Fool the Eye: Illusions in Textile Art

Three Early American quilt designs

What are "optical illusions"? They are patterns that fool the eye into seeing things that are not really there. These include 3-dimensional objects that appear to extend out from the canvas, “hollow” spaces in the canvas showing depth, textured surfaces, and interwoven areas where sections appear to pass over and under each other. Some optical illusions can be traced back to Early American quilt blocks.

When European settlers came to America, for a long time they were dependent upon supplies of cloth shipped in from Europe. Therefore, everything needed to be made to last as long as possible. When a garment was no longer wearable, any usable pieces were cut out and saved. When a new garment was made, all fabric scraps were saved. When enough scraps were accumulated, they were sewn together to make woolen quilts like the ones seen here.

A popular pattern was the one shown in blocks on the first quilt in this trio, which was called the "Nine Patch". If you look closely, you will see that each block is made up of nine small squares. It is an easy beginners' pattern. With the instruction of a patient and loving grandmother, I learned to sew a simple seam and made a little Nine Patch quit for my doll when I was about four years old — and I have been sewing ever since. The second quilt is also composed of small squares, arranged in larger squares which are placed in a diamond configuration. This pattern was commonly called "Sunshine and Shadows". As quilters became more assured (and more competitive) they began to use more complex pieces and designs, like the third quilt shown here, made with sharp diamond-shaped pieces. This is one of many "Star" designs.

Tumbling blocks

Well, these are very pretty, but they don't "fool the eye". This one, called "Tumbling Blocks" does. It forms an illusion still used broadly today.

It appears that you are looking at a surface that is further away than the surface of the canvas. Your eye moves back and forth from blocks that appear to be pointing upwards and acting like stepping stones to blocks that appear to be pointing downwards and coming out of the surface toward you. The effect is achieved by using a bright yarn, a dark yarn, and a light yarn of the same color. The sample was done in longstitch (upright Gobelin) on a #7 mesh canvas. The edges are so sharp that back-stitching is optional. The finer the mesh this is done on, the more distinct the illusion will be.

A tumbling block design in longstitch

The next example shows the illusion of depth. It appears that you are looking down at a surface that is farther away than the surface of the canvas. The pattern starts with a network of light-colored diamond shapes. One of these has been filled in with successively shorter rows of successively darker shades of the yellow color. The darkest shade forms a solid diamond that our eyes tell us is the bottom of a 3-dimensional space. The more layers of color that are used, the deeper that the "box" or "room" appears to be.

Another needlepoint illusion

This illusion is made by making rows of zig-zag pointed patterns which meet only at their highest and lowest points, which are staggered from one row to the next. This leaves small blocks of canvas in between the rows. Since the rows are off-set slightly, the empty blocks are not diamond-shaped as one might expect. These parallelogram-shaped parts of the pattern are sometimes called "lozenges". These are used frequently in bargello patterns. The odd numbered rows are identical to each other. The even-numbered rows are identical to each other, but slightly different from the odd-numbered rows. This causes the "lozenges" to point to the lower right in one row and to the lower left in the other. Would such a construction be possible in three dimensions — say using shoeboxes?

The illusion below appears to show two flat striped ribbons twisted around each other. Notice that the bottom edge of each ribbon is slightly lighter than the matching top edge. The sample is done in long, straight stitches. It would be a bit more difficult to chart and work in tent stitch, but the illusion would probably be more distinct.

Follded ribbons in longstitch

Bachelor's puzzle construction steps

Here is a step-by-step series of diagrams for an illusion I know only as "Bachelor's Puzzle". It is derived from a quilt block. Below is a small framed picture of it done in needlepoint. A collection of several pictures like these is nice for a narrow wall space next to a door or between windows.

Bachelor's puzzle needlepoint

This time we are going to adapt two designs and combine them to make a framed "op art" picture. I started with a pattern I know as "Ring Around the Star". (Many patterns have multiple names.) I don't know the origin of the pattern, but I suspect it is 18th Century American. However, I believe it may be derived from a much older English pattern called "King's Cross". The center of the "King" pattern is just to the left below. The center of the "Ring" pattern is next. The last two diagrams are sketches I made to decide which shading gave the effect that I wanted. I chose the one on the right.

