Quilter’s Name: Janet Miller from Massachusetts
Type of Quilt: Temperature Quilt
Name of Pattern: Kaleidoscope
Featured Date: 8-10-23
I made a temperature quilt!!!
I am Janet Miller from Massachusetts but I made this quilt for my sister who lives in Montana. I chose to make it for her because the temperatures are so extreme there I thought it would make it more interesting. I started it on January 1, 2022 and finished it in March of this year. I sent it to her but took pictures before I did. I used a half hexagon for my base because I put the high and low for each day and stitched them together ( making 365 full hexis) but I put them together side by side making it a challenge. So I made diamonds and solid hexis to form the spaces between the weeks-the solids were indicative of the season. I have pictures but I’m afraid it’s going to be too much to send. It’s the first quilt that I’ve made that has 3 labels.
I didn’t use a pattern per se but I did use a 2” half hexagon template to make each individual day- then I arranged the days in 7 units always starting at the top for the first day of the week and the 7th day would always be in the center. As the six days rotated around the center, the low temperature would be toward the center, high on the outside. I oriented the blocks ( the 7 unit blocks) so they would only be side by side not nesting as a traditional grandmother’s garden would be (I think), so I’d say my pattern was thought up or, at best, a variation of that. Because I did it that way, there was a lot of background, so I chose gray for winter, light green for spring, yellow for summer and rust for autumn. All those solids were from Moda. I also used fabrics (jelly rolls mostly) from Joann’s, but also from eQuilter and our local quilt shop. I bought a lot of QT fabrics – origins by Dan Morris. The backing, my most favorite fabric was the Galileo thermometers by helenpdesigns.com. She had it with a white background but was willing to make it in dark blue. I love it!! I also embroidered (I have an embroidery machine) the number of month on the first day of each month wherever it appears on the quilt- got concerned because June and September first days didn’t fall on the top of the block! I embroidered a line on the bottom of the number. Then I also embroidered a symbol of sorts on the first day of each season. For winter a snowflake, and it corresponded with the border (I made each side one of the four seasons and embroidered a small montage depicting things that go with each season).
I sent my journal to my sister that had every thing in it that I did along the way. I used a wonderful site called www.timeanddate.com, which they changed their format toward the end of December so I think another site would be better now- at least for the way I used it (actual temps not forecasts). I also made a key for the fabrics and their corresponding temperatures for reference. Thanks for being interested in my journey!
Janet
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