Follow along with me as I participate in the 2024 Save Your Story Challenge by Quilt Alliance. You can find all of my blog posts that are part of this challenge.

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Next up for the Quilt Alliance Save Your Story Challenge – Label Your Quilts: Part 2 — What To Say! The email arrived on July 13 with the full details:

It’s interesting that the Challenge has been prompting me to think about quilt labels. Just last month, as the upstairs of my home has an ever-growing collection of completed quilts, my husband mentioned that I should be thinking about the future of the quilts. Although I’m still in a very active period of showcasing and presenting the quilts, I do worry that most of the information relating to the quilts is contained online or in my personal files. What more can I do for labeling my quilts, in thinking about where they may land in the future?

In my May Challenge post, I shared how I sign, list the date of completion, and list the number of quilt (in the total number of quilts I’ve generated). In my June Challenge post, I upped my label on one special quilt with the name of the quilt, a description, and images. For this July Challenge, I’m reflecting upon these prior challenges and how I’d like some of my quilts to be remember in the future. I decided to generate fabric labels (printed by Spoonflower.com) for each of the 19 quilts in my Stories from the South Atlantic Ocean quilt collection. These quilts mean alot to me as a scientist and a science communicator, so I want to go back and add more to the back of each one.

I’ve ordered the labels to be printed on swatches and am waiting for them to arrive. Here is what they will look like, which will supplement my hand-signed/dated/numbered information that already exists on the back.

As you can see, I’m including the oceanographic research expedition patch for my two months at sea, the title of the quilt, the name of the collection it is a part of, my role on the ship, the name of the ship, and my “day job.” As I’ve been speaking to more and more youth groups and at community meetings, my identity as a scientist and a quilter is viewed as unique and surprising to many. I make sure students know that if they are interested in a career in science, they do not have to give up their creative side and interests to be a scientist. I share with students that I fully believe my creative side makes me a stronger and better scientist! So I record on the quilt label my position and my institution as well.

And here’s a quick video that walks through half the collection, so you can see the front of the quilts, waiting for this new addition on the back!

It will take me some time to stitch these labels on the backs of all 19 quilts – a perfect activity to do in my office on campus this fall semester as I wait for students to stop by during office hours! (with the lack of frequency that students swing by (most just email), I should be pretty productive!)

This month’s Challenge also gives me plenty of things to think about as I move forward with new quilts I produce – what are the must-include pieces of information I need to label on the back, if I want the science story I’m communicating to be evident? I have a feeling it will be much more than two items, and I’m OK with that!