Julie McAllister, Jack of All Trades (detail), 2024, upcycled denim jeans, 100% cotton wadding and backing, lightweight adhesive interfacing, appliqued raw edged strips of denim. Image courtesy of the artist.

Presented by the WA Quilters Association, the biennial, juried exhibition stitched and bound returns to MJAC in 2026 featuring new works that push the boundaries of contemporary quilting.

Alongside the exhibition, the CoLab Space turns into a hub of textile joy when twelve stitched & bound artists work in residence and open their arts practice to visitors. The residency is divided into blocks to allow visitors to return and visit different artists, watch them work up close and learn a few techniques along the way.

WAQA’s first contemporary quilting exhibition, The Razor’s Edge, was held in Fremantle in 1995 as an opportunity for local textile artists, who had mastered traditional quilt making techniques, to present works using more adventurous ideas, materials and methods. The exhibition, now known as stitched and bound, has since become one of the leading exhibitions of contemporary quilts in Australia. Open to all Western Australian textile artists, works are selected by an independent jury of three professionals representing a wide range of contemporary quilters, textile artists, curators, educators and practitioners. Whilst works must possess the structural characteristics of a quilt, artists are encouraged to push the boundaries of traditional quilting and freely express their ideas.