quilting

Temperature Quilt 2021 – Wray, Colorado

| FellowQuilter
Displayed at Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum
Me with the Temperature Quilt at Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado

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.

My quilt… Notice the high/low temperatures and zoom in for the quilting and hand embroidery details.

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.

My mom’s temperature quilt on display at Quilts of the Plains in Wray, Colorado. Zoom in for quilting motifs.

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.

My temperature quilt at Old Threshers Day in Yuma, Colorado as part of my quilt guild’s show.

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

Stay at home March-May 2020

| FellowQuilter

Well… what a crazy time we’re going through.  I decided I wanted to sew up something during the crisis.  It was a good thing, as I have been enjoying getting back to my sewing machine.

I don’t know about you, but when I just “want to sew”, there is nothing better than an improvisational project.  I have plenty of scraps and stash to play with right here.

I pulled a few pieces from a drawer of scraps, and began.  The nature of the scraps led me to decide upon a wonky strippy block.  I made a few choices, such as using a black shape in the corner of the block, and only building onto two sides.  The blocks size was 9.5″, as I had that particular ruler laying on my cutting table.

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Sewing the blocks was fun, and pretty soon I had my first 12 done…  so, I decided this could be a king-size bed quilt.  I had to keep raiding my scraps bins, and when I would run low on a particular color, I’d slice a few narrow strips off a couple pieces in my stash to fill out the ziploc bag of that particular color of scraps.

All in all, I made 170 some blocks over the course of a month.  I stumbled upon an idea on Pinterest, and liked the effect of turning some of the blocks to give a more 3-D effect.

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I now had to think about a backing.  Scrap quilts are perfect candidates for a scrappy quilt back.  As an added bonus, scrappy backs, make for reversible quilts.  Some of my fabric bins were overflowing, especially the green one.  I also, don’t currently have a green bed quilt.

I pulled about 20 fabrics, and started playing around.  I settled upon a rail-fence type of block to showcase the collection of green fabrics.

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Next up was some quilting time on “Artie”, my Statler Stitcher…

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After the quilt was off the longarm… I decided to try my luck, and do a machine binding.  I’ve tried a few times in the past, and haven’t liked the outcome.  I recently saw a tutorial that showed a slight modification to the way I’ve tried it in the past.  It worked so much better this way.  Maybe I’ll write a post another day, about the binding.  I’m sorry but I didn’t take any photos at this step.

Soon, the project was done, so I decided to throw it through the laundry, and get it ready to use on the bed.

It’s definitely a load in and of itself, and I was sure to put a few color catcher sheets in the wash.

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It came out great, and the whites stayed pristine.  Thank goodness for the invention of those little color catcher sheets.

I hope you enjoyed my journey.  I sure did.  I’m already well into another project, as this did serve to jump start my sewing mojo.

Please post something you’re working on in the comments!  I’d love to see.

Fellow Quilter,

Brian