Sometimes, I have one idea for one quilt that then spins off additional ideas for additional quilts along the same theme. I have never started with a plan to create a quilted collection of stories. But there have been a few occasions when my idea for two or three quilts then expands to several quilts representing stories that resonate with me. I hope you are inspired by these collections and the story each quilt tells.

---

Stitching Hope for the Louisiana Coast collection

In 2018, I traveled to the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) along with other scientists and science communicators. We spent several days exploring field locations and hearing from locals stories of adaptation and resilience. These conversations and sites we visited led to a nine-quilt collection themed on coastal optimism.

Drawing Down Towards Climate Solutions collection

Project Drawdown is an organization that researches solutions to global warming. Their data-driven recommendations are based upon cutting the sources of greenhouse gas emissions as well as increasing the removal of carbon. This quilt collection was constructed from the framework of the original Drawdown Solutions Library. There are 10 quilts in this collected themed on the sources, sinks, and the integration of health/education.

50th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act collection

Signed in to law by President Nixon on December 28, 1973, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) provides a program for the conservation of threatened and endangered plants and animals and the habitats in which they are found. With December 2023 being the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, I made a mini-quilt collection calling attention to some of the terrestrial and marine species that are listed as threatened or endangered in the United States and/or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. There are 13 quilts in this collection.

Stories from the South Atlantic Ocean collection

Scientists, technicians, and crew sailed on the scientific drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution in the South Atlantic Ocean to collect a transect of sediment and rock cores to learn more about Earth connections, biosphere frontiers, and climate and ocean change. This collection of 19 quilts (plus one bonus quilt) captures a snapshot of working and living at sea during International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 390, which sailed April 7 through June 7, 2022. I had the amazing opportunity to serve as an Onboard Outreach Officer during the two-month expedition and created the quilts upon returning home.

Processing the Policies collection

I started this collection post-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”. What started as my reaction to activities happening at the federal level expanded to include decisions and activities down to the local level. This quilt collection is still in progress, with more than 10 quilts completed to date.

Quilts from collections created by L. Guertin. Top row, left to right: Stitching Hope for the Louisiana Coast, Drawing Down Towards Climate Solutions. Bottom row, left to right: 50th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, Stories from the South Atlantic Ocean, Processing the Policies.