Working On My 2023 Temperature Quilt

 

This past week I have been diligently working on my 2023 Temperature Quilt. I absolutely love the way it is coming together. I love the fabric and I love the triangle. This is my favorite Temperature Quilt I have done so far.

It all began with the design. Of course, each year I look at a ton of Temperature Quilts online. Then the tuff decision of what to do with mine. I loved the circle and did that two years in a row.

 I have a triangle quilt that I absolutely love and thought maybe my Temperature Quilt should be triangles. I made this triangle quilt when following along with the improv triangle sewalong with Nicholas Ball on Instagram.

So, I sketched out the triangles, did some figuring and decided what size the blocks would be. The triangles are an equilateral triangle; 60-degree angles. My drawing is not an accurate 60 degrees. I used this Creative Grids Kites Plus Ruler, because my other 60-degree triangle ruler is a large 12” triangle. The blocks are a finished 4” x 2.5” There will be 14 blocks (2 weeks) across, and 27 blocks down. This finished quilt will be 56” x 67.5”. That is a nice throw size.

Then, probably even more difficult than design was choosing the fabric. Don’t get me wrong, I love choosing fabric, but it does take a lot of thought, and I also had the help of my daughter. I decided that the entire quilt would be Art Gallery Solids. I have the entire line of color swatches that I purchased from Woven and Woolly. Having these swatches makes choosing fabric so much fun.

Each fabric represents a five-degree range. The triangle is the high temperature for the day and the background is the low for the day.

The triangles were cut using the 60-degree ruler. The backgrounds were cut in half using the same ruler. The fact that I used a solid fabric that is the same on the front and the back made this a lot easier. I could just flip the other side of the rectangle instead of having to cut a mirror image.

After the triangle blocks were pieced, I trimmed them to 3” x 4.5”.

To indicate the beginning of each month I put a little white triangle in the upper left corner.

Once all the blocks are labeled on the back and in order in bags labeled by month the piecing is quite easy.

I have 48 weeks pieced together so far. I am hoping it will not take me long to finish this quilt, but I do have other things I should be working on right now.

 

Blessings,

Candy

 

Brynn's Name Quilt

 

Brynn will be a year old on February 6^th and I finally finished her Name Quilt. This is a throw size quilt. I have made one for each of my grandchildren so far. So, this is number 4 and I still need to make one for Berkley. He will be one on March 16^th. I really want to get it done before his birthday.

My daughter chose the pattern and fabric for this quilt. One of the reasons it took so long to get it done is this was the third pattern she chose, and we ordered fabric 3 different times. But not only did it put me behind with Brynn’s quilt, but I am now behind with Berkley’s quilt. Honestly, I can’t blame my daughter for me being behind, I just didn’t do much sewing at all last year.

I believe all  of the fabrics used in this quilt are Art Gallery except for the background, which is Peppered Cotton in Oyster. Peppered Cotton Oyster is my favorite background fabric right now.

Recently I have been getting most of my Art Gallery Fabric from Pear Tree Market on Etsy. They carry a lot of Art Gallery and are very quick at shipping it out. 

This was the first block. I just started with the one to make sure this was what my daughter wanted.  

I was keeping Brynn three days a week while my daughter worked. 

You can see I was working on her quilt while she napped.

I don't know what I would do without a design wall to get that just right layout. 

I prefer a double blaket stitch to outline my machine applique. 

Using a darker thread helps to make the applique letter pop.

Sewing on that last border.

The top finished.

Quilting it on the long arm.

I love taking pictures of the completed project outside on the washline. 

These are the fabrics I will be using in Berkley's Name Quilt. I will also be using Peppered Cotton in Oyster for the background fabric. Once again I believe these are all Art Gallery fabrics. 

Blessings,

Candy

My Temperature Quilts

 

2022

2021

2020

I would love to share my past Temperature Quilts with you.

I first heard about Temperature Quilts in October of 2019, and I was immediately intrigued by the thought of making one. I am hooked. I have made one every year since.

