Walking, Staying In, and Making Sense: Quilting with Pandemic Matter<\/h1>\nCorinna Peterken<\/div>\n\n\nThis making and making sense are in relation with pandemic matter and a quilt. Matter on hand: fabric, embroidery thread, and appliqu\u00e9 map and speak, sowing sense. The nine blocks sewn and joined together hold their sense making as individual and collective. The conversation from and through making a quilt with pandemic matter emerges from, and plays with, text and image. I align matter and stitching through to hold and turn process into product as I continue making and making sense for knowing about who we are and how to live with each other and the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nCette conception et compr\u00e9hension sont \u00e0 la fois en relation avec la question de la pand\u00e9mie et celle d\u2019un plaid. La mati\u00e8re \u00e0 port\u00e9e de main : le tissu, le fil \u00e0 broder, la carte \u00e0 coudre en application et le langage, tissant du sens. Ces neuf blocs, cousus et assembl\u00e9s ensemble, sont porteurs de sens, \u00e0 la fois de mani\u00e8re individuelle et collective. La conversation qui d\u00e9coule \u00e0 partir et \u00e0 travers la fabrication d\u2019un plaid associ\u00e9e \u00e0 la question de la pand\u00e9mie \u00e9merge et joue avec le texte et l\u2019image. J\u2019aligne la mati\u00e8re et les coutures pour maintenir et transformer le processus en produit fini, tout en continuant de cr\u00e9er et de donner du sens \u00e0 la connaissance de ce que nous sommes, \u00e0 notre mani\u00e8re de vivre les uns avec les autres et notre rapport au monde.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
\nS<\/span>ensemaking with a quilt in this research is my artist\/academic process for noticing important issues and possibilities in pandemic life. A quilt as visual means of connecting and understanding teaches and provides a way to think with and beyond (dis)comfort. This conversation from and through making a quilt with pandemic matter emerges from, and plays with, text and image. The visual is vital in my work as an artist\/academic, and a way that I engage with the micro and macro. As I revisited the images, quilt, and writing more than a year after lockdown I quilted further and made this paper as thinking \u201cin the making\u201d (Ellsworth; Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d; Peterken, \u201cKnowing in the Making\u201d) that is not over. Throughout this process of making sense with the quilt I took up openings and ruptures (Irwin and de Cosson) that stopped me and created spaces for thinking as I participated in \u201cMassive and microscopic sensemaking during a global pandemic (MMS)\u201d (Markham et al.).<\/p>\nMaking a quilt with pandemic matter gave me space to think with encounters and materials. Hope and fear around herd immunity and vaccinations that were not available until recently (Loveless) are also into the quilt block analysis of responses to the MMS prompts. The quilt provoked (and made visible) thinking about fears and hopes (Kwon), self, others, and the world (Markham et al.) during the pandemic, and after vaccination gave more comfort. In the MMS project, prompts over 21 days between May 18 and June 7, 2020 (Markham and Harris) gave me some distraction with research (Markham et al.) and a focus to consider making sense of this different pandemic world with critical autoethnography.<\/p>\n
This sensemaking allowed me to be personal while considering broader issues as I \u201cperform meaning from and through [my body], situated daily routines, and relations with embedded, embodied, and everywhere digital technologies\u201d (Markham et al.\u00a02). My responses to prompts included motivated personal writing, embodied encounters, stillness and silence without ignoring but not being outwardly active, and active making: making images, poetry, and nine fabric blocks. These were brought together with quilting intra-actions (Barad, \u201cMeeting the Universe\u201d) where items for sewing (fabric, thread, stitches, quilt blocks, and the quilt as a whole) join forces, becoming-with my artist\/researcher\/teacher wanderings, wonderings, and thinking. The quilt was a way to deal with the impact of COVID on my life, the lives of those near and far, the world, and how we live during and after a pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n![](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image1a.jpg\")
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<\/div>\n<\/div>Figure 1: Finished quilt front and back. Image of quilt provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFearful, and closed in with pandemic advice to \u201cstay strong\u201d while at home, complying with executive orders and directives, on my daily neighbourhood walks I began to consider what matters with the MMS prompts. I walked taking notes and images while attending to what my body and senses noticed. My fear and<\/em> hope in this pandemic assemblage\/remix (Markham, \u201cRemix Culture\u201d) in the quilt render openings (Irwin and de Cosson; Springgay et al.) for listening to materials and to the quilt through piecing and piercing through with threads. The quilt also brought comfort, as is common in quilts used as coverings (Witzling), and it is a medium to give messages that can be read from \u201cmultiple directions\u201d (Koelsch 823). Connections are across, up, down, diagonal, bound in, and altogether through the quilt, back and front (Figure 1).<\/p>\nPandemic quilt conversations as research<\/h2>\n
L<\/span>iving in the USA I am near quilting shops, but they were not open. Quilting can be considered an American crafting tradition connected to pioneering and lack of materials for warmth, as well as part of crafting and the arts in many cultures (Flannery; Fitzpatrick and Bell; Ferrarese). I used quilting for research before in Australia to bring together photographic images young children created (transferred onto fabric) for their meaning making and belonging in an early childhood center (Peterken, \u201cCrafting Living Inquiry\u201d). Making a quilt can be a solo activity with many hours of sewing, part of leisure (Stalp, \u201cNegotiating Time\u201d), and can also give pleasure (Ferrarese) as materials are brought together to make visually appealing patterns. I wanted the quilt to be an artwork, to have visual appeal, but that was not the main purpose. It was a research product for sensemaking. Quilting has the potential to be \u201ca powerful socially communicative practice\u201d (Nieberding 8) as women\/makers gather in \u2018quilting bees\u2019 to create a finished article, but quilting in a pandemic during lockdown is lonely. I find some comfort in working with fabrics in relation with the MMS prompts. My quilt-making as artist and researcher pulled focus and created a space to do something to think about and make sense with.