RAS Bicentennial Quilt - 100 Patchwork Squares

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The RAS received 100 squares from all over the world and every one will be included on the patchwork side of the bicentennial quilt. Click the images below to learn more about the squares and the people who made them.

 

The James Webb Space Telescope made with appliqued fabric and embroidery.
James Webb Space Telescope
A black hole surrounded by high energy particles in a spiral shape
Black hole
Red and blue beads sewn onto a black background to represent a nebula.
Helix Nebula
Ribbons of pink and green lights fill the sky, a mountain is silhouetted at the bottom of the image.
Aurora Borealis
It shows the location of the Exoworld "Dingolay (host star) and Ramajay (exoplanet) in constellation Leo.
Dingolay and Ramajay
A print of an illustration of the moon on a blue background.
John Russell's Blue Moon (1790s)
Appliqued planets and embroidered moon and stars stitched onto a black background.
Abstract
The Ring Nebula created with brown fabric and thread on a black background.
Ring Nebula
Jupiter in cross stitch.
Jupiter
The remains of a supernova explosion created using embroidery.
Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant
A basic map showing the prime meridian, Greenwich Observatory and the river Thames embroidered in white and blue threads on a black background.
Greenwich
A patchwork circle comprised of different fabrics of varying textures and hues of the colour blue.
Crazy Blue Moon
A short poem embroidered in white on a black background, it reads: "I see the moon, the moon sees me, God bless the moon and God bless me."
I see the moon
Two galaxies (represented with white stitching) are interacting. This causes black hole activity. Particles are dragged from close to the blackhole along magnetic field lines emitting energy at radio wavelengths (represented with red stitching).
Radio Galaxy
A section of William Herschel's manuscript reproduced in black thread on a cream background. The text reads: Tuesday March 13. Pollux is followed by 3 small stars at about 2' and 3' distance. M as usual. p H. In the quartile near (symbol) Tauri the lowest of two is a curious either nebulous star or perhaps a comet. A small star follows the comet at 2/3 of the field's distance.
Discovery of Uranus
RAS motto in latin: 'Quicquid nitet notandum' which translates to 'Whatever shines should be observed.'
RAS motto
Front covers of the RAS journals
RAS journals
Colourful portraits of Stephen Groombridge and images of his transit cirle
Stephen Groombridge & The Transit Circle
Fabric representation of the visible sun and its magnetic field.
The solar magnetic field in the ecliptic plane
A detail of M82 Starburst Galaxy showing radio emission.
Starburst Galaxy
The solar orbiter satellite embroidered in white, with blue appliqued fabric to represent the solar panels. The sun appears in the top left corner in yellowy-orangey coloured fabric. The background is black. Red text is embroidered in the top right corner, it reads: Solar Orbiter.
Solar Orbiter
A graph stitched with black thread on a white background.
The great British earthquake of 1984 seen from afar
The Hubble Space Telescope embroidered in yellow, grey and blue threads on a blue background.
The Hubble Space Telescope
Old RAS logo embroidered in black thread on white background.
Original RAS Logo
Craters on the moon.
Theo, Cyril and Cath
Artists impression of the complex structures, gas clouds, and new stars that the Hubble Space Telescope has has allowed us to see.
Carina Nebula
The Sun embroidered, featuring sun spots and solar flares
Solar Panel
The moon blocks the disk of the sun allowing us to see the sun's atmosphere (corona).
Total Solar Eclipse
The planet Jupiter embroidered in white, yellow, orange and red threads on a white background, framed by blue fabric.
Jupiter's atmosphere and aurora
European Incoherent Scatter Radars on Svalbard embroidered in white thread on a blue background. Above them the northern lights are embroidered in red and green threads. In the bottom left corner a polar bear is embroidered in white thread.
EISCAT Svalbard radars
Embroidered constellations and asterisms, a compass and a quote "The Stars are Guides for Those Who Know Them" on a blue background.
The Stars Are Guides
A galaxies embroidered with silvery threads on a black background.
'Rose' of Galaxies
A collage of images of planets surround the symbol for 'Gemini', all on a black background.
Gemini
Embroidered T-rex with asteroids coming down from the sky.
T-rex and the asteroids
Embroidered lines and loops represent the magnetic field lines of the Sun.
Coils of Magnetic Field Lines
A lunar mission badge for the first woman on the Moon 2001
Moon-shot: Woman in the Moon
A silhouette of the Lovell radio telescope against a backdrop of star trails.
Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope
An image of a group of stars varying in colour and brightness created using embroidery.
The Jewel Box cluster
An embroidered planet with rings.
Orbit
Representation of the full moon that is closest to the fall equinox.
Harvest Moon
Artist's impression of a galaxy using colourful stitches and felting.
Starburst
A neutron star recreated using shades of red, pink and blue beads and threads.
Neutron Star
The square shows two pulsars, knitted in white wool on a grey wool background. Pulsars are spinning neutron stars that emit radio light in beams, which makes a lighthouse like effect (the pulsars are shown by the circles and the beams by the wedges coming from them).
A pair of pulsars
Orbits of all the known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) around Earth
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids
Embroidered observatory and star trails.
La Silla Observatory
The square shows the nearby galaxy NGC1566, also known as the Spanish Dancer. The galaxy was discovered by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop, but owes its nickname to its elegant, long spiral arms.
Star formation in NGC1566
Nebra Sky Disk as it was originally made
Nebra Sky Disk (Original)
Nebra Sky Disk after all the additions had been made
Nebra Sky Disk (Completed)
Nebra Sky Disk in its damaged condition after it was found and restored
Nebra Sky Disk (Restored)
The journey of a meteorite from it's originating asteroid, where it is ejected by an impact, falling to the Earth and finally a microscope image of a meteorite.
