Found objects, handmade materials and travel are themes of On The Edge, a stimulating exhibition staged by an association of Scottish textile artists called Edge. All their pictures, sculptures and other 3D pieces are based on textiles and were inspired by trips to places such as New Mexico, India and the north of Scotland.

Midge Gourlay, who is based at Port Appin in Argyll, is one of more than 50 artists featured in what the exhibition organisers characterise as a “celebration of the creative use of textile materials and the widest possible variety of techniques, from traditional to cutting edge”.

Describing her abstract work On the Edge of Russia, Ms Gourlay says she was inspired by a Christmas trip to Finland to visit her son, who lives near the Russian border. “We had to get a small plane from Helsinki and it flew so low over the countryside that we could see everything: fir trees covered in snow, hundreds of frozen lakes, animal tracks in the fields I It was so different from anything I had ever seen before and so exciting that I immediately began to make sketches.” The resulting work was the “essence of what I saw and felt as I looked down on that landscape”, she says.

The patchwork includes birch bark, a hawk’s feather, horse hair, gold thread, and handmade silk and paper. “I loved making it so much that I deliberately slowed myself down to prolong the enjoyment,” she says.

Sandi Kiehlmann used more than 100 holiday postcards, collected from family members and friends, to create a traditionally designed and stitched patchwork quilt that combines pictures, stamps, postmarks and messages from all over the world.

Jennifer Rochester reinterpreted the ancient ring and cup marks she saw at Kilmartin Glen in a work made from Harris tweed, bracken paper and natural thread.

Two gorgeous textile pictures by Sarah Sumsion are based on derelict Scottish lime kilns and feature pieces of rusty metal found on site and miniature handmade bricks.

Brenda Norquay created her multi-textured pure white wall hanging, Silent Thought, as a response to last year’s foot and mouth diseaseoutbreak, explaining that the work can be used for quiet contemplation.

A large, embroidered silk quilt on display was inspired by artist Elma Colvins’ concern for species of birds that are on the edge of extinction.

One of the highlights of the show is the fashion work of five students from the Glasgow School of Art’s textiles department, among them Cait Gordon. She has transformed old-fashioned embroidered tea cloths and table linen - which often lie “unappreciated and hidden away in charity shops and drawers”, she points out - into wearable works of art.

Paisley Museum curator Liz Arthur says: “One of our major planks is education with the aim of keeping Scotland’s strong textiles heritage alive and encouraging its development.

“We’ve already contributed to the Higher Still art curriculum and compiled Cloth on the Computer, a catalogue of contemporary Scottish textile artists with an accompanying CD-Rom, as well as a potted history of the Scottish textile industry, all of which were sent out to every secondary school in Scotland.”

A programme of artist-led workshops for children, primary school pupils, disabled people and adults, as well as a series of lunch-time talks (the last is on November 13) accompanies the exhibition. In addition, two of the featured artists will visit Paisley secondary schools this month to give a series of informal illustrated talks about their work.

For further information about the education programme, tel Paisley Museum on 0141 889 3151