<\/p>\nQuilting in research involves more than \u201cthe creative processes that everyday quilters face\u201d (Stalp, \u201cQuilting\u201d 24), and William Nieberding proposes that as a visual medium quilting \u201cgenerates socially significant visual texts\u201d (9). The social issues and pandemic experience are in this research quilt as disparate events, and images are sewn in relation through the nine blocks in combination. The number of blocks needed to make a complete quilt varies, but I used items placed in a nine-cube storage shelf for one of the MMS prompts, which gave me the idea for a nine block quilt to engage with what matters and what I noticed. This quilt as a mystory text (Denzin and Lincoln) that collected (and holds) personal interactions with various materials teaches me as I create. Quilts are an exchange that does not always have words (Ellsworth; Peterken, \u201cCrafting Living Inquiry\u201d). In this research quilt the \u201ccuts, tears, ruptures or cracks that resist predictability, comfort and safety\u201d (Irwin and Springgay xxx<\/em>) opened conversations about pandemic life. Artist\/researcher\/teacher inquiry and knowledge creation here was not about making quilts, but about making sense. It matters that \u201csome knowings cannot be conveyed through language\u201d (Ellsworth 156) and can be crafted (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d) through making as method, including making this nine-block quilt. My process of making with found materials and what was on hand had me thinking personally, as artist\/researcher\/teacher \u201cthrough<\/em> observation [as well as] after<\/em> it\u201d (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d 11) with the quilting and writing process.<\/p>\nConversations and sensemaking in the quilt<\/h2>\n![\"Figure](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image2.jpg\")
Figure 2: Completed quilt. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe nine blocks connect across the whole quilt (Figure 2), and each of the blocks holds individual and collective sensemaking. Some responses in the quilt blocks were from an individual MMS prompt, such as in Green dot<\/em> (Figure 3) seen in the still image from a video of Rock Canyon that is in relation with the idea of technology making its presence known, impacting what is seen and experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n![](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image3a.jpg\")
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<\/div>\n<\/div>Figure 3: Green dot. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nThe little green dot shivers and shakes<\/em><\/p>\na gift from the camera.<\/em><\/p>\nPulling focus<\/em><\/p>\naway<\/em><\/p>\nfrom the mountain flowers<\/em><\/p>\nfrom the birdsong<\/em><\/p>\nand the freeway hum<\/em><\/p>\nthe humdrum.<\/em><\/p>\nSunlight growing brighter<\/em><\/p>\nrising<\/em><\/p>\ntipping over the mountain top<\/em><\/p>\nspilling<\/em><\/p>\nreaching beams spreading down the canyon.<\/em><\/p>\nThe birds know-<\/em><\/p>\nthey herald the day!<\/em><\/p>\nThis iPhone camera uses this same light.<\/em><\/p>\nPhotography is drawing with light I read.<\/em><\/p>\nThe device uses this light.<\/em><\/p>\nIt captures.<\/em><\/p>\nShoots.<\/em><\/p>\nCreates<\/em><\/p>\nimages (including its\u2019 added shivery green dot).<\/em><\/p>\nVideo appears with sounds<\/em><\/p>\nof birds<\/em><\/p>\nof quiet breathing<\/em><\/p>\nof vehicles far off<\/em><\/p>\ncontaining a multitude of humans now out and going<\/em><\/p>\nabout their business<\/em><\/p>\nbelow.<\/em><\/p>\n(Research journal iPhone notes)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Other blocks attended to the more general issues of life in the pandemic and \u2018what is happening here?\u2019 and opened to learning about sensemaking with the quilt as an artist\/researcher\/teacher (Springgay et al.). Quilting through, adding embroidery, making knots as \u201cplaces where many lines of becoming are drawn tightly together\u201d (Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d 132) made sense. It was in these processes, and the emergent autoethnographic writing (Denzin and Lincoln; Ellis et al.), including poetic notes in my iPhone research journal (in italics in this writing), that openings to sensemaking called out through what was on hand.<\/p>\n
As an artist I use the visual to show me what matters and, in this instance, making a quilt provided thinking with visual art processes. Images and words (including poetry) \u201cinvite attention\u201d (Barone and Eisner 39) here in relation with my stories from the MMS prompts. The visual as well as written perspectives created this mystory text combining media and messages. Language other than words is with, and in between, words in different forms in this writing as artist\/researcher\/teacher to \u201clearn in my head what my body already recognizes\u201d (Sameshima 49). Making (sense and visual art) with the MMS prompts opened to sewing a quilt and some knowing about how to live through a pandemic and beyond as artist\/researcher.<\/p>\n
Wandering and staying in shift to wondering and making<\/h2>\n![\"Figure](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image4.jpg\")
Figure 4: Pandemic bubbles. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWandering by myself and staying in to remain in my pandemic bubble shifted with the MMS prompts to wondering and making sense with art materials stashed in two nine-cube shelves and in baskets in my home. I sewed from four years of age, making clothing for dolls, and made clothing for myself and others from my mid-teens. I have supplies on hand to quilt, sew, knit, crochet, embroider, weave, spin, paint, and bead, as well as natural materials such as feathers, sticks, stones, grasses, and seed pods found and gathered from my yard and as I walk around my neighborhood for collage and adding to art projects. Thinking through making (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d) with these materials is part of my arts based research practice. Making (sense and art) with the MMS prompts opened to sewing and to knowings through making a quilt and sowing a garden. In this research, change occurring on a global scale had me noticing and feeling fear and<\/em> hope. This autoethnographic w(a\/o)ndering (Peterken, \u201cBattledress\u201d) with my sensing and the quilt opens to making and playing with some hopes\/fears, and more things to ponder. My daily neighborhood walks during the pandemic lockdown in a college town in Utah, USA, shifted to considering the MMS prompts.<\/p>\nAttention was drawn to self during the period of pandemic lockdown. Making sense in this isolated bubble was a challenge, depicted in the Pandemic bubbles<\/em> (Figure 4) quilt block. I wrote in my research journal iPhone notes while reading, thinking, and walking with MMS prompts:<\/p>\n\nMovement and embodied sensemaking come from attending,<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cknow[ing] for yourself\u201d (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d 141) with the small and the large.<\/em><\/p>\nA feeling in silence and stillness.<\/em><\/p>\nThe micro and macro captivates and astonishes (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d) as I<\/em><\/p>\n\u201clive in hope\u201d (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d 141), uncertain.<\/em><\/p>\n(Research journal iPhone notes)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I found that materials on hand offered ways of making art and meaning with what was happening. Findings from walking and thinking with MMS prompts were analyzed using fabric, thread, and other art materials. Relationships between my artist\/researcher\/teacher (Irwin and de Cosson; Irwin and Springgay) selves, others, and the world were called into focus with the quilt.<\/p>\n
Making do and a pandemic assemblage<\/h2>\n
