It blows me away to think I’ve been working on this 2024 temperature quilt for almost half a year now. Is it the act of recognizing these sort of details for each day what makes it all seem to zoom by?

I’m over due for an update blog post on this project. But in a nutshell?

I love it!

I’m having so much fun with it! And it is making a stunning quilt so far! If you are hearing about this project of mine for the first time, you can read more about the beginnings of it in this post– how it came to be, why it came to be, and how I designed it. You can also download the block pattern if you’d like to try it yourself.

Now that we are fully into June/almost July, I can say that this project is successfully accomplishing much of what I’d hoped it would. As a small sewing and teaching business owner, sewing is often the last thing I get to do (so much time on the computer), and when 2024 began, I decided it was time to bring some enjoyment and some sewing back to my days. And yes, there’s still plenty of time spent on the computer and doing non-sewing things, but when I have a few minutes to sew, I can jump in and out of this temperature quilt easily without having to reset my studio and everything in it. I have a system, and with that system I know where to start and how long each block will take.

The start of each new month is designated with a dark blue square of the Liberty of London Capel print, and the days progress in long columns starting from the left hand side of the quilt. The individual blocks are done as Foundation Paper Pieced blocks, as detailed in this post. Daily highs and lows are recorded, as well as any winds over 15 mph, and any rain or snow. I was super curious about the rainfall throughout the year (I did move here to the New Mexico desert from Seattle, Washington, after all). And the wind- the wind! There is a windy season here in the high desert, and I wanted to record the days throughout the year that get these high winds. Something very new to experience in the weather patterns.

Pictured above are 4 days in May, the 11th- 14th. The dark brown corner of each block represents high winds. May was full on windy season. There were so many windy days that I had to order more of that fabric/colorway to be sure I had enough. Summer is traditionally very calm and hardly windy at all. The light gray Capel colorway represents rain. As you might guess, there is not much rain here. Which made it even more interesting to keep track of it. There have been a few days recently with wind AND rain, which is unusual. But our rain barrels are full and we are thankful for that.

The image above is of one day. One block. The top right corner is the daily high (as the temperatures are getting warmer, the colorways for the Wiltshire print I’m using- also from Liberty of London- are getting pinker and redder, at times with a little neon pop. The center diagonal blue colorway is the low temp of the day. The pale strip to the left of that indicated that it rained that day. And the bottom left corner of brown indicates we had winds stronger than 15 mph. In contrast, on a calm day with no wind or rain, the bottom and top corners would be the same and indicate the daily high, the center would still be the daily low.

See more details on how I record the information on each block in this post.

I have been asked a few times about the supplies I am using for this project. I have my favorites here in my Amazon store . My favorite supplies are Carol Doak’s foundation paper, which makes this all so so much easier. As well as the Add-A-Quarter Ruler. When I am working fast, I can move too fast and risk trimming away more than I need to on a strip of fabric when I’m getting it set up to sew onto the paper. The Add-A-Quarter Ruler keeps that from ever being an issue.

Thank you to everyone who is following along and cheering on this project. It’s fun to share the progress! The best way to see all the blocks and updates as they come together is the highlight I created over on Instagram. It’s SO fun watching the temps get warmer and seeing these blocks changes.