Mini-Dresden and Temperature Quilt Update

 Thanks to previous blog records, I can say with certainty that I've been working on this project now for two years.  Almost exactly two years.  Started it in April 2018.

I decided to count the finished plates.  There are 185 plates in total.  I hadn't counted them before.  I'm not sure I should have counted them.....

Only 30 are appliqued.  OK, actually 29.25.

The truth is that I don't do a lot of sit and stitch lately, so I'm trying to be more deliberate about working on them when I am sitting in front of TV.

Last week when I was trying to organize projects and do some cleaning up, I went ahead and cut (all?) the background squares.  Applique on!

Hopefully our trip to Florida will happen - lots of car stitching time.
Hopefully.......

Some helpers getting a photo of the Temperature Quilt.  It was too windy, otherwise.  Here I am showing through April 13.  I've switched to a green background for Spring.  I believe it is Kona "Pear"  At the top you can see one day with yellow/orange.  That was our outlier of 79 degrees!

Quilt as You Go Hexagons - A Quick Tutorial

 Since this year's temperature quilt plan is Quilt as You Go Hexagons, I thought I'd share a quick tutorial.  I'm sure you can find others out there, and I don't claim to be an expert.  I have done 45 so far, though....

 The first thing you need is a way to cut out those hexagons.  I use a combination of the Hex N More Ruler and You Hexie Thing Ruler. 

You also need to decide on the sizes you want to end up with.  My inside hexagon is 4.5" hexagon marked on the Hex N More.  This is a nice size for me to cut the half hexies to do highs and lows for each day.

The background needs to be one inch bigger on each side, so that actually means two inches larger (it took me a while to actually get this)  So in my case I make a 4.5" inside hexagon and cut a 6.5" hexagon for the background.

My current stack of backgrounds for Winter.  With bonus triangles. 

You also need to cut batting to the inside hexagon size.  4.5" in my case. I am using Warm and Natural because its what I had.   You definitely do not want a thick batting.

 Background plus batting.

 Center batting and then front side hexagon.  I like to steam press at this point.  Helps keep it from shifting and flattens it a bit. 

 On each side fold up and press.  Do not fold the edge of fabric all the way to the batting, you want to leave a small gap to make the turning up easier.  Otherwise things get too bulky too quickly.

 Here each side is folded once, close to the edge of the batting/top hexagon.

 The next fold you take is going to come over the top hexagon, covering the raw edge of the top hexie and the batting.  Continue to press.

 Now you are folding one side at a time, press and pin.  I use glass head pins for things like this so you can press without worrying about melting things.

Make sure to miter those corners carefully.

 These corners aren't stellar, you can do better! (so can I)

 Now you are going to stitch around the edge on top of the hexagon through all the layers.  I just did a straight stitch, some like to use a decorative stitch. 

For joining hexagons together you can use a zigzag or a decorative stitch. 

 Here is a close up of my temperature quilt so far.  It is not perfect.  I'm sure it could be better, but I don't have grand plans for this one other than the fun of making it. 

The advantage of this method is you can just continue to grow the quilt. 

There is a lot more work and time up front, but when you are done putting the blocks together, they are done forever.

It does also take a lot of fabric.  Three yards of fabric yielded about 90 6.5" hexagons for the background. 

 Please let me know if you have any questions or I made any errors.

2020 Temperature Quilt: I finally have a plan

It took me a while to get going on this years temperature quilt.

First I had to commit.

Then I had to pull fabrics and assign degree ranges.

Then I had to really decide on a design.

I had originally thought of quilt as you go hexagons using the low was the backing fabric and turning it to the front. I actually still really like that idea, but it takes So Much Fabric. As in, I would have had to go shopping and I really don't want to buy more fabric. This year is all about using it up and finishing.

I'm still going with the quilt as you go hexies, but have decided that each season will have the same background. 

Why seasons? Well, I started my hexies by using three yards of Kona snow that I had as the background. Guess how far three yards gets you?  About three months!!

I've already gone ahead and bought background fabric for spring.

Kona pear shown here next to Kona snow.

I'm doing half hexies. Top is the high, bottom half the low.

I've got all the hexies cut for winter backs and about 100 batting hexagons.

I started assembly the other day with out doing the maths.

Sewing the January blocks in a row ended up 140" long. That's a bit much.

I've got it at just 24 hexies long and will grow the width as the year progresses.

Random Things on a Wednesday in January

 A fun bunch of randomness to share today. 

What do you think is in there?

 This is on one of our camp chairs. 

 This is just because I needed a bright spot on a gray January day.

 Mini is definitely a creative, she is always drawing, making things and writing stories, and she never gets caught up in the "its not perfect" problem that I have.

Even art with magnets.

 These two were sharing the sunlight on a cold winter's day

 I had to document this huge apple.  This is actually from Thanksgiving pies.  The apple came from "up north" in the UP, picked wild. 

 It took up half my peeler.

 And then look at this tiny guy.

 I've got a new leader/ender project under my table at the machine.  These are old charm squares from Connecting threads.  Just gonna use them up for charity quilts.

This was my 2019 in used spools.  I did do some sewing where I was trying to use up thread, it was nice to make some space in the thread boxes.

And I have a plan for the 2020 temperature quilt.  I will share more when I get some actual blocks made.   Which in reality may not be until February.