The Virtual Patchwork Quilt

Abstract

This article presents an application and expansion of the patchwork quilt metaphor for qualitative research. Building upon work by Saukko, I constructed a virtual quilt out of participant interviews. Participants were interviewed about “unlabeled” sexual experiences. Transcripts were analyzed using the Listening Guide, “sewn” into individual patches, and combined into a larger patchwork. This project is a prototype, and is intended to represent one possibility for presenting and organizing research on the Internet. Although the quilt was developed while researching young women’s sexual experiences, it can be used to study many different content areas.