Jo Avery – the Blog

Temperature Quilt and Temperature Embroidery

I have finished my Temperature Quilt top!  And I have started a Temperature Embroidery!

I started the ‘Weather Bubble’ Temperature Quilt just over a year ago on 28th March and finished it yesterday 5th April. Each row is 17 squares and there are 22 rows (the closest I could get to 365 days).

You can read all about it here and an update here.

It’s been such a therapeutic project to do during this last year, and a sort of patchwork diary.  I’ve become a little obsessed by recording the temperature every day and I don’t think I can stop now!

So I’ve begun on a new temperature project, but before I tell you about that let’s just enjoy the beauty of this finished top…

I just love how the colours undulate through the quilt. You can see how cold it’s been this winter and also how small my circles became. I draw the circle up each day with the size dependant on how I am feeling. It’s been a tough few months in lockdown but the circles are getting bigger again now spring is here and we have the promise of better times ahead.

I was part of a webinar on temperature Quilts for the MQG a few months back and I hung the (mostly finished) top behind me as a backdrop.  It worked really well and as I was due to give a zoom lecture later the same week I left it in place. Unfortunately my naughty cat Hector thought it would be good fun to climb up it!  As it was just a quilt top it tore very easily at the top meaning that 3 of the blocks had tears and holes in as you can see in the photo on the right (grrrr!!), so one of the last things I did after adding the latest rows was to replace these three blocks (sigh).

As I got closer to the end of this project I started to become anxious about losing this daily ritual, something that I have come to love so much.  I decided I would need another temperature project to replace it and that this should be embroidery, or more specifically, Modern Crewel Embroidery.

As I had time to plan this one (rather than starting on the spur of the moment) I decided I would go back to the beginning of the year and do the whole of 2021.  I had all the daily temperature records still and have been keeping them safe ever since.

At the weekend I began this new project by choosing the colours of Aurifil 12wt wool thread I would need. To make things easier  I used the same colours as I had chosen for the quilt, with some changes to take into consideration the colours of wool thread I have available.  I had such fun choosing them and making that temperature/thread key above.

Next I began marking up my linen. I am using my current favourite Zweigart linen that I used for my Peacock embrodiery (see previous post). I have bought a whole bolt of this for the Peacock embroidery kits and the WOB is the perfect length for what I had in mind.

I decided to stitch the temperatures in weeks, so 7 across and 52 down. This will become a long thin embroidered hanging.  I used my patchwork ruler to make an inch grid as a guide and then I needed to find something to help me draw an accurate small circle in each square. Aurifil came to the rescue! The centre hole in the end of a large spool was the perfect size and nice and sturdy for holding on to while drawing around. I’ve just marked up the first couple of months and will add more as I move downwards.

Each circle is outlined in a single thread with a small back stitch and then filled using a double thread and satin stitch. The shade for this inner circle represents the highest temperature that day. I then stitch 2 rows of double thread chain stitch around the centre circle in the shade which represents the lowest temperature that day.  In this way it is a very similar idea to the quilt, but with this project my daily moods are not represented.

I now have lots of catching up to do as this is just the first few weeks of January! But I have all year to do it and I just know I am going to love stitching this and watching the colours change as much as I did with the quilt.  I’m already looking forward to moving on from all these cold blues we had in January!

Meanwhile I now need to get this quilted in time for hubby’s birthday in August. My initial plan was to hand quilt around all the circles but with my hands in high demand at present I am now wondering about a grid using the Moxie long arm… Or maybe I will machine quilt around each circle? Hmmm…

I’ll be back with more temperature shenanigans soon!

5 comments

  1. Beautiful and I love the new project. What a great idea! Long and skinny will make an amazing wall hanging!
    Now you have inspired me to start sewing my blocks together….guess I best bring them back into the living room!:) xo

    ps…your last day…April 5th…was honeyman’s 60th!!:)

  2. Your finished temp quilt is a stunner and seeing your temp quilt on IG last year inspired me to make one too. I love your new temp project too. It’s going to be another beauty.

  3. Since you mentioned your daily mood is not represented, could you add a small dot which would represent your daily mood, and place the dot in the chain going round as in the lowest daily temperature.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.