Quilting points

"... the point of constellations is to make a comprehensible unity out of an underlying chaos, and it takes only one or two stars to anchor a fantasy as odd as a microscope to the heavenly vault. The one star at the top and the other below are like quilting points, the buttons in upholstery: they force the fabric into contact with the frame beneath just enough so the two remain connected. The rest is stuffing."


Elkins, James (1996), The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing, A Harvest Book, Harcourt, Inc. San Diego, New York, London, p.127/128