Today’s post isn’t actually about a finished project, but about a project I plan on working on, every day, for the entire year. I wanted to share it with you now, and then at the end of the year I hope to share the finished project.
It is a Daily Average Temperature Quilt, where every block symbolizes a day of the year.
This project was actually inspired by this Facebook photo from Repeat Crafter Me featuring Bernat yarns in different colors to create a temperature afghan. For that project you added a new row to the afghan every day using the yarns featured below.
The problem was that 1. I don’t crochet (or knit) and 2. add a full row of stitches every day seemed like a big commitment. I needed something that was more in my wheel house.
And that would be… QUILTING.
The idea is exactly the same, but instead of a new row every day, I would only add one single block and instead of using the yarn company's temperature scale, I decided to create my own based on the temperatures where I live. (Since we are in California we never really see anything colder than the 30s and we get really hot in the summer so I went up to the 110s)
The layout was a little different too. In order to get all 365 days in, and keep the quilt in a square shape, I decided to make the grid 19x20. That gives me 380 blocks which meant I have a few extra blocks to work with. I decided I would add a ‘Legend’ on the bottom so a viewer would understand the order of the colors relative to temperatures.
Since I didn’t want to do much more than sew a quick line of stitches every day, I knew I had to have a massing block cutting session so everything would be ready in advance. I used nothing but scraps from my scrap bins, which was fun.
As I cut the blocks (they are 2.5 x 2.5 inches square for a finished size of 2 inches) I sorted them by color breaking them into 9 categories.
Then I added the blocks to zip lock bags and pinned them to my work wall (which happens to just be a white on white whole cloth quilt I hand quilted a while ago but am not sure what to do with).
To track the actual temperature, I’m using the site “Weather Underground” which has a weather history app where you can enter a day and a zip code and it tells you the average temp (and other stuff, but I only need the average temp.) This worked the best for me since it is consistent and easy to find, even if I miss the temperature reading on any given day, I can go back and find it at anytime.
So far, this is what I’ve got up. (You can see I have only pinned up the latest blocks.. It is easier for me to sit down and add a week’s worth at all at once.) The first weeks of the year have been mainly in the 40s and 50s, so the first row is pretty monochromatic, but I’m excited to watch it switch over to the greens and reds in the spring.
I created this quick mock-up to show you what I’m guessing my final quilt should look like. I am actually not sure how it will look since we tend to have a really moderate climate here and so there may be a lot longer stretches of the same color, but we shall see.
That is kinda what makes this so fun. Any single quilt for any given location or time would be totally different. The former scientist in me is just eating that up!
Make sure you are subscribed to my craft newsletter, so when I post updates about this little guy, you won’t miss them! Or check out these other quilting and sewing projects already on the blog.
