FROM STITCHING PLUTONS TO STITCHING QUILTS; ADVENTURES IN DEEP-TIME QUILTING (Invited Presentation)

A geology professor by day, quilting has long been a relaxing and artistic hobby for me. They existed in separate strata of my life, really only interacting tangentially when I would buy fossil-themed fabric. One day I put aside my quilting block to work on my students’ lab assignment: making blocks in Visible Geology. Suddenly it hit me. Here were geometric patterns, strata and strips, wedges and triangles, crosscutting relationships, orders of events to make complex stories.

Look at any introductory geology textbook and you’ll see a plethora of block diagrams. Block diagrams are useful for training students to think in three-dimensional space, with a simple illustration of two side of the block and a map view, suddenly a section of Earth’s rich history and complex processes lies at your fingertips. As block diagrams are typically simplified to convey one or a few concepts at a time, they translate exceedingly well to quilt blocks, even for a rogue amateur quilter like me!

I’m attempting to use quilting as a way of making introductory geology concepts into an accessible method for students to be able to quite literally grasp! Thinking in multiple dimensions is hard. By using handleable and useable art I hope to bridge some of the gaps that a traditional figure misses. Piecing fabric lets me replicate textbook images, but the quilting aspect adds texture and another tangible aspect to how I represent geology. Art challenges us to think with greater vibrancy, to make observations and interpretations, and to synthesis concepts from distinct sources. These are all the same ideals we embrace as geoscientists. Quilting unites the quantitative and the abstract as well. I need the same exactness to measure a stratigraphic section as I do to design, cut, and sew a quilt top, yet I need the same creativity to interpret depositional environments as to visualize how different fabrics will complement or clash. Art offers so many scientists not only a way to express ideas, but also serves as a model for the very scientific process I teach to students.