A<\/span>s I moved around my neighborhood, I noticed small elements and connections with larger contexts. I gathered images of moments that captivated and matter that evoked awe. Moments of making with the quilt then gave extended time for attention to feelings and to make a difference to my knowing in the making (Ellsworth). This brought me hope and some comfort along with my concern for others and the planet. Pandemic time lengthened and collapsed (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d), and with no attention to markings on a clock, days melted together into a week, or it could have been a month? \u201cHow long will this go on?,\u201d I wondered \u2026 \u201cwhen will bubbles pop?\u201d Time and space also collapsed as I spoke with friends and family (me in my time) across multiple continents and time zones, in my home, in my town and state, and others all over the world. We were in virtual bubbles. Connections online and offline helped us in knowing self, others, and the world. Lines of communication, walking lines, and lines of sewing converged in the quilt. One block, Blank journal<\/em> (Figure 5), became a piece of crystal organza sewn through with lines. Lines with messy ends. Gaps that still sparkle and draw attention. They present unseen events and encounters, more that I can and cannot do for others and the world, if I learn and attend and act.<\/p>\n![\"Figure](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image5.jpg\")
Figure 5: Blank journal. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nI was in my bubble as spring arrived and flowers bloomed after a long, bare, white, winter, bursting color and texture. Life. Making the quilt, nature is noticed, living and announcing this joyously to the world and to me. Splashes of color and knowing from bubbles and stitches. The image here of the neighborhood campus garden I walked in to gain respite from the pandemic is becoming-tapestry with pixelation (Figure 6) blurring the leaves and petals, shifting lines and making squares.<\/p>\n\n\n![](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image6a.jpg\")
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<\/div>\n<\/div>Figure 6: Flower tapestry. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nI was also stitching a tapestry. The stitches were made in the same way seeds are planted, \u201cthread[ing] through and among\u201d (Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d 132), laying lines, line by line in rows, or here and there, entangled. The Flower squares<\/em> (Figure 7) block of the quilt holds this sensemaking and the way that meaning (like flowers where I walk, and in my garden) can be laid out in tiny increments before me, before us.<\/p>\n![\"Figure](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image7.jpg\")
Figure 7: Flower squares. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nI accept with the quilt blocks\u2019 sensemaking that life can be messy, and there is (dis)comfort in that, as in the lines and pages that were left blank in my journal. Making sense is more than an endeavor with words, as the quilt \u201cplays an active, indeed agential role\u201d (Barad, \u201cPosthumanist Performativity\u201d 826). The floral squares come into relation with the empty journal and play an active part, calling attention to times where making\/research sustained me during weeks of lockdown and tentative venturing out afterwards until I was fully vaccinated. Making was a method to process and sort through changes brought on by pandemic life, and to engage with self, materials, others, and the world when isolation and fear closed in. Making blocks and the quilt did not always have any answers, but I wondered with \u201cwonderments\u201d (Andrews and Duff 30) that in research allow assemblages, energy, and movement that attend, within pauses, to some of what matters.<\/p>\n
Walking is part of my creative sensemaking practice (Peterken and Potts, \u201cPedagogical Experiences\u201d) and in this research trees, plants, and flowers around me also made a difference to my physical and mental health. I became more attentive to my surroundings. I took time to be present. I felt less isolated with connections to the natural world. Not everyone had a place to walk, family to be with, a garden to be planted, health care, or space to safely be away from risk of infection in a bubble through the pandemic. I felt with so many others who lost loved ones. I worked from home but the connection with students and colleagues was virtual and unembodied, we were all tired using new technology and processes, and that made a difference. At times I felt empty and blue.<\/p>\n![\"Figure](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image8.jpg\")
Figure 8: Blue. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThis Blue<\/em> (Figure 8) quilt block was made in relation with the walking and images for a collaborative MMS video (Fr\u00f8lunde et al.) that braided the dislocation of researcher lives and selves with the pandemic, noticing the stillness and messiness of that. I noticed blue for hope, loneliness, blue breath, and blue skies as not only fair weather in images I made for the video. As we wove our experiences across the world into the imagery we were \u201creading insights through one another\u201d (Barad, \u201cMeeting the Universe\u201d 25) to notice what was happening at that moment. Being with images and others as researcher\/teachers who embody the \u201ccaring diligence required\u201d (Markham et al.\u00a06) for learning gave openings for connections and more perspectives that were hopeful. Blue<\/em> (Figure 8) is central in the quilt, so it touches all the blocks as COVID touched all our lives. The magical presence of a unicorn and gold patterns in it also offered glimmers of hope when all I noticed was blue. Working with others across time zones in the MMS research held some challenges but was enriching as we threaded our lives, stories, and the world, sensemaking together in the video. That mattered to us.<\/p>\nSewing\/sowing for sensemaking<\/h2>\n![\"Figure](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image9.jpg\")
Figure 9: Sewing, quilting through. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nSew to know, knowing in the making<\/em><\/p>\nTo give hope<\/em><\/p>\nTo \u201clive in hope\u201d (Ingold<\/em> \u201cMaking\u201d 141) as scholars do\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nTo feed<\/em><\/p>\nhope more than fear.<\/em><\/p>\nFor artist\/researcher\/teacher selves, for others, for the world.<\/em><\/p>\nA new normal<\/em><\/p>\nI hope\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nwith the world.<\/em><\/p>\n(Research journal iPhone notes)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Handmade blocks for a quilt as part of storytelling (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d) provided room to learn and presented \u201cguidance without specification\u201d (109). Openings between things that matter as held in each block were joined together as the quilt was pieced, sewn, pinned through, and quilted (Figure 9). This process provided a means to attend to matter for making sense. The quilt blocks, the quilt as a whole, and materials are telling with color, texture, juxtaposition, stitches, repetition, and rupture.<\/p>\n\n\n![](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image10a.jpg\")
