Well I picked a pretty interesting year to do my first temperature quilt didn’t I? I only recently found out there was such a thing, and I thought that considering climate change, that these sort of quilts would really be a historical keepsake some day. In fact, I thought about doing double sided with 1920 on the back to show the 100 year difference… and I might still do that… we will see! Since I am not even close to my vision for the front, I don’t want to commit to anything for the back.
I started out by visiting the Twiddletails blog and then quickly joined her facebook group and headed out to my local quilt store (Quilting Mayhem who also does a temperature quilt a long) to buy fabrics. I grabbed a bunch of solid Grunge (by Moda) fabrics and some Quilter’s Linen (by Robert Kaufman) to have some contrast.
Originally, I had a square in a square with an appliqued circle in the center planned. But after doing that for a couple months, I felt like it didn’t have enough movement and joy. It looked blah! I knew I wouldn’t follow thru with the whole year if I wasn’t in love with it. I saw some very cool Dresden plates by Sandi Griepenstroh and Cindy Jandt on the group and was inspired by their work. I had made exactly one Dresden plate prior to embarking on this challenge… so I started off with the wrong sized ruler, and then made a bad attempt at a paper piecing version. It was April before I got my system down and the plates started looking good.
It seems like I get asked “How did you do that?” asked every time I post on the group. Since Sandi and Cindy were both so helpful when I did the same last year, I wanted to share with people starting their temperature quilts now.
This still has a long ways to go… I need to cut background blocks, decide what to do for the centers (I have a plan for something with embroidery showing the big topics of the year.) Sew them on the blocks. The decide what to do on the back. Either the 1918 weather (the other Pandemic year) or a custom made fabric showing the headlines for 2020. We shall see.
So this is a tutorial of sorts… Captions on each picture. Let me know if you have questions! I am happy to share my process.
Thanks for the shoutout! You can share my Insta @lonetreequilter and my Sewing with Sandi Facebook page, too. I love your version. It’s so interesting how different areas of the country turn out so very different!