The idea of a temperature quilt was really catching my attention in 2020. I started to see many quilted examples of this type of data tracking quilt all over the internet.

Each year, I try to think of an idea, related to quilting to do with my mom, and sometimes some other quilting friends.

I spoke with Mom and pitched my idea. Now, to be fair, my mom loves paying attention to the weather. She was quick to agree to the challenge.

I used the nearest weather station readings available on the Weather Underground app to collect my data. It was literally within one block of my home.

My Mom used data collected from her local newspaper each day, and her data represented Hastings/Juniata, Nebraska.

We each researched different ideas for our designs and came up with a plan. Colors were purchased, and put into a rainbow gradient, with the coolest colors representing zero and sub-zero temperatures. The warmest colors represented the 100 degrees plus temperatures.

I chose to make a half square triangle each day, with the lower portion being the color to represent the day’s low temp, and the upper portion represented the day’s high temp. As I started working, I quickly decided to also indicate any precipitation on my block. I hand embroidered a raindrop or a snowflake on the center of the block if there was that type of precipitation on the particular day.

I began with a black square block, and repeated that block at the start of each new month. They read left to right and top to bottom, just like a book.

I chose an overall quilting design for my quilt called Solar. The design gave a nice texture and movement, and looks great on the quilt.

My Mom took a slightly different approach. She used squares, but her top square and bottom square each day represented the high and low.

She kept her quilt organized, by having a row for each month. I played this fact up while quilting her quilt for her. Each row was quilted with a different motif, fitting of that month’s holiday or season.

Our quilts were displayed together at Quilts of the Plains. My quilt has also been at Old Threshers Quilt Show and the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado.

I hope you’ll try a data tracking quilt sometime. It was really fun and engaging. Other ideas to track could be fitness related, the price of something, mood, and many other topics. Our quilts were built with one block per day, but you could do a block a week, a block a month, or any other setup that you can dream up.

Thanks for following my quilting journey!

Fellow Quilter,

Brian