Faith Baldwin said that quote, and I’ve saved it for ages, waiting to use it as a quilt title.
I started this with a whole new stack of colors than my last temperature quilt, and then even though I’d been fussing about it since January 1st, the intense sewing really didn’t get underway until about March — I was waiting to see if we would have an interesting year for weather. We did, with snow one day and hail another and many rain storms.
While I didn’t want to replace the earlier version, I did love love that quilting. Jen was able to do the same pattern on this quilt, too. It’s more square, has a temperature quilt key on the back, along with a linen tea-towel calendar to show the year. I also added a square denoting made in California. Which it was.
This is quilt #286, and it’s 61″ wide and 70″ tall. Or long. Or high, or whatever.
No surprise that I chose this title for this quilt, as these patchwork triangles mark the passage of time, and by their very color, alter the face of the quilt top. I’m not sure I’m as generous about the marks time has placed on my physical body, and sometimes the alterations of who I think I am can sometimes be pleasant, and other times, painful. I want just enough spice and change in my life to make it interesting, but I don’t want sustaining relationships to wither or change or wilt. Some you can’t get back, like when my father died earlier this year. Other relationships take a bit more stitching and cutting and late-night sewing to become the beautiful garment (or quilt) they were meant to be. Y’all know what I mean, and I’m guessing the marks time leaves on all of us can be wearying. Or gratifying. Or somewhere in between.
A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller, said Paul Klee.
John Lithgow: Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug.
Theodore Roethke, a favorite poet, noted that, Time marks us while we are marking time.
Try pausing right before and right after undertaking a new action, even something simple like putting a key in a lock to open a door. Such pauses take a brief moment, yet they have the effect of decompressing time and centering you, wrote David Steindl-Rast
We’re planning a trip to see the Eclipse in April, and are trying to find those moments where we can pause time, as Stindl-Rast suggests. And hopefully not in dive hotels, or out of gas at the side of a road in West Texas. Seeing the eclipse will, in its own way, pause time, and will make its mark, bringing a fancy bit of stitching to this thing called life.
I hope the Dressmaker-called-Time makes you the finery you hope for–
(XOXO Thanks, my love )
P.S. Other posts about this quilt:
Temperatures are in the News!
February 2023 • This and That
Filling the Days…with Quilting
This and That: October 2023
…and other posts on Instagram.
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 
Just stunning! And a perfect name! We are busy with eclipse plans. Of course we don’t have to go far! Expecting massive crowds – my daughter-in-law, works at a national park and they are expecting half a million people!
I love your quilt and the quotes. Oh my! I always learn something when I read one of your posts. You have encouraged me to try a temperature quilt next year. I don’t have much quilting planned for this year. You always seem to add a little class and thought for my day. If I hadn’t read your post, I wouldn’t have known that John Lithgow was an accomplished artist and writer! You may be retired, but you are still teaching.
I’ll say it again, I love finding one of your posts in my inbox. And- I finished the binding on my 2023 temperature quilt last night! Nice coincidence.
Your thoughts are reassuring, something I’m sure we all need in these times. Thank you.
It turned out beautifully and I love the name for it. The colors are so pretty and the chart on the back is great too. The quilted lines remind me of gentle breezes.
The quilting is beautiful and adds a nice fluidity to the quilt and ties in well with the quilt name, too. I find it amazing to see how the year progresses; the warm temperatures are not centered in the middle of the year, are they?
It’s another lovely temperature quilt, Elizabeth, and I’m very impressed with the timeliness of your finish. It would take at least 18 months for me to make a quilt like that! Your thoughts about marking time, and time marking us, are profound and apopos. I guess I spend my time “being,” not marking much of anything except the highly visible, and increasing number of gray hairs on my head!
ah Linda, I have finally embraced my full head of white hair.
I have loved the color scheme ever since you started this quilt. It’s not one I would have thought to use and it’s wonderful. As for the title . . . I like it a lot. I will need to reread and ponder all your time references because as always, you leave us with much to consider. Hope time is treating you well today. I am already thinking of how I my using my time on this nice sunny day.
I really love the softness of the colors in this quilt. Every year I contemplate making another temp quilt, but still haven’t quite turned thoughts into action.
The right words at the right time. Thank you, friend. I find myself hoping that any imminent alterations will be gentle–perhaps a little letting out so I might breathe a little easier, laugh a little more easily. And if the tight band around my head could be loosened? That would be great…C’mon 2024.
Congratulations on finishing your beautiful quilt and for finding such a great name for it! TIME - so much on my mind recently as I turn 75 this week 😵💫. I keep coming back to my mantra, “cherish each day” as the best way to try to deal with their passing. Hope you have lovely days ahead!
This is a fabulous temperature quilt. One of the best I’ve seen actually! The quilting is also sensational. Modern, clean and not overdone.
I’m coming to CA in 2025 to teach at 2 different guilds. I wonder if it will be anywhere near you?
What a beautiful dynamic quilt. I love the indulating quilting. The title/quote is fabulous. I’ve been watching old home videos that we recently had digitized and it’s almost confusing, the way time has flown.
Your perseverance in finishing even one temperature quilt is amazing to me! I quit after a few months and made it into something else! Your quilt is beautiful!