Finished Weather Bubble Temperature Quilt

My temperature quilt is finished! And in time to enter it for the special exhibition at QuiltCon Pheonix next year.

I started Weather Bubble almost immediately after the first Covid lockdown last year and I wrote about it in this blogpost here.  I also wrote two further blogposts during the year it took to complete the top, a catch up post here and this one where I also talk about this year’s temperature embroidery.

So for the full info head to those posts but as a brief precis…

Back in March 2020 the MQG put out a call for Temperature Quilts for QuiltCon 2022 and as this was something I’d long been wanting to do (or at least some sort of temperature project) I decided to make one. The other thing that happened at that time was the pandemic.  I had been hugely busy promoting my just realised book New Patchwork and Quilting Basics at that time, but suddenly all my trips abroard and teaching was cancelled. I had an unexpected break from work and was able to start this new project. I began making the 4″ blocks on the 28th March 2020 and finished on 5th April 2021.

I was very inspired by this amazing quilt by one of my favourite quilters, Marla Varner, which I had seen in person at QuiltCon 2020 (and which had won a big prize) and I took this as my starting point for the design, basically an appliqued circle type shape on a different coloured background.  But the big difference was that I would draw up the circle freehand every day and the size would be dependent on my mood.  You can find out how I went about allotting colours to temperature degrees, how I organised the fabric, how I made the block and everything else in that first post.

The important thing to point out is that the daily ritual of making this block was incredibly helpful to me during what turned out to be an absolutely momentous year in all our lives. It has turned into a sort of fabric diary as I can trace what was happening on certain days by the size of the circle (the very big and very small circle days). Even if I didn’t actually make the block on that day I still drew the circle on paper (for a template) and recorded the temperature.

My husband really fell in love with the quilt as I was making it. He just loved all the colours and how they were ‘washing’ through the quilt as the seasons changed.  As he had a significant birthday this year I decided the quilt would be for him, having never made him a specific quilt before (obviously he shares all our bed quilts!). This meant that when it came to quilting time I thought I should ask his opinion.  When he said he wanted it to look like graph paper I wasn’t so sure…

My initial idea was to hand quilt it (like Marla’s amazing quilt) but of course I didn’t have enough time and my available ‘hand hours’ were taken up with embroidery and applique over the summer. And then I used the ‘random plaid’ quilt design on my Free Bird quilt (see previous post) and not only did I love the process and outcome but realised it also looks a bit like graph paper! So I did the same thing with the Weather Bubble quilt but I kept the lines looser and not quite so close together as I wanted a floppier texture.

Moxie Mentor Info:

This was all achieved on my Handi Quilter Moxie long arm machine.  As with my Tiny Improv House Quilt I loaded the quilt and then stitched large basting stitches from the top to half way down. At the halfway point I started quilting the actual lines using the channel lock (see previous post for more on quilting this way). Once I had reached the bottom of the quilt I returned to the middle and headed back to the top. I actually unpicked the basting stitches ahead of the real quilting stitches as they annoy me to stitch over!

Once the lines were created one way I took the quilt off and then trimmed the excess wadding and backing from the sides and rotated the quilt before re-attaching it to the rails. I’m not sure whether the trimming is essential but I couldn’t work out another way to load it properly and it seems to have worked finr for these two quilts.

With the Free Bird quilt I started at the middle again, working to the bottom before returning to the middle and heading to the top. This time I thought I would wing it so I just started at the top and worked all the way down and it was absolutely fine. Of course it is hard to hit every one of the seam lines but it’s good enough for me and I think the texture and lines really suit the patchwork design.

I used the same thread as the Free Bird quilt, Aurifil 40/3 in shade 2000. And again I finished this with a faced binding.  Hubby is very happy with the quilt but a bit annoyed that I’ll be sending it off to QuiltCon in a few months! That’s if it is selected to hang of course, fingers crossed!

Something about recording the temperature has really stuck with me and I realised that I wouldn’t be able to stop. So I thought ahead and actually started my temperature embroidery in January so it could run for the full calendar year. More info about how I am organising this piece in the last temperature quilt post here.

I have got a bit behind and stalled back in June and only started catching-up again this week.  The last proper photo I took (back in the summer) is on the left and you can see I have managed a couple more rows since in the image on the right (taken yesterday).  But now I am going to catch up with avengence!

I am also busy preparing next year’s temperature project. I am so excited about it and can’t wait to share it with you all! I have even got another idea noted down for 2023. I wonder how many years I can keep this going for?!

Next year I am hoping to put together a new lecture presentation about temperature quilts and projects, something I can do both virtually and physically to quilt groups and at events.  More on this soon!