Meteorites: From asteroid to the lab
Eight comets form a circle around a quote taken from the notebook of Caroline Herschel. The quote reads: I see an object like a star with a burr.
Caroline's comets
The surface of Jupiter as seen by Juno, a NASA space probe.
Jupiter from Juno
The outline of a person observing Orion through a telescope embroidered with black thread. The constellation of Orion is embroidered in white thread.
The Astronomer
Stars in various sizes on a black background.
Stars
A cross section through Mars. Each layer is represented in a different colour fabric, white in the centre.
Internal structure of Mars
Four planets and their orbital paths around a star.
Planetary System
An aerial view of London. The lights of the city are represented by white and yellow stitches on a black background. A wiggly black line snakes across the city from left to right representing the river Thames.
London from space at night
The planets of the solar system appliqued onto a black background.
Solar system montage
Jupiter in the optical waveband with its X-ray aurorae superimposed at the poles. Embroidered in white, yellow, orange and purple threads on a black background.
Jupiter's X-ray aurorae
A tree is silhouetted against the aurora.
Aurora
Embroidered graph depicting the number of sunspots between 1985 and 2020.
Sunspot number prediction
An artist's impression of the Rosette Nebula.
Rosette Nebula
Comet made from pink and white threads on a black background. White dots are scattered around to represent stars in space.
Halley's Comet
Hand appliqued representation of Venus, clouds and a few microbes.
Venus
A Fanaroff & Riley Class 2 radio galaxy at radio wavelengths, showing the classical narrow jet, giant radio lobes and hotspots
FRII radio galaxy
All the satellites in a geostationary or other orbits surrounding the Earth, created in blue, white and yellow threads on a black background.
Satellites & Stars
Embroidered version of Jeremiah Horrocks Observatory in Moor Park, Preston, Lancashire
Jeremiah Horrocks Observatory
The square illustrates the "Equilibrium Model" for galaxies. Fresh molecular gas inflows (blue fabric) fall into the galaxy at the centre and outflows of metal-rich molecular gas (red embroidery) are ejected.
Fragile Equilibrium
Layers of fabrics and prints from paintings created inspired by space.
Untitled
Mary Somerville, plus the eight major planets embroidered on a tartan background.
The Mechanism of the Heavens
The aurora as seen from the international space station. Parts of the ISS can be seen in the foreground (bottom of the image).
Aurora from the ISS
The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory
Radio Eye
Black, grey, red and yellow hexagons sewn together to create an abstract image.
Hexagons in space
Cross stitch of the space shuttle Discovery at launch.
A Journey of Discovery
An eight pointed star with 7 of the star points each a different colour associated with a stellar spectral class. Those spectral classes are designated by the letters, OBAFGKM and that order is often learned with a mnemonic, "Oh Be A Fine Girl/Guy Kiss Me," which is stitched around the star.
Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
A star, with different textures and patterns using black thread on a white background.
Sparkling Star
Embroidered version of details taken from the European Space Agency's Rosetta Mission to study comet 67P - particularly the spacecraft and the Philae lander
Rosetta Mission
Black embroidered quote on a white background. The text reads: "The eye that directs a needle in the delicate meshes of embroidery will equally well bisect a star with the spiderweb pf the micrometre. Maria Mitchell, astronomer 1818-1889"
The Eye
The inner layers of a star (red in the centre, orange and then yellow) made using a lace technique called tatting.
Stellar Interiors
The badge of the Swansea Astronomical Society in yellow embroidery on a star filled background.
Swansea Astronomical Society
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) created using yellow and grey pieces of fabric on a white background.
TESS surveying the stars
An imaginary planet, embroidery-thread doodled in shade of blue and purple coloured threads on a black background.
Ice Giant
Stars of the Pleiades constellation embroidered in silver thread on a blue background.
The Pleiades Star Cluster
Artist's impression of a sunset from exoplanet KELT-9b.
Artist’s view of a sunset over KELT-9b
Two people silhouetted against a meteor shower. One is pointing up at the sky.
Meteor Shower
The Huygens probe descending to Titan with the Cassini satellite and Saturn in the background.
Cassini-Huygens: Discovering New Worlds
A page from Galileo's observations of the moon recreated with embroidery.
Galileo's Observations
Artist impression of active galactic nuclei (AGN). A black hole at the centre of a galaxy which emits vast amounts of energy in the form of jets. The centre is very bright, often more luminous than the rest of the galaxy light.
Active Galactic Nuclei
Artist impression of a supernova remnant using a patchwork. Small squares and triangles of light coloured fabric stitched together.
Supernova Remnant
A patchwork fabric square, the centre of which resembles the points on a compass.
Mariner's compass
Tesca Osman
Sun
Spiral galaxy NGC 1232 created in different colour threads, predominantly orange, yellow, white and grey. In this version of the galaxy the spirals are in going in the opposite to the real life galaxy.
A different perspective
A yellow circle with orange rings around it on a black background.
Saturn
An embroidered version of the 3D map of the Milky Way. Purple, blue and green threads mark out the hottest stars in our galaxy. The data is taken from the European Space Agency's Gaia space observatory.
Gaia's density map of the Milky Way
The James Webb Space Telescope created with patchwork fabric.
Telescope
The constellation of leo marked out in sequins sewn on top of the outline of a lion.
Leo
Beads represent a cluster of stars stitched onto a black background.
Globular Cluster
The Royal Astronomical Society's new logo unveiled in 2020. Embroidered in black thread on a white background.
RAS new logo
A house in the foreground, behind it star trails represented by dots and dashes in white thread on a black background.
Star trails
Embroidered outline of an astronaut's face and helmet in profile view. Stitched in black and grey threads on a white background.
Astronaut