Have You Thought About Making A Temperature Quilt?
December 22, 2021
Hi!
Have you ever thought about making a Temperature quilt? I hadn’t either until a couple of years ago, when a friend told me about them, and I got all excited (in the week between Christmas and New Year), and committed to making my version of one.
To be honest – it is a year-long commitment, but I really quite enjoyed the process, and now that I finally got organised enough to finish the border (only a year late!), I thought I’d share my version with you.
As you can see – mine is not a quilt, but rather a queen sized crocheted blanket. I wanted something to do at night in front of the tv, and as I had a stack of different coloured yarns, I decided this version was for me.
Do yourself a favour and google “Temperature Quilt” – check out all the different variations and ideas, and do likewise with Pinterest and Instagram if you’re inspired. There’s HEAPS of different options, and there’s a variety of patterns available too if you’d like to go that way as well.
Basically, to make a temperature quilt / blanket, you record the temperature every day for a calendar year, and translate that temperature into a corresponding colour, that you include in your design in some repetitive way. The variations are endless.
I decided to record both minimum and maximum daily temperatures, and as I’m working in celcius / centigrade, I devised the colour scheme above, based on what I had available when I started. I started at 0 degrees, and finished at 47 degrees. (It was a hot year, but fortunately I didn’t need to go to that last colour!) Each colour covered 2 degrees too.
I worked out the number of squares I would need in total for the year (think about leap years!), and when I worked it into a grid for layout, it turned out that there were enough squares left to mark the end of each month before starting the next.
I did simple granny squares – they all have a grey centre, then the first round is the daily minimum, and the two outer rounds were for the maximum temperature that day. The solid grey squares mark the end of the month.
The photo is not great, but I added a key on the bottom border of my blanket – a two round square in each colour, added in order from coldest to hottest temperatures.
As the key squares added a bit of depth to my border, I filled in the rest of the border with a fat rainbow border, and a final grey scalloped edge. It does fit our Queen-sized bed, and I quite like the scrappy look of it now that it’s finished.
If you’d like to make a quilt, then start looking online now for inspiration. You need to decide on what pattern you’re going to use to show the temperatures. I’ve seen half square triangles with min / max daily temps, I’ve seen pieced curves, and hexies, and pieced rectangles. I’ve found improv styled versions and Bethanne Nemesh this year is working on a stunning pieced feathers quilt. (Check out her Instagram feed for images).
Here’s a couple of quilt ideas:
I’m not sure who made the first one as it’s on several different sites and blogs, but the second was from www.CanuckQuilter.com .
Check out the idea, and get committed to making your own quilt next year! You’ll enjoy the process, and then you’ll also have a lasting reminder of 2022.
Enjoy your Christmas!
4 responses to “Have You Thought About Making A Temperature Quilt?”
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Sounds like fun!
Yours is one of the prettiest versions I’ve seen! I’ve toyed with making one and then came to a screeching halt when I priced the yarn I would need. My stash isn’t big enough to lend itself to this sort of project unfortunately.
Hi Mary Anne – I bought my yarn (through Attic 24) on the Wool Warehouse site. It’s really cheap, actually, and postage was reasonable. It’s acrylic, but lovely and soft yarn to work with, and the total cost for this big blanket can’t have been more than about $120 AUD.
Its stunning.