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.