Catching Up With My Temperature Quilt

It’s time to catch up with my ‘Weather Bubble’ Temperature Quilt as I am officially halfway through!

I started this project just after we went into lockdown here in Scotland and I wrote all about it in this post here.

This has turned out to be such an important part of my daily routine during what has been a very odd and difficult year and I am incredibly pleased that I started it when I did.

As a quick reminder, for those of you who don’t have time to read the original post, I started by choosing a range of fabrics and arranging them by colour, assigning each a temperature degree. Every day I check the weather ap on my phone for my local lowest and highest temperature and make a block using the lowest temperature for the background and the highest for the circle.  I freehand draw the circle (deliberately trying to make it wonky and organic) depending on my mood, with tiny circles meaning a very bad day and large circles meaning a great one!

To start with I identified each block by writing the date on a little scrap of paper and pinning it to each block (which you can see in the photos above this one), but I started to run out of pins after a while! And then someone on Instagram helpfully suggested writing the date on the back of the block with a pencil. Of course! Such a simple idea which has made my life much easier.

Back in April when I last posted about this I had completed just 16 blocks. I have been documenting my progress over on Instagram by posting a photo everytime I could make a square (so 25, 36, etc.).

When I got passed 64 blocks (below) I decided to start sewing them together into the rows they would become.

There are 17 blocks in each row and the quilt will have 22 rows which will take me just over a year.

This really is a daily practice for me and even if I don’t actually sew the block each day I always check the temperature, draw and cut my circle, and cut my fabrics. Quite often I will wait a few days and sew 4 of 5 blocks in one go.  In this timelapse video you can see how I make each block.

I just love having this little ritual to accomplish every day, it helps me focus on the present and consider my emotions. I think I may need to do it foreever as I am sure it is beneficial to my mental health.  It has also turned me into a huge weather geek who always knows the temperature!

If this was a normal year then I think this daily practice would have been much harder to sustain as I would have been away from home so much, teaching and promoting my book and holidays. Because of the pandemic we have had only one trip away, to Sweden to see my son and his partner who live there, and I took paper and pencil with me so I could draw and cut my circle every day and record the temperature back home.

On the subject of paper I have found that the new paper envelopes that Today’s Quilter magazine now arrives in (so happy that they are no longer in plastic, good job Immediate Media!) are the perfect weight for my circle templates (just a little heavier than regular printer paper).  So I save these every month and one envelope gets me through 4 weeks until the next one arrives.

I have continued to add rows as I finish them and photographing them after every 3 new rows. Things got very exciting as the temperature rose during the summer. But this is Scotland and I only got to use the +25 degree colour once!

I managed to inspire at least 3 of my fellow quilters to begin a Temperature Quilt and they have all used such different approaches, both from me and each other.  I would recommend you check out the feeds of Nicholas Ball, Dolores Goodson and Jo Baird to see what they are up to and follow along with their amazing quilts.

Last week I completed 11 rows and took my halfway photo.  You can clearly see that Autumn has began with that cold snap we had a week ago.  I am quite looking forward to returning to the cool blues/greens/turquoises as we get into winter.

And I’m also pleased to see how large all the circles have been recently, there hasn’t been a tiny circle for a long time now as everything has been going pretty well here, despite these uncertain times.  As I said in my original post I am a consistently cheerful person so wasn’t expecting too much fluctuation in circle size, but I’m still glad I was right about that!

A few days ago I made one of my most interesting blocks yet.  The temperature was only one degree warmer during the day then the night which made for this extremely low contrast block (which I really like).

My husband has become a huge fan of this quilt and even said last week that he wanted it! I have never actually made a quilt just for him and as he has a significant birthday coming up next year I think I have found a good home for this one already!  And I know I will at least have the top finished by Spring!