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| Temperature Quit progress to March 14, 2020 |
With new pattern releases at the end of February, a last minute trunk show with the lovely Fort Dodge Area Quilters (thanks for inviting me!) and preparing and teaching a two-part ruler quilting class, the temperature quilt was rather neglected. When I picked it up last weekend I had about 5 weeks of blocks to catch up on. They are quick, simple blocks, but keeping the colours in the right places when catching up on 35 blocks at once required a bit more organisation to be efficient.
I borrowed some ideas from Raewyn to get organised. I had precut strips of each colour and was cutting squares off the strips as needed. This worked fine when I was keeping up, but was bit tedious when I had 35 days' worth of catching up. I decided to keep a supply of cut squares handy. If I end up with extras of any color, I'll just have to come up with a little bonus project or add them to the scrap bin. I am keeping the squares organised by temperature in little baggies, and clipping the bags together to keep them in order so that I can find each temperature's colour quickly.
Raewyn also writes the date and temperature range on the seam allowance of the block. I adapted this to note the date and whether the square represents the maximum or minimum for that date, to help me sort things out easily if I get the squares jumbled up before sewing the pairs together.
I also tried to press towards the minimum temperature square. This helped me keep track of top and bottom when I added the grey background pieces, without having to flip it over and check the marked seam allowance again.
I also too some time to cut out all the background pieces. I had cut a bunch ahead, but I decided I might as well get them all ready, since I am definitely committed to this project now. These pieces are also nicely sorted and stored.
I'll have to come up with a more environmentally friendly sorting solution that these plastic bags. I promise I will at least reuse these again and again.
Once I had all this set it took me less than an hour to catch up, and I think now I can keep up more easily. If I get behind again, I have a system that makes catching up easier, so I might avoid the cycle of falling further behind because catching up takes too long, which makes me leave it for later, when there will be even more to catch up on!
January and February rows are complete and sewn to each other. I'm now only a few days behind for March. I guess I'll go take care of that next! I will say it's lovely to see the yellow and orange creeping into the quilt, so that's good incentive to go make a few blocks.
My Temperature Quilt pattern is still available free to download here.
I don't know what day it is either! I keep thinking today is Friday! I like your planning ahead organization and promise not to judge you for using plastic. But really, if you're reusing them (I do, too!), think you can get a pass. This is going to be really amazing at the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteI love your colors, and that's going to be a really neat quilt. However, you surely must have more patience and persistence than I could ever have to cut and sew all those little pieces!
ReplyDeleteHave fun! ---"Love"
Very smart organization! It should be much easier to just grab and sew these now. Love your temp quilt design! It has so much movement :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the pattern. I have wanted to do a temp. quilt for a few years now. Your pattern looks simple and easy to follow. Thank you for making it simple to follow with the necessary information. Truly appreciated. I will get my fabrics together and start the first day of January
ReplyDeleteI love how your blocks are looking so far! Nice to see some warmer temperatures in there! I am finding it an easy design to either keep up with or catch up on! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYour organization is great! I like to use zip lock bags when I have a project that needs taming. The bags are great for sorting and getting the pieces together for each block. Your quilt is looking good. Glad to see the warmer colors appearing, too. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteI like the looks of it already. It would be hard to catch up on 35 days and is a good idea to keep the colors in baggies. I have a stack of used baggies that I reuse for projects. I don't throw them away unless they are nasty.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tips, this has fallen to the way side, with just about every other fun thing I want to spend my time doing! I love your progress.
ReplyDeleteI've taken a hint from my embroidery organization & use a hole punch on each baggie, then string them all in order on a metal ring (the kind that opens). BTW, thanks for the great pattern.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea!
DeleteYour pattern appeals to me so I'd like to attempt to make it for my 2025 Temperature quilt. However I'm not able to access the free pattern. Is it still available? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThe pattern is still available. Cllick on the link at the end of the blog post, or click on the image of the Temp Quilt pattern in the right sidebar of this blog. That will take you to a signup page. The link to download the pattern will be emailed to you after you sign up. Please note that to protect you, I have enabled double-opt in, so you will get an email asking you to confirm that you did intend to sign up. No other emails, including the one with the link, will be sent until you confirm. If the confirmation email doesn't show up in your email, check your junk/spam folder.
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