all these explanations make sense to us 
but explaining it to ProE vets, that only know "surfaces" from Wildfire or Creo, I get looked at like I'm a 3rd grader talking to a college grad. lol
Reinhard, that is a gem of a find for this. Substitute "quilt" with "surface" and it still is right.
I'm probably pissing in the wind with trying to explain it. The only thing I can think of to explain it is to show how the "surfaces" of the solid get reparamaterized (is that a word?) when it gets edited showing the isocurves.
I know in the end none of it matters to the user, it's all the man behind the curtain.
thanks for confirming I'm not a third grader