The story begins in 2021, when AGU member Betsy Wilkening and I co-created and organized Quilt Your Science. During the calendar year, quilters of any age and any skill level were encouraged to create a quilt themed on any earth/space science topic. During the AGU Fall Meeting, we held a virtual and in-person celebration of Quilt Your Science 2021 (*see the blog post for an online gallery of the quilts created across the globe).

With such a demonstration of creativity and enthusiasm for our year of quilting, Betsy and I decided to continue the community and science art by identifying a new theme and broadening the items for submission in 2022 (via photo). We introduced Stitch Your Science and encouraged stitchers to craft their climate story. Again, we had a celebration in Zoom and at the AGU Fall Meeting with our virtual gallery posted in Google Earth.

As our stitching community grows, so do our ideas for creative work and themes! We’re very excited to announce our theme for this year….

Stitch Your Ocean Science 2023

Stories connect us to the past, present, future and to each other. They provide opportunities to learn, find commonalities, and understand different perspectives. Stitch Your Ocean Science calls on you to craft your ocean story visually through crocheting, knitting, quilting, weaving, and embroidery (in all forms).

We encourage participants to think about their ocean story. Is it an expression of the wonders of the ocean? A data visualization? A professional or recreational experience? An ocean science solution? Perhaps a call to action?

An exciting addition this year is that Stitch Your Ocean Science 2023 has been endorsed as an Ocean Decade Activity by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development! We hope this encourages even more international participation for our global ocean.

As with prior years, stitchers do not have to be AGU members to participate – we welcome any individual that creates something new, or has created something in the past. Classrooms and student clubs are encouraged to participate, too! Each individual can submit images for a maximum of two items. There will be a virtual gallery that showcases all of the creations, and we will bring together in-person those in attendance at AGU Fall Meeting (San Francisco, CA, December 11-15, 2023) and the Ocean Sciences meeting (New Orleans, LA, February 18-23, 2024). The week before AGU week, we will host a Zoom social to connect the crafters and celebrate the submissions.

The submission deadline is November 17, 2023. Visit our project website for the submission details (https://tinyurl.com/stitchsci23). Our website has also compiled lots of resources to share with others to learn more about ocean science, to immerse in ocean data, and to explore art-science-ocean action nexus. We also have a Slack channel named SciQuilt21 we are continuing from last year with our community that posts questions and shares stitching tips.

We encourage you to share this project and your stitching process on social media with the hashtags #SciStitch23 and #StitchYourScience. If you are interested in more details about Stitch Your Ocean Science or have any questions, please contact us! ([email protected])