me an idea - and there is no way I'm making more than one of the original quilt tops right now. I am trying to set up a well constructed experiment for myself that will give me enough information to make a decision on the original.

September 28, 2009

1.6 Letting Something Intimdate You


Many, many people are scared to death of math. As a child, I was never scared of math, but embraced it. I had many classes in math, a lot of my undergraduate degree centered around math, so I have never understood people's fear of math - not fully.

But computers - well - some things about computers completely intimidates me. I don't want to learn about putting together a computer, I don't want to learn about networking and routers, and other things. I just want to have my computer the way it is and the way it works and I don't want to troubleshoot when things go wrong with it. I let the stupid things intimidate me.

And I have to think that is how other people feel about math. Maybe about science too. The palms sweat, and when people are explaining things to you - things you probably could understand if you sat and let them congeal in your mind - it sounds like Charlie Brown's teachers when people start up about math - wah waaah, wah ...
No matter what people shut down their brain and stop and don't let the things that are bothering them in. A lot of time it is a matter of caring. I know I don't have to troubleshoot my computer when it goes down - I don't care to work on it.
How does this relate to quilting? I know that there are subjects people don't care about - just shut themselves down about and never push themselves to learn.
I was inspired lately by a lady in my applique class. She was in my applique class and she had the distinct reason of attending so that she could figure out if she could like applique. Previous to this experience she didn't like applique. At the end of the class she was talking about buying a kit that had a lot of applique in it. She faced her fears and didn't let the thing intimidate her, and in the end enjoyed it.
But the point is, that people can get stuck - stuck with the math of quilting, stuck with some new aspect they don't know about and refuse to learn about because they are intimidated by it. Maybe for one quilter it's applique, for the other its free motion quilting, the other its piecing curves, or mitered corners. The best thing to do is to try to figure out more about it, so you can find out if you are intimidated by the technique because you don't perceive you are good at it, or you just don't like something. Trying to do the technique - at least once - should also be necessary. Then the hypothesis of "I can't do this" can at least be tested!
Maybe you'll never be the one who makes the best crazy quilts, but you'll have tried it and then know you don't like it. Or maybe that technique will open the doors to other techniques, which in turn will lead you to something you do like.

September 18, 2009

1.5 Getting Back on the Horse


I knew the project would completely derail me. But its complete and wonderful and lovely and ... sigh. It took a LOT of work, a LOT of time. None of the work was hard, but there were times when it was tedious and times when it was downright boring, but I had deadlines I had to meet to be with the rest of the class, and so I ignored as much as I was able to - too bad I still had to go to work most of the weeks I was working on it.


I let myself get excited about this project a full month before the class started. I got the quilt shop lady excited when we were picking out fabrics for it. This excitement followed me through and helped me get through the boring parts. I knew the end result would be wonderful and it was. Today I want to talk about the excitement you feel for a project and how it plays into any project.
As a scientist, it is hard to think about how excitement will help with any experiment, but it really affects you. An experiment that you have a minimal amount of desire to finish will get put aside, will be hard to find the data for, and will be hard to find an appropriate hypothesis and questions to help guide your experiment. The results will be lackluster and results will show up. The quality still may be there, but the extra ... umph ... that certain special something .... will not show up in the final product. In the end, you will be unhappy with the product if the process is not good. The conclusion to any experiment will be brief, incoherent, and unsatisfying. However, the upside to this is it may raise further questions and further experiments to try out.
For example, this blog completely frustrates me. Not the excitement about creating it, but the tools used for creating it. Just like the wrong notions (or lack thereof) can make something you sew ten times harder than it really needs to be, this blog software is ten times harder than it needs to be. I should be able to drag & drop pictures in the middle of my text, but the pictures are the same size as the text editing software, and so drag & drop is not available as easily as it should be. Maybe it has to do with picture size, but I find myself not excited to finish, knowing how much struggle this is to do correctly. I tried once with preloading pictures into Word and that didn't correspond into anything different than what I am currently struggling with.
I want to get back on the (blogging) horse, but before I can do that well, I think I need a new saddle. Just as long as I know how much the new saddle will cost and how I will find it. Craftcast suggests to "get your butt in the chair, and keep crafting", and so I need to struggle before this comes out right (the paragraphs actually show up as I am seeing them when I write them - AAAAAA!!!!) but they also talk about knowing when / how to walk away to get a different perspective on things. Hopefully that new idea comes soon.