Ring-Around-a-Star development sketches

The two pictures below show the shading I did for the color stitching. You will find a photo of the framed picture at the end of this article.

King's Cross in a rectangle

Square frames are harder to find than rectangular ones, so I have modified the "King's Cross" design to fit a rectangular frame. I did this pattern for a 5-inch X 7-inch frame (13 X 18 centimeters), but I can show you how to adapt it for any rectangular frame. Turn the frame upside-down on your canvas and draw around the opening with a pencil. Remove the frame. (If necessary, use a ruler or straight-edge to square the corners and make the sides straight.) Leave extra canvas around the rectangle so that you can tape the edges. Find the center of the rectangle and mark it with a dot (O on the diagram), continuing to use a pencil. Find the centers of the top and bottom — the short sides — and mark them with dots (A). Find the centers of the long sides and mark them (B). Mark the four corners (C). Mark the centers of the lines between the A's and the center O (D). Mark the centers between the B's and the O (E). Mark the centers between the C's and the A's (F) and the centers between the C's and the B's (G). Now connect the dots as follows:

A-O-A
B-O-B
Both C-O-C's
Both E's on the top and bottom with the nearest D
Both G's on the sides with the nearest E. You may then erase the A-D and the B-E lines if you wish to do so.

Now you are ready to begin stitching.

King's Cross sketch

This sketch will work with any three-color combination as long as the white sections are in the lightest color, the pencil-shaded sections are a darker shade of the same or a similar color, and the inked-in triangles are in a very dark color. You will notice that the pairs of triangles are not quite the same. Also, the shapes that were parallelograms in the original pattern are now polygons. These are large areas, so use a heavier yarn than usual or double your regular yarn to cover the canvas completely. Once again, I recommend doing the triangles in basket-weave, starting at the center points and working outward this time. Any irregularities where two colors of yarn join, or at the edges, may be covered by back-stitching if you choose.

Once, as I worked on the design for a 6-way bargello pattern, I told J.D. that I could see an optical illusion forming in one of the designs. He said he could see one, too, but that he would have to erase some of the lines in the design to make it. I suggested that we each draw the design we imagined, to see if we had different illusions in mind. When we compared our results, we had indeed seen different illusions. We were delighted. This “game” continued for some time. Below are two of the more interesting ones, for the benefit of those of you who have taken up this pursuit. You can use black, white, and grays for your shading or you can use various tones and shades of a single color. If you use different colors, you may achieve an interesting design, but lose much or all of the illusion.

Hexagon grid

Working with a hexagonal shape requires us to adjust our thinking just a bit. We are used to thinking in terms of a base of 90 degrees (0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, 360 degrees). A hexagon, however, is based on 60 degree angles (0 degrees, 60 degrees, 120 degrees, 180 degrees, 240 degrees, 300 degrees, 360 degrees). The design is constructed along each axis from the degree mark to the center. Although the hexagon is basically two overlapping triangles, it seems more balanced than any triangle. On the other hand, it is more versatile and less static than a square or a rectangle. Try starting with a hexagonal outline and building shapes inside it.

In the first example, two overlapping 3-dimensional squares have been fused together to make an angular figure-8 shape. The most shadowed areas are shaded in black. The intermediate shading is done in a medium green. The most illuminated areas are done in a light blue. The background is the white of the drawing paper. Once the figure is complete, the little construction lines can be erased, along with the unnecessary bits of the hexagonal outline.

The second figure is made up of small cubes. You would need to put the construction lines in very lightly because many of them would have to be erased in order to achieve the final illusion. The same three colors have been used to show the amount of light reflected from the surfaces. Once again the white of the paper is the background, but you could put in another very light color if you wished. Study the construction diagram on the top right to determine how the figure was constructed. The finished illusion is shown on the bottom right with the construction lines and unnecessary hexagonal lines erased.

Now that you are familiar with hexagons, you might want to try constructing a six-pointed star pattern. Here is a hint: connect 0 degrees (which is also 360 degrees) to both 120 degrees and 340 degrees; connect180 degrees to both 60 degrees and 300 degrees. Two more straight lines will complete the star.

Finally, here is a photo of the finished and framed project that we promised you earlier in this post.