This quilt is one of a series of quilts I generated following Election Day 2024. There were so many changes to laws, funding, access – especially related to my discipline and my research – that I used my sewing machine for Processing the Policies. Explore the collection.

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I’m not sure why I woke up at 4:40AM, but I went ahead and rolled over in bed and reached for my cell phone, which charges overnight next to my clock. I picked up the phone and tapped on the Twitter app and clicked on the feed for NBC News. Last night, I had been refreshing that feed to view election results as they were coming in (I couldn’t watch the live result shows – I instead selected to view back-to-back episodes of Agatha Christine’s Hercule Poirot on public television). When I went to bed Tuesday evening, not enough results were in to make the call for who would serve as the next President of the United States. And I honestly didn’t expect there to be a call made Wednesday morning, either, knowing how late some states kept their polls open and assuming my own state, Pennsylvania, would take days to get results tallied.

But on this early Wednesday morning, I started scrolling through the NBC News Twitter feed and saw that one candidate was giving victory speeches – which was predicted to happen even before all the votes were counted. Then, I saw the tweet  – the tweet that stated the candidate that won the state of Pennsylvania. My heart had never sunken to such depths as it did at that moment.

I couldn’t fall back to sleep. I was tossing and turning so much, with so many thoughts going through my mind. I couldn’t fathom what the future impacts would be on science (especially efforts to address global warming), women’s rights, and overall civility towards one another. I had to figure out what to do during these first 24 hours to process what was happening and yet to come.

I surprised myself by immediately thinking that I needed to make a quilt (I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised, as quilting has been a great de-stressing activity for me). The idea for this quilt started coming together in those early morning hours and throughout the day. At 7AM, I was showered and upstairs going through my existing fabric collection. Then I started cutting, started stitching, and in 10 hours, I completed the quilt pictured below.

I have named this quilt “Processing”, as that is what I was doing during its construction and will be continuing to do for some time. The top of the quilt shows a dark gray sky and three black clouds (the clouds can represent whoever or whatever the viewer determines). Then I did a tan color to represent the ground, as where I am in southeastern Pennsylvania, Election Day marked the 37^th day of no measurable rainfall, a historic drought event and record.

The fabrics below the drought layer are part of the surface of our planet (or now pushed below ground – not sure where I want them placed in the story) and represent themes critical to me (at least the topics I had fabric for): the environment, climate impacts, the ocean, women/girls in STEM, health, education, literacy in reading and asking questions to make data-informed decisions – and that we are running out of time and a clear direction to make advances in all of these fields. I stitched all of these fabric scraps as a crazy quilt – to me, representing the increased chaos now moving forward in all of these fields. The green border around the lower-half of the quilt I used to represent growth, hope, and opportunity for moving forward.

The quilt measures 41 inches across and 37 inches in height and was completed in 10 hours on November 6, 2024 (from the initial design to the final strip of binding). All of the fabrics, batting, and binding were part of my collection – no new items were purchased for the construction of this quilt.

Thank you for taking the time to read through and learn about Processing. May we all continue to process current events and support one another to advance initiatives and individuals to ensure an equitable and sustainable planet for all.