The Temperature Quilts!!

My #onemonthlygoal for August was to finish the second of two "temperature" quilt tops!

And I did it -- just under the wire -- wahoo!!!

I looked back through this year's posts and see that I've only shared the start of the larger one which begins on my 70th birthday and documents the first year of my 8th decade -- oh, my gosh, 8th??

You can look back at that post HERE and read about my original plans and ideas.

I enjoyed the hand work of making these funky drunkards path blocks and watching the strips grow on the secondary design wall.

Once all of them were stitched, I fiddled around with the layout until I found a formula that used 377 squares without any odd balls -- that's 365 days plus 12 month markers. 

The round white dots are "full moons" which I watch carefully because I think they make me wierd.

Because I started on June 10 (my birthday) and ended one year later on June 9, all the cool colors are lumped together in the middle -- I'm not sure I like all the "hot" but it is what it is.

I added labels to the month markers and am still fiddling with softening them -- experimenting with fabric crayons.

I fell way behind on the second smaller one made from HST's so in July, I zeroed in on finishing that top (for the first year of my life).  I systematized my construction process so it would go more quickly.

With so many HST's to construct, I soon ran out of "leaders and enders" so pulled out a stack of six "Painted Trees" by @bluenickelstudio which I had cut during the spring.

As the blocks and strips from both projects started going up on the design wall, it struck me how compatible they were!?!  It occurred to me I might "merge" these two projects into one piece!!

So I began to experiment with ideas in a series of spontaneous work sessions.

Only two of the trees were really compatible with 1947/48 so I needed lots of filler!!

There's a little bird mug rug on my cutting table reminding me that I believe I've been birding since I was hatched.  The result?   A stack of little birds blocks.

The stack began to grow and then Marti Michell's new Small Flying Geese ruler arrived -- we must use it now!!  So I created that strip across the top using the twenty-some fabrics that represent the temperature range of the quilt.  And perhaps I could work the name of the piece into the border?

Wanting to finish by August 31, I rejected the idea of piecing the name and started experimenting with writing it out with permanent marker (didn't like my script) and printing it with the inkjet.

That worked -- first time!?!

If you've never tried this, I double starched the fabric, backed it with freezer paper, and cut it into an 8 1/2" by 11" sheet.  After the test print on paper, I went for it and it worked!!

This afternoon, everything came together!

Loving it!!!

The trees and the flock of birds is perfect!

My binding plan is to use the twenty-some fabrics of the temperature grid and the quilting plan is still in the thinking stage.  Plus I have to make a backing.

The top finished at 51" wide by 44" long.

95% of the fabric is from my stash -- yahoo!!

I'm linking with #onemonthlygoal over at Elm Street Quilts!!

Have a great weekend!

Mary