April In August

 

As promised, as I move on to the month of April, it starts getting a lot more varied in the Temperature Quilt. Higher highs are happening which of course is not surprising, but it's fun to see the colors in my quilt change. For your reference, the near neon yellow is 76-80 (3 days), yellow is 81-85(5 days), and the cheddar yellow-orange is 86-90(2 days). 

I've got my little pressing station set up right next to my sewing machine. I'm using a shot of Best Press spray on each piece as I press each little seam open. Hopefully all that starching will help stabilize things a bit when I'm sewing the columns to the sashing. And then I lay down the wooden clapper on it just to get it locked in and flat. As long as I do this sewing before it gets too hot in my sewing room it's fine to be so close to the hot iron. Honestly I think that the wool mat that I'm using seems to absorb the heat.

The first six days of the month are all sewn together and it's looking good so far.

I went through my temperature data versus the number of pieces of fabric I have cut for the next few months, and I definitely have some dyeing to do before I can move on to May and beyond.

Specifically I need these two for May, plus something for the 91-95 range which will be an orange. Time to get going on some dyeing. Fingers crossed that I can come close enough color-wise.

Thinking About A Temperature Quilt

I find Temperature quilts to be so interesting. I've been seeing them for a couple of years now and I've decided to try and make my own for 2020.

I've lived in the same town for a very very long time, since 1989! So I have a personal feeling that yes, it's quite a lot hotter than usual on average. Things bloom earlier than they used to, it's a whole lot hotter during the summer. And the winters seem much milder than they used to.

Instead of just recording the high and low temperatures each day, which is interesting all on its own.
I also wanted to get the average "normal"and compare it. I found an official NOAA weather station that is nearby and it has the average readings available from 1981 to 2010.

So far I've got a database set up for the year, January and part of May are all filled in and I'm ready to start in on designing. There are six numbers I'm recording for each day, the average high temperature, the actual high temperature, and the difference. The average low temperature, the actual low temperature, and the difference.

I also was thinking of having a quilt just about the difference between the average and the actual. I would call this quilt, Delta, which means the shape would have to be an equilateral triangle as that's the Greek letter and all. (Note to get a ∆ on a Mac, use Option-J= ∆ )

I have an equilateral triangle cutting die for my Sizzix, so that would make it easy and accurate. It also cuts a rhombus, which I could trim down to to a rectangle with a 60degree angle on one side.  I'll try cutting some of these and play with them on the design wall.

∆ Sooo, how about having an equilateral triangle that represents the delta high temperature and one that stands for the delta low temperature. On either side of the eq. triangle would be the average and the actual. This is a good tutorial video on making a block like this.

If the two points touched each other to make an hourglass, that could be cool. Would the whole thing, all six pieces together make a square? Or a rectangle?

I either have to install EQ8 on my computer or use some graph paper and sketch this out. Or how about lined journal paper, good enough right? This is just the triangles representing the deltas colored in so far.

Especially for assigning a color scheme. I used my colored pencils to assign values to the delta triangles.

At this point, I think the deltas will be solid fabrics and the side pieces would be prints. I don't have it all figured out yet, obviously.
∆∆∆∆∆

My starting hypothesis: We've got a new normal happening. And yes it's hotter in here.
Yes of course this quilt would only represent one year's worth of actual temperatures, not showing anything conclusive at all. I suppose I'd have to do one yearly for quite a while to be able to show the trend, who knows, maybe I will?

"In here" means - here on our one and only planet, Earth.