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<\/div>\n<\/div>Figure 10: Mapping pandemic home. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSewing the Mapping pandemic home<\/em> (Figure 10) quilt block, I noticed that flowers and planting featured once more. The associated MMS prompt had me mapping (Markham and Harris) my home life, the staying in with time for planting a garden, and sowing seeds in rows. The back of the block gave another perspective that maps outlines and reduces the visual to what was essential. A garden was not essential, but for me (and others) gardening was a way to escape and be outside. It was hopeful; a garden sown (and sewn) here was unsuccessful in that most plants died or were not fruitful, but it was a distraction during a pandemic. It gave something to care about and to make sense with, like the MMS prompts and research project (Markham et al.) and the quilt.<\/p>\nMaking a quilt with micro and macro, matter, and making was a \u201cprocess of correspondence\u201d (Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d 31). Fabric, thread, the quilt blocks, and my artist\/researcher selves in conversation were enmeshed in this knotted, matted, patchwork of scraps taken up and put together then sewn across and through. This process of knowing and thinking used materials as \u201csubstances-in-becoming\u201d (Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d 31) as I quilted with the flowers and plants as pandemic matter that made me attend to the fragility of life and connections.<\/p>\n
Listening to materials in the quilt<\/h2>\n
W<\/span>hile making this quilt I was isolated, but in relation with pandemic prompts and matter on hand including fabric, materials, dragonflies, flowers, images, neighborhood walking, reading, and virtual responses. These were my companions. There was a lot being said. Bronwyn Davies (2014) urges emergent listening, the type of listening that I use as teacher\/artist in my work in early childhood education. I urge my teacher education students to attend to children. To listen to and with and take cues from children (Rinaldi), materials, and the world as it presents encounters. This style of listening has no anticipation or prediction, accepts surprises, and bids us work with what occurs, exploring openly what it might mean as we \u201cmeet in spaces of difference\u201d (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al.\u00a030). This type of listening as an artist\/researcher\/teacher is necessary for making sense of things. The quilt tells stories of and from artifacts bound together; collaged, appliqu\u00e9d, quilted in a pleated text (Richardson) that holds stories and encounters of learning\/teaching with art and making as thinking.<\/p>\nThe fabric pieces were selected as they stood out in relation with thinking as researcher while making with the prompts as artist. I was making and making do (Markham, \u201cBricolage\u201d) with what was on hand, thinking through making in what Tim Ingold describes as the \u201cart of inquiry\u201d (\u201cMaking\u201d 6). As an early childhood teacher\/teacher educator I am used to using matter on hand and in hand. The matter and my artist\/researcher\/teacher selves exist before, now, and in the future with what Barad considers as having \u201chistoricity\u201d (\u201cPosthumanist Performativity\u201d 82), always already becoming. I listened and heard\/noticed some intra-actions (Barad) with the fabric and quilt, and I am sure I missed many others. Nevertheless, matter brought what mattered and needed to matter then\/in the future to me. It is a gift. Present. Presented and here\/now\/then as \u201csubstances-in-becoming\u201d (Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d 31) for quilting with these blocks.<\/p>\n![\"Figure](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image11.jpg\")
Figure 11: Dragonflies dancing. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAn encounter with dragonflies dancing around on a mountain trail was also a gift. It prompted the Dragonflies dancing (Figure 11)<\/em> quilt block as an analysis of an MMS prompt to create a dance\/movement piece (Markham & Harris, 2020). Care for nature and the world now and for the future is also in this block. Dragonflies here drew my focus and admitted me to the dance without a ticket or any practice. The buzzing and swirling bodies with vibrating wings surprised me, and I jerked my head side to side with their flybys and turned to see then head off, darting and returning. Dragonflies showed me there was no need to make a dance, the dance was there and it included me, and mountain and trail with vegetation were audience.<\/p>\nQuilting as analysis: Remix with bricolage for knowing in the making<\/h2>\n![\"Figure](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image12.jpg\")
Figure 12: Matter. Imagine provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nI attended community gatherings in support of Black Lives Matter while inquiring with the MMS prompts. Making the Matter<\/em> quilt block (Figure 12), I wanted to make sense of the challenges and inequity where I live, and I wrote in my research notes:<\/p>\n\nDried rose and geranium petals,<\/em> crowns,<\/em><\/p>\nfloral emblems,<\/em><\/p>\ngreen embroidery encroaching,<\/em><\/p>\ncreeping in<\/em><\/p>\nfolds in tulle,<\/em><\/p>\nsewn cages<\/em><\/p>\nstitching that cuts across and hems in<\/em><\/p>\nBlackness<\/em><\/p>\ncrosses and flat straight stitches of matter<\/em><\/p>\nwhat matters?<\/em><\/p>\nBlack matter<\/em><\/p>\nBlack Lives Matter!<\/em><\/p>\nThe assemblage of this matter<\/em><\/p>\nstopping at a point lost in the middle<\/em><\/p>\nno (easy) answer.<\/em><\/p>\n(Research journal iPhone notes)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I experienced community coming together in compliance with safety, restrictions binding us like the black tulle pockets in Matter<\/em>. We were outdoors, wearing masks, spaced for physical distancing, while Black voices gave their perspectives. We listened with ears, hearts, bodies for what we might do and how to make a difference, \u201ccommunicating in new ways with neighbors\u201d (Markham et al.\u00a02). We cared as a community of self and others, we saw some sparks of hope like the gold pattern through the tulle. Families and children came, were attentive and cared. This was a small opening and threads of green grow across this section of the quilt, hopeful for growth in understanding and kindness, that Black Lives will matter in our community where more empathy, care, acceptance, equity, and support are needed. It is complicated, messy and I notice that we are all entangled, part of this community.<\/p>\n![\"Figure](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image13.jpg\")
