Who is Donald Knuth?

Who is Donald Knuth? He is (or was, I think he is retired now) a professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. He is the author of widely acclaimed books on computer science, mathematics, and typography. Hence the reason why his books are in my husbands bookcase ;) Knuth has been awarded honorary doctorates from Oxford University, the University of Paris, and eleven colleges.

His dream was to write a book based on the 3:16s of the Bible. He explains that there are many ways to study the Bible, e.g read from beginning to end or study certain themes. Being a mathematician has probably lead him to this interesting concept: "The Bible contains approx. 30.000 verses. Let's suppose that each verse has been written on a slip of paper, and that all the slips have been put into an enormous bowl. A random sample can be obtained by stirring the contents and then selecting, say, 60 of the slips. After studying those 60 Bible verses carefully, we might not expect to know a whole lot about the other 29.940; but in fact, mathematicians have found that a surprising amount of information about a large subject can often be derived with a high degree of confidence, even when only a small sample has been investigated."

I came to the conclusion that I wanted to apply the same idea in a series of small art quilts. This will be very challenging, but hopefully rewarding at the same time. In the past week I have been thinking about all the difficulties: what techniques to use, how to incorporate text/writing unto fabric, how to get all the ideas, inspiration, time etc. etc. But....I just want to do my best and even if it isn't a successful outcome I hope the Bible study and artistic expression will be beneficial to me and maybe to others as well!

No pictures yet :( It will take a while I am afraid, but first want to get the idea and background for this project out of the way. (my brain is working and visual diary has some sketches in it :))