2020 Temperature Quilt

 

Towards the end of 2019 I was seeing posts, on social media quilting sites that I follow, of the temperature quilts that people were completing for the year; I decided I would like to have a go at making one during 2020.  

First I looked at different block formats that others had used and decided to go with a rectangle block for the daily high, with a triangle at one end to represent the daily low.  The biggest headache was working out a temperature scale; I then selected and bought a range of Moda Grunge colours to use.

I also bought a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer that would show the daily high and low (and double-checked these temps for accuracy against local weather reports).  I recorded the high/low numbers on a calendar and during our school holidays throughout the year I would construct the blocks and columns for the previous months, so was doing two or three months at a time.  

You can see we had a fairly consistent, mild climate through the year. The months run across the top (being in New Zealand, Dec/Jan/Feb are summer months so they are on the outside sections, with winter months being in the middle of the quilt).  Sadly, we had such miserable weather that I had to use my 'cooler' colours a lot more than I had hoped in the summer month columns. And from a distance, two of the blues look very similar so don't show some differences in days as much as I had hoped. 

When putting the blocks together, I decided I wouldn't worry about having the blocks always facing the same way, as would have it looking a bit more random (but now that it is all finished, my orderly quilting brain is telling me it would have probably preferred each block/triangle to be in the same place! #nexttimeifthereisanexttime)

The quilt measures 60" x 64" and I used a pink print from my stash for the backing. 

I was a bit busy during the January holidays of this year, so didn't get the final months finished, and the whole quilt completed, until May or June.  It has taken me this long to finally get the photos done for sharing.  

Linking up to share with Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday.

Starry Surprise

 This was a Donna Ward mystery quilt that I made in 2020 with a jelly roll kit that was purchased from Donna (she gives a range of colour options for her mystery projects)...I have had it lying on the spare bed and realised the other day that I haven't shared it yet (though I had taken photos of it)!

The twin-size quilt measures 60" x 64" and the backing is a cute woodland creatures print that was in my stash and had the perfect colours.

I used a simple wavy stitch on my sewing machine to quilt across the horizontal lines of the main body of the quilt; and thin side to side lines in the outer sashing/border.

It was nice to be using a dark solid for the background as something different for a change; the binding is an aqua tone-on-tone.

Sharing with Michelle's linky party - have a good week everyone!

Update: January 2022; gifted to great-nephew Alex Coyle.