Figure 13: Tangles make sense. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAs encounters, text, artist\/researcher\/teacher and quilt matter intra-act (Barad, \u201cPosthumanist Performativity\u201d) there is no last thread to be knotted (Markham, \u201cRemix\u201d; \u201cBricolage\u201d) and I leave tangles underneath to keep the instability alive (Figure 13). Research observations emerged in relation with making and writing as the pieced-together quilt was finished off. Crafting \u201cthe aesthetic and material\u201d (Denzin and Lincoln 4) in a synthesis of methods, theory, and perspectives allowed me to research in personal ways through creative processes with the quilt as product and<\/em> data (Ellis et al.; St.\u00a0Pierre). The \u201ctextual performance\u201d (Denzin and Lincoln 6) of the fabric with autoethnographic encounters (Holman Jones; Ellis et al.) and the micro and macro are entangled, stitched together, and embedded in the quilt.<\/p>\n\nMaking sense using material I have-<\/em><\/p>\nStash<\/em><\/p>\nIron. Steam. Breathe.<\/em><\/p>\nPacing.<\/em><\/p>\nPlacing.<\/em><\/p>\nAppliqu\u00e9 first<\/em><\/p>\nPiecing<\/em><\/p>\nEmbroidery later<\/em><\/p>\nThreads smooth and knotting,<\/em><\/p>\ntangled,<\/em><\/p>\nMatter making some sense of the world for\/with me.<\/em><\/p>\n(Research journal iPhone notes)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Making sense with an assemblage\/remix<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Figure](\"wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12-2-massive-micro-sensemaking\/09-peterken-media\/09-peterken_image14.jpg\")
Figure 14: Walking, iPhone steps graph. Image provided by author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nFind the thread to pull through.<\/em><\/p>\nCaught and flowing.<\/em><\/p>\nKnotting and cutting.<\/em><\/p>\nLaying out the blocks.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat do they say to each other and to me??<\/em><\/p>\n
This making and making sense are in relation with pandemic matter and a quilt. Matter on hand: fabric, embroidery thread, and appliqu\u00e9 map and speak, sowing sense. The nine blocks sewn and joined together hold their sense making as individual and collective. The conversation from and through making a quilt with pandemic matter emerges from, and plays with, text and image. I align matter and stitching through to hold and turn process into product as I continue making and making sense for knowing about who we are and how to live with each other and the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Cette conception et compr\u00e9hension sont \u00e0 la fois en relation avec la question de la pand\u00e9mie et celle d\u2019un plaid. La mati\u00e8re \u00e0 port\u00e9e de main : le tissu, le fil \u00e0 broder, la carte \u00e0 coudre en application et le langage, tissant du sens. Ces neuf blocs, cousus et assembl\u00e9s ensemble, sont porteurs de sens, \u00e0 la fois de mani\u00e8re individuelle et collective. La conversation qui d\u00e9coule \u00e0 partir et \u00e0 travers la fabrication d\u2019un plaid associ\u00e9e \u00e0 la question de la pand\u00e9mie \u00e9merge et joue avec le texte et l\u2019image. J\u2019aligne la mati\u00e8re et les coutures pour maintenir et transformer le processus en produit fini, tout en continuant de cr\u00e9er et de donner du sens \u00e0 la connaissance de ce que nous sommes, \u00e0 notre mani\u00e8re de vivre les uns avec les autres et notre rapport au monde.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
\n
S<\/span>ensemaking with a quilt in this research is my artist\/academic process for noticing important issues and possibilities in pandemic life. A quilt as visual means of connecting and understanding teaches and provides a way to think with and beyond (dis)comfort. This conversation from and through making a quilt with pandemic matter emerges from, and plays with, text and image. The visual is vital in my work as an artist\/academic, and a way that I engage with the micro and macro. As I revisited the images, quilt, and writing more than a year after lockdown I quilted further and made this paper as thinking \u201cin the making\u201d (Ellsworth; Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d; Peterken, \u201cKnowing in the Making\u201d) that is not over. Throughout this process of making sense with the quilt I took up openings and ruptures (Irwin and de Cosson) that stopped me and created spaces for thinking as I participated in \u201cMassive and microscopic sensemaking during a global pandemic (MMS)\u201d (Markham et al.).<\/p>\n Making a quilt with pandemic matter gave me space to think with encounters and materials. Hope and fear around herd immunity and vaccinations that were not available until recently (Loveless) are also into the quilt block analysis of responses to the MMS prompts. The quilt provoked (and made visible) thinking about fears and hopes (Kwon), self, others, and the world (Markham et al.) during the pandemic, and after vaccination gave more comfort. In the MMS project, prompts over 21 days between May 18 and June 7, 2020 (Markham and Harris) gave me some distraction with research (Markham et al.) and a focus to consider making sense of this different pandemic world with critical autoethnography.<\/p>\n This sensemaking allowed me to be personal while considering broader issues as I \u201cperform meaning from and through [my body], situated daily routines, and relations with embedded, embodied, and everywhere digital technologies\u201d (Markham et al.\u00a02). My responses to prompts included motivated personal writing, embodied encounters, stillness and silence without ignoring but not being outwardly active, and active making: making images, poetry, and nine fabric blocks. These were brought together with quilting intra-actions (Barad, \u201cMeeting the Universe\u201d) where items for sewing (fabric, thread, stitches, quilt blocks, and the quilt as a whole) join forces, becoming-with my artist\/researcher\/teacher wanderings, wonderings, and thinking. The quilt was a way to deal with the impact of COVID on my life, the lives of those near and far, the world, and how we live during and after a pandemic.<\/p>\n Fearful, and closed in with pandemic advice to \u201cstay strong\u201d while at home, complying with executive orders and directives, on my daily neighbourhood walks I began to consider what matters with the MMS prompts. I walked taking notes and images while attending to what my body and senses noticed. My fear and<\/em> hope in this pandemic assemblage\/remix (Markham, \u201cRemix Culture\u201d) in the quilt render openings (Irwin and de Cosson; Springgay et al.) for listening to materials and to the quilt through piecing and piercing through with threads. The quilt also brought comfort, as is common in quilts used as coverings (Witzling), and it is a medium to give messages that can be read from \u201cmultiple directions\u201d (Koelsch 823). Connections are across, up, down, diagonal, bound in, and altogether through the quilt, back and front (Figure 1).<\/p>\n L<\/span>iving in the USA I am near quilting shops, but they were not open. Quilting can be considered an American crafting tradition connected to pioneering and lack of materials for warmth, as well as part of crafting and the arts in many cultures (Flannery; Fitzpatrick and Bell; Ferrarese). I used quilting for research before in Australia to bring together photographic images young children created (transferred onto fabric) for their meaning making and belonging in an early childhood center (Peterken, \u201cCrafting Living Inquiry\u201d). Making a quilt can be a solo activity with many hours of sewing, part of leisure (Stalp, \u201cNegotiating Time\u201d), and can also give pleasure (Ferrarese) as materials are brought together to make visually appealing patterns. I wanted the quilt to be an artwork, to have visual appeal, but that was not the main purpose. It was a research product for sensemaking. Quilting has the potential to be \u201ca powerful socially communicative practice\u201d (Nieberding 8) as women\/makers gather in \u2018quilting bees\u2019 to create a finished article, but quilting in a pandemic during lockdown is lonely. I find some comfort in working with fabrics in relation with the MMS prompts. My quilt-making as artist and researcher pulled focus and created a space to do something to think about and make sense with.