She Shoots, She Scores – my Love Data Week 2027 quilt

Three years ago, the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) started formal programming for Love Data Week with workshops and panels to highight the critical role data play in teaching, research, and careers. Penn State and the other institutions that make up the Big Ten also host an annual Data Viz Championship for students and faculty/staff. Each year, I look forward to the announcement of the theme and the friendly competition across universities. The BTAA 2027 theme announcement came early! On May 20, 2026, an email appeared in my Inbox that the featured data sets would spotlight NCAA Women’s Basketball. Although the faculty/staff entries for the Data Viz Championship are not required to follow the annual theme (in fact, my prior three entries have not), I immediately knew how to integrate the theme with a story and fabrics I have been waiting to sew with. (As a quilter, each year I have constructed an analog data visualization for entry) This video explains the connection between an…