From Thread Cells to Thread Art: A Quantum Leap in Quilting

My research for this blog often takes me into unfamiliar territory but today’s blog comes to you from a place I have never even considered typing into Google’s handy search bar: The Studio Art Quilt Association  (or SAQA to the cool kids).  A group of people who bloody love making quilts!

Seriously though, these aren’t the £2 , ten tog, vac-pac quilts you pick up from a trough at the back of Asda, oh no, they are actually pretty spectacular!  In particular, I am talking about the quilts on display at the SAQA exhibition at Birmingham’s NEC, titled “Frontiers: Art meets Science”.  

The quilts are inspired by scientific theories, phenomena and photography; ‘from the harmonies of randomness to the dynamics’ of science.  The result is a collection of beautifully crafted and truly inspirational quilts that express the fundamental aspects of science alongside advanced theory in a refreshingly inexact merging of wadding and wool.

'Coleus Leaf', Susan Brubaker Knapp

'Binary Fission', Betty Busby

'Lepidoptera', Susan Brubaker Knapp.  (Based on a microscopic photograph of a Painted Lady butterfly's wing. Lepidoptera is the order of insect that includes butterflies and moths)

'Lepidoptera' detail

The exhibition runs till the end of august so if you’re quick you can have a gander yourself.  Welcome SAQA to the geek-slash-chic way of thinking!