<\/p>\n Quilting in research involves more than \u201cthe creative processes that everyday quilters face\u201d (Stalp, \u201cQuilting\u201d 24), and William Nieberding proposes that as a visual medium quilting \u201cgenerates socially significant visual texts\u201d (9). The social issues and pandemic experience are in this research quilt as disparate events, and images are sewn in relation through the nine blocks in combination. The number of blocks needed to make a complete quilt varies, but I used items placed in a nine-cube storage shelf for one of the MMS prompts, which gave me the idea for a nine block quilt to engage with what matters and what I noticed. This quilt as a mystory text (Denzin and Lincoln) that collected (and holds) personal interactions with various materials teaches me as I create. Quilts are an exchange that does not always have words (Ellsworth; Peterken, \u201cCrafting Living Inquiry\u201d). In this research quilt the \u201ccuts, tears, ruptures or cracks that resist predictability, comfort and safety\u201d (Irwin and Springgay xxx<\/em>) opened conversations about pandemic life. Artist\/researcher\/teacher inquiry and knowledge creation here was not about making quilts, but about making sense. It matters that \u201csome knowings cannot be conveyed through language\u201d (Ellsworth 156) and can be crafted (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d) through making as method, including making this nine-block quilt. My process of making with found materials and what was on hand had me thinking personally, as artist\/researcher\/teacher \u201cthrough<\/em> observation [as well as] after<\/em> it\u201d (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d 11) with the quilting and writing process.<\/p>\n The nine blocks connect across the whole quilt (Figure 2), and each of the blocks holds individual and collective sensemaking. Some responses in the quilt blocks were from an individual MMS prompt, such as in Green dot<\/em> (Figure 3) seen in the still image from a video of Rock Canyon that is in relation with the idea of technology making its presence known, impacting what is seen and experienced.<\/p>\n The little green dot shivers and shakes<\/em><\/p>\n a gift from the camera.<\/em><\/p>\n Pulling focus<\/em><\/p>\n away<\/em><\/p>\n from the mountain flowers<\/em><\/p>\n from the birdsong<\/em><\/p>\n and the freeway hum<\/em><\/p>\n the humdrum.<\/em><\/p>\n Sunlight growing brighter<\/em><\/p>\n rising<\/em><\/p>\n tipping over the mountain top<\/em><\/p>\n spilling<\/em><\/p>\n reaching beams spreading down the canyon.<\/em><\/p>\n The birds know-<\/em><\/p>\n they herald the day!<\/em><\/p>\n This iPhone camera uses this same light.<\/em><\/p>\n Photography is drawing with light I read.<\/em><\/p>\n The device uses this light.<\/em><\/p>\n It captures.<\/em><\/p>\n Shoots.<\/em><\/p>\n Creates<\/em><\/p>\n images (including its\u2019 added shivery green dot).<\/em><\/p>\n Video appears with sounds<\/em><\/p>\n of birds<\/em><\/p>\n of quiet breathing<\/em><\/p>\n of vehicles far off<\/em><\/p>\n containing a multitude of humans now out and going<\/em><\/p>\n about their business<\/em><\/p>\n below.<\/em><\/p>\n (Research journal iPhone notes)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Other blocks attended to the more general issues of life in the pandemic and \u2018what is happening here?\u2019 and opened to learning about sensemaking with the quilt as an artist\/researcher\/teacher (Springgay et al.). Quilting through, adding embroidery, making knots as \u201cplaces where many lines of becoming are drawn tightly together\u201d (Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d 132) made sense. It was in these processes, and the emergent autoethnographic writing (Denzin and Lincoln; Ellis et al.), including poetic notes in my iPhone research journal (in italics in this writing), that openings to sensemaking called out through what was on hand.<\/p>\n As an artist I use the visual to show me what matters and, in this instance, making a quilt provided thinking with visual art processes. Images and words (including poetry) \u201cinvite attention\u201d (Barone and Eisner 39) here in relation with my stories from the MMS prompts. The visual as well as written perspectives created this mystory text combining media and messages. Language other than words is with, and in between, words in different forms in this writing as artist\/researcher\/teacher to \u201clearn in my head what my body already recognizes\u201d (Sameshima 49). Making (sense and visual art) with the MMS prompts opened to sewing a quilt and some knowing about how to live through a pandemic and beyond as artist\/researcher.<\/p>\n Wandering by myself and staying in to remain in my pandemic bubble shifted with the MMS prompts to wondering and making sense with art materials stashed in two nine-cube shelves and in baskets in my home. I sewed from four years of age, making clothing for dolls, and made clothing for myself and others from my mid-teens. I have supplies on hand to quilt, sew, knit, crochet, embroider, weave, spin, paint, and bead, as well as natural materials such as feathers, sticks, stones, grasses, and seed pods found and gathered from my yard and as I walk around my neighborhood for collage and adding to art projects. Thinking through making (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d) with these materials is part of my arts based research practice. Making (sense and art) with the MMS prompts opened to sewing and to knowings through making a quilt and sowing a garden. In this research, change occurring on a global scale had me noticing and feeling fear and<\/em> hope. This autoethnographic w(a\/o)ndering (Peterken, \u201cBattledress\u201d) with my sensing and the quilt opens to making and playing with some hopes\/fears, and more things to ponder. My daily neighborhood walks during the pandemic lockdown in a college town in Utah, USA, shifted to considering the MMS prompts.<\/p>\n Attention was drawn to self during the period of pandemic lockdown. Making sense in this isolated bubble was a challenge, depicted in the Pandemic bubbles<\/em> (Figure 4) quilt block. I wrote in my research journal iPhone notes while reading, thinking, and walking with MMS prompts:<\/p>\n Movement and embodied sensemaking come from attending,<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cknow[ing] for yourself\u201d (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d 141) with the small and the large.<\/em><\/p>\n A feeling in silence and stillness.<\/em><\/p>\n The micro and macro captivates and astonishes (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d) as I<\/em><\/p>\n \u201clive in hope\u201d (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d 141), uncertain.<\/em><\/p>\n (Research journal iPhone notes)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I found that materials on hand offered ways of making art and meaning with what was happening. Findings from walking and thinking with MMS prompts were analyzed using fabric, thread, and other art materials. Relationships between my artist\/researcher\/teacher (Irwin and de Cosson; Irwin and Springgay) selves, others, and the world were called into focus with the quilt.