2020

2020 was my first Temperature Quilt. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to choose fabric for it. I still had the shop at the time, and you would not believe the bolts of fabric I had out all over the place. The shape represents the high temperature for the day and the background is for the low. I decided on a freehand gum drop for my high temperature of the day. This quilt is put together vertically. Each column is 3 weeks.

The gumdrops are machine applique and stitched around with clear thread. I had a couple special days that year. The day my first granddaughter was born I stitched around with pink thread and the day my daughter got married I stitched around with white thread.

2021

For 2021 I chose to use circles. I kept my fabrics to just 2 colorways, pink and blue. Here the circle is the high and the background the low. This one I pieced together horizontally. There is a white block at the start of each month. When I quilted it, I quilted in the name of the month.

2022

2022 is my favorite Temperature Quilt so far. But there is a strong chance 2023 could become my favorite. Anyway, I went with the circles again. For 2021 I loved the circles, but I can’t say I love the fabrics. I love everything about the 2022 quilt. The previous years the temperature never went below 15. So, when I had one night in January drop below 15 I needed to add another fabric. I chose that chartreuse green. And then we had two nights in December drop that low too. I just love how those nights really stand out because of the color of the fabric.

2023

I have been diligently working on my 2023 Temperature Quilt. I really want to get it done because I think I am going to love it, and I am looking forward to getting started on 2024. I don’t know what I will do for that yet, but I have been thinking a lot about it.

 

Blessings,

Candy

 

Have you ever heard of a temperature quilt?

I first heard about temperature quilts near the end of 2019. I immediately got hooked. I made my first temperature quilt for 2020, and I have been making one for each year since.

Guess I need to write a post about all my finished temperature quilts, but I need to take some good pictures of them first.

This past week I have been working on my 2023 quilt. I have never been this far behind on getting my temperature quilt done before. For 2023 I am doing triangles. There is one triangle block for each day. The triangle represents the high temperature for the day and the background represents the low temperature for the day. The unfinished block measures 3” x 4½”, so the finished triangle block will be 2½” x 4”.

It appears I am having a new love affair with Art Gallery Solids, and that is what all the fabric is in this quilt. To make fabric selection easier I bought the “Art Gallery Fabrics PURE Solids Color Chips” from Woven and Woolly. I used these for several projects I started last year. I absolutely love these color chips and believe it is one of the best quilty purchases I have made.

 Art Gallery Fabrics PURE Solids Color Chips

 Because I love these Art Gallery Color Chips so much, I recently bought the “Peppered Cotton Color Chips.”

Peppered Cotton Color Chips

I chose a different fabric for every 5 degrees. Don’t you just love the color of these fabrics? And because they are Art Gallery, they feel as good as they look.

I have all my fabric cut and each day bagged by month. Now I just need to get them all sewn together. I now have everything pieced through June. So, I am well on my way.

Here are some of my blocks for January. I am so excited to get this done. I am determined to stick with it and get it done soon.

 

Blessings,

Candy

Fabulous Freehand Curves

 Diving In

I am diving more in depth to one of my finishes for last year. Cindy Grisdela came to my guild in July 2023, and I took her workshop, “Fabulous Freehand Curves.”  View Cindy's website here.

Cindy is a great teacher, and I loved all the different methods for freehand improv piecing that she taught. I think I will be using some of these techniques again.

If you are not able to take her workshop in person, then check out this book. Most of her techniques are included in it.

Here is a picture of my project while I was still working on it. As you can see, I was not finished implementing all the techniques she taught, and I shifted my blocks around.

I kept the quilting simple by starting in the middle and circling out. Initially I thought I would wiggle my line as I spiraled out but quickly decided I did not like the look of that. So, the quilting is not perfect, and I am okay with that. It is done.

My finished quilt ended up being about 24” square. That is a great size for a wall hanging or a table topper.

Remember at the beginning of the week I mentioned I had been sewing again. Here is a peak at what I was working on. I had to order fabric for the back and am waiting for that to arrive to quilt it. I can’t wait to get this one done.

 

Blessings,

Candy