<\/p>\n A<\/span>s I moved around my neighborhood, I noticed small elements and connections with larger contexts. I gathered images of moments that captivated and matter that evoked awe. Moments of making with the quilt then gave extended time for attention to feelings and to make a difference to my knowing in the making (Ellsworth). This brought me hope and some comfort along with my concern for others and the planet. Pandemic time lengthened and collapsed (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d), and with no attention to markings on a clock, days melted together into a week, or it could have been a month? \u201cHow long will this go on?,\u201d I wondered \u2026 \u201cwhen will bubbles pop?\u201d Time and space also collapsed as I spoke with friends and family (me in my time) across multiple continents and time zones, in my home, in my town and state, and others all over the world. We were in virtual bubbles. Connections online and offline helped us in knowing self, others, and the world. Lines of communication, walking lines, and lines of sewing converged in the quilt. One block, Blank journal<\/em> (Figure 5), became a piece of crystal organza sewn through with lines. Lines with messy ends. Gaps that still sparkle and draw attention. They present unseen events and encounters, more that I can and cannot do for others and the world, if I learn and attend and act.<\/p>\n I was in my bubble as spring arrived and flowers bloomed after a long, bare, white, winter, bursting color and texture. Life. Making the quilt, nature is noticed, living and announcing this joyously to the world and to me. Splashes of color and knowing from bubbles and stitches. The image here of the neighborhood campus garden I walked in to gain respite from the pandemic is becoming-tapestry with pixelation (Figure 6) blurring the leaves and petals, shifting lines and making squares.<\/p>\n I was also stitching a tapestry. The stitches were made in the same way seeds are planted, \u201cthread[ing] through and among\u201d (Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d 132), laying lines, line by line in rows, or here and there, entangled. The Flower squares<\/em> (Figure 7) block of the quilt holds this sensemaking and the way that meaning (like flowers where I walk, and in my garden) can be laid out in tiny increments before me, before us.<\/p>\n I accept with the quilt blocks\u2019 sensemaking that life can be messy, and there is (dis)comfort in that, as in the lines and pages that were left blank in my journal. Making sense is more than an endeavor with words, as the quilt \u201cplays an active, indeed agential role\u201d (Barad, \u201cPosthumanist Performativity\u201d 826). The floral squares come into relation with the empty journal and play an active part, calling attention to times where making\/research sustained me during weeks of lockdown and tentative venturing out afterwards until I was fully vaccinated. Making was a method to process and sort through changes brought on by pandemic life, and to engage with self, materials, others, and the world when isolation and fear closed in. Making blocks and the quilt did not always have any answers, but I wondered with \u201cwonderments\u201d (Andrews and Duff 30) that in research allow assemblages, energy, and movement that attend, within pauses, to some of what matters.<\/p>\n Walking is part of my creative sensemaking practice (Peterken and Potts, \u201cPedagogical Experiences\u201d) and in this research trees, plants, and flowers around me also made a difference to my physical and mental health. I became more attentive to my surroundings. I took time to be present. I felt less isolated with connections to the natural world. Not everyone had a place to walk, family to be with, a garden to be planted, health care, or space to safely be away from risk of infection in a bubble through the pandemic. I felt with so many others who lost loved ones. I worked from home but the connection with students and colleagues was virtual and unembodied, we were all tired using new technology and processes, and that made a difference. At times I felt empty and blue.<\/p>\n This Blue<\/em> (Figure 8) quilt block was made in relation with the walking and images for a collaborative MMS video (Fr\u00f8lunde et al.) that braided the dislocation of researcher lives and selves with the pandemic, noticing the stillness and messiness of that. I noticed blue for hope, loneliness, blue breath, and blue skies as not only fair weather in images I made for the video. As we wove our experiences across the world into the imagery we were \u201creading insights through one another\u201d (Barad, \u201cMeeting the Universe\u201d 25) to notice what was happening at that moment. Being with images and others as researcher\/teachers who embody the \u201ccaring diligence required\u201d (Markham et al.\u00a06) for learning gave openings for connections and more perspectives that were hopeful. Blue<\/em> (Figure 8) is central in the quilt, so it touches all the blocks as COVID touched all our lives. The magical presence of a unicorn and gold patterns in it also offered glimmers of hope when all I noticed was blue. Working with others across time zones in the MMS research held some challenges but was enriching as we threaded our lives, stories, and the world, sensemaking together in the video. That mattered to us.<\/p>\n Sew to know, knowing in the making<\/em><\/p>\n To give hope<\/em><\/p>\n To \u201clive in hope\u201d (Ingold<\/em> \u201cMaking\u201d 141) as scholars do\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n To feed<\/em><\/p>\n hope more than fear.<\/em><\/p>\n For artist\/researcher\/teacher selves, for others, for the world.<\/em><\/p>\n A new normal<\/em><\/p>\n I hope\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n with the world.<\/em><\/p>\n (Research journal iPhone notes)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Handmade blocks for a quilt as part of storytelling (Ingold \u201cMaking\u201d) provided room to learn and presented \u201cguidance without specification\u201d (109). Openings between things that matter as held in each block were joined together as the quilt was pieced, sewn, pinned through, and quilted (Figure 9). This process provided a means to attend to matter for making sense. The quilt blocks, the quilt as a whole, and materials are telling with color, texture, juxtaposition, stitches, repetition, and rupture.<\/p>\n Sewing the Mapping pandemic home<\/em> (Figure 10) quilt block, I noticed that flowers and planting featured once more. The associated MMS prompt had me mapping (Markham and Harris) my home life, the staying in with time for planting a garden, and sowing seeds in rows. The back of the block gave another perspective that maps outlines and reduces the visual to what was essential. A garden was not essential, but for me (and others) gardening was a way to escape and be outside. It was hopeful; a garden sown (and sewn) here was unsuccessful in that most plants died or were not fruitful, but it was a distraction during a pandemic. It gave something to care about and to make sense with, like the MMS prompts and research project (Markham et al.) and the quilt.<\/p>\n Making a quilt with micro and macro, matter, and making was a \u201cprocess of correspondence\u201d (Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d 31). Fabric, thread, the quilt blocks, and my artist\/researcher selves in conversation were enmeshed in this knotted, matted, patchwork of scraps taken up and put together then sewn across and through. This process of knowing and thinking used materials as \u201csubstances-in-becoming\u201d (Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d 31) as I quilted with the flowers and plants as pandemic matter that made me attend to the fragility of life and connections.<\/p>\n W<\/span>hile making this quilt I was isolated, but in relation with pandemic prompts and matter on hand including fabric, materials, dragonflies, flowers, images, neighborhood walking, reading, and virtual responses. These were my companions. There was a lot being said. Bronwyn Davies (2014) urges emergent listening, the type of listening that I use as teacher\/artist in my work in early childhood education. I urge my teacher education students to attend to children. To listen to and with and take cues from children (Rinaldi), materials, and the world as it presents encounters. This style of listening has no anticipation or prediction, accepts surprises, and bids us work with what occurs, exploring openly what it might mean as we \u201cmeet in spaces of difference\u201d (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al.\u00a030). This type of listening as an artist\/researcher\/teacher is necessary for making sense of things. The quilt tells stories of and from artifacts bound together; collaged, appliqu\u00e9d, quilted in a pleated text (Richardson) that holds stories and encounters of learning\/teaching with art and making as thinking.<\/p>\n The fabric pieces were selected as they stood out in relation with thinking as researcher while making with the prompts as artist. I was making and making do (Markham, \u201cBricolage\u201d) with what was on hand, thinking through making in what Tim Ingold describes as the \u201cart of inquiry\u201d (\u201cMaking\u201d 6). As an early childhood teacher\/teacher educator I am used to using matter on hand and in hand. The matter and my artist\/researcher\/teacher selves exist before, now, and in the future with what Barad considers as having \u201chistoricity\u201d (\u201cPosthumanist Performativity\u201d 82), always already becoming. I listened and heard\/noticed some intra-actions (Barad) with the fabric and quilt, and I am sure I missed many others. Nevertheless, matter brought what mattered and needed to matter then\/in the future to me. It is a gift. Present. Presented and here\/now\/then as \u201csubstances-in-becoming\u201d (Ingold, \u201cMaking\u201d 31) for quilting with these blocks.<\/p>\n An encounter with dragonflies dancing around on a mountain trail was also a gift. It prompted the Dragonflies dancing (Figure 11)<\/em> quilt block as an analysis of an MMS prompt to create a dance\/movement piece (Markham & Harris, 2020). Care for nature and the world now and for the future is also in this block. Dragonflies here drew my focus and admitted me to the dance without a ticket or any practice. The buzzing and swirling bodies with vibrating wings surprised me, and I jerked my head side to side with their flybys and turned to see then head off, darting and returning. Dragonflies showed me there was no need to make a dance, the dance was there and it included me, and mountain and trail with vegetation were audience.<\/p>\n I attended community gatherings in support of Black Lives Matter while inquiring with the MMS prompts. Making the Matter<\/em> quilt block (Figure 12), I wanted to make sense of the challenges and inequity where I live, and I wrote in my research notes:<\/p>\n Dried rose and geranium petals,<\/em> crowns,<\/em><\/p>\n floral emblems,<\/em><\/p>\n green embroidery encroaching,<\/em><\/p>\n creeping in<\/em><\/p>\n folds in tulle,<\/em><\/p>\n sewn cages<\/em><\/p>\n stitching that cuts across and hems in<\/em><\/p>\n Blackness<\/em><\/p>\n crosses and flat straight stitches of matter<\/em><\/p>\n what matters?<\/em><\/p>\n Black matter<\/em><\/p>\n Black Lives Matter!<\/em><\/p>\n The assemblage of this matter<\/em><\/p>\n stopping at a point lost in the middle<\/em><\/p>\n no (easy) answer.<\/em><\/p>\n (Research journal iPhone notes)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I experienced community coming together in compliance with safety, restrictions binding us like the black tulle pockets in Matter<\/em>. We were outdoors, wearing masks, spaced for physical distancing, while Black voices gave their perspectives. We listened with ears, hearts, bodies for what we might do and how to make a difference, \u201ccommunicating in new ways with neighbors\u201d (Markham et al.\u00a02). We cared as a community of self and others, we saw some sparks of hope like the gold pattern through the tulle. Families and children came, were attentive and cared. This was a small opening and threads of green grow across this section of the quilt, hopeful for growth in understanding and kindness, that Black Lives will matter in our community where more empathy, care, acceptance, equity, and support are needed. It is complicated, messy and I notice that we are all entangled, part of this community.<\/p>\n As encounters, text, artist\/researcher\/teacher and quilt matter intra-act (Barad, \u201cPosthumanist Performativity\u201d) there is no last thread to be knotted (Markham, \u201cRemix\u201d; \u201cBricolage\u201d) and I leave tangles underneath to keep the instability alive (Figure 13). Research observations emerged in relation with making and writing as the pieced-together quilt was finished off. Crafting \u201cthe aesthetic and material\u201d (Denzin and Lincoln 4) in a synthesis of methods, theory, and perspectives allowed me to research in personal ways through creative processes with the quilt as product and<\/em> data (Ellis et al.; St.\u00a0Pierre). The \u201ctextual performance\u201d (Denzin and Lincoln 6) of the fabric with autoethnographic encounters (Holman Jones; Ellis et al.) and the micro and macro are entangled, stitched together, and embedded in the quilt.<\/p>\n Making sense using material I have-<\/em><\/p>\n Stash<\/em><\/p>\n Iron. Steam. Breathe.<\/em><\/p>\n Pacing.<\/em><\/p>\n Placing.<\/em><\/p>\n Appliqu\u00e9 first<\/em><\/p>\n Piecing<\/em><\/p>\n Embroidery later<\/em><\/p>\n Threads smooth and knotting,<\/em><\/p>\n tangled,<\/em><\/p>\n Matter making some sense of the world for\/with me.<\/em><\/p>\n (Research journal iPhone notes)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Making sense with an assemblage\/remix<\/strong><\/p>\n Find the thread to pull through.<\/em><\/p>\n Caught and flowing.<\/em><\/p>\n Knotting and cutting.<\/em><\/p>\n Laying out the blocks.<\/em><\/p>\n What do they say to each other and to me??<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Pandemic quilt conversations as research<\/h2>\n
Conversations and sensemaking in the quilt<\/h2>\n
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Wandering and staying in shift to wondering and making<\/h2>\n
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Making do and a pandemic assemblage<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Sewing\/sowing for sensemaking<\/h2>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Listening to materials in the quilt<\/h2>\n
Quilting as analysis: Remix with bricolage for knowing in the making<\/h2>\n
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