Temperature Quilt – Page 2 – OccasionalPiece

The title of this post comes from Angela Duckworth, the researcher famous for talking and writing about those who have what she calls “grit” — that innate quality that helps you to keep going. I used to show it to my freshmen English classes, in a teacher’s quest to motivate her students. But in a recent article on IdeasTed.com, she wrote about discouragement and surprisingly, even she gets discouraged. She tells the story of crossing the Rubicon, and how that metaphor came to mean a decision point. Duckworth has a list of “grit” items, available in her Ted Talk (video is at the bottom of that post), but now she adds one to it: “Setbacks don’t discourage me for long.”

I’ve saved the Advice for Discouraged Sailors in one of my computer files, and just like cleaning out a drawer, this scrap of an idea keeps popping up. And like Duckworth, there is this moment of decision, of stopping and steadying your boat and figuring out where to go. I’ve never been a sailor, but I can only imagine how critical the advice is to “seek the wind,” if you are surrounded by a water everywhere, with no land in sight.

So, incorporating both of those ideas — setbacks don’t discourage me for long, and seek the wind — I started (again) on my 2023 Temperature Quilt. I tried listening to a book when I worked and that was a disaster. I needed to study my compass, not be distracted, even if it is a good book. And I had this in mind:

Yeah, that’s a Temperature Quilt, all right.

I made progress, by cutting triangles, cataloguing them in my box and making a fabric key on the lid. To the lower right is the calendar for January, and that’s when I discovered that the color for 60-64 degrees F was missing. I had to order some, and it will be here hopefully Monday. But I pressed on, keeping notes where the gaps were:

I figured out that I wanted a stripe for precipitation, and figured out how I wanted to make it:

Clunky, but it works. These are my samples, not my quilt blocks. I have a PatternLite I’m working up so that people can download my bits and pieces, but I need to do more trials and add more info before it’s ready. Patience. But here’s my graphic so you’ll know I’m serious.

Sketches of the layout. If you want your strong bands of color vertical, that’s the middle image. If you want them horizontal, that’s the last image. I went with vertical, just like my last quilt. I’m still puzzling over what to do for the month block. I didn’t need a month block in my 2019 Temp Quilt, but I want one here because unlike 2019, I’m wrapping the days from one column into the next. I need something that will blend, but be distinctive.

Anniversary treats: two Totoro buns from our local bakery, and pink carnations. The Totoro buns have blueberry jam in them, with chocolate-dipped bases. It was a quiet, but lovely day, and I finished it with the Creatives:

A group of women from my town, and we are quilting, stitching, crocheting. Glad they all could come.

This popped up the next day, and it’s a reminder to myself to take social media posts with some caution. While I’m completely envious — and enjoy the scenery of all your trips and excursions — I’m well aware that there are bee stings, mosquito bites, schlepping the luggage, losing the luggage, fatigue, upset GI systems, missed connections and sore feet as well a glorious flower-filled grand square in Europe. Likewise, for this blog. I have my highs, my lows, my moments of satisfaction and other days when a good piece of chocolate is the only answer. Okay, maybe two.

So cross that Rubicon, seek the wind, and carry on with the journey–

Totoro and bee friend

Since it is not nice to be selfish, the West Coast and SouthWest are graciously sharing their high temperatures with the MidWest and East Coast. We are sorry. Climate Change is upon us all.

But the above image (which reminds me of my time when I lived in Texas) also reminds me of another subject.

Yes, it’s time for another Temperature Quilt. I have decided this for four reasons:
1) With the chilly temps this winter/spring and the highs this summer, the quilt will have a lot of good colors;
2) I like the new line-up (top row) of Painter’s Palette colors — they are softer, yet still strong;
3) I’m approaching a milestone birthday and feel it would help me appreciate this Milestone-Birthday-minus-1 year;
4) my sister wants my 2019 quilt.

My 2019 version of a temperature quilt. However, I’m moving on from Flying Geese, although I still love love the border.

I liked this one by Stephanie Hedstrom of Crafty Ninja Quilting. I like how she incorporated bands on the HSTs for the preciptation that day.

I had several other candidates (houses, birds, leaves, circles) but so much of it felt too fussy for this harder year, although I love all the ideas. Am I crazy for doing another one? It’s kind of like childbirth: you swear once you have that baby you’ll never have another, and then surprise! Another shows up a few years later. Yes, I’m crazy, but Temperature Quilts do get under your skin.

I get my weather info from Weather Underground, in their history section. LINK IS HERE for July and for a weather station in my locale, both changeable. I just take a screenshot of the finished month, and use that to work from.

I learned long ago that using 2 1/2″ squares of a color is better than the itsy-bitsy little swatches on the cards. I numbered the rows, then labeled the small squares with the row and the color number. They used to sell charm packs, but lately I’ve been cutting them from the fabric when I get a new color. And yes, I’m in the Painter’s Palette Camp for solids. 1000%.

This week my husband and I were treated like royalty. He’s been helping a refugee family (I have only done a little bit), and they invited us for lunch. It was amazing. And the mother had been in the hospital for two days, a day prior to that (she’s very shy) and they still hosted us. If we had known, we would have tried to reschedule, but the father kept that info to himself, as he wanted to thank us. Tahira, the young woman in the copper-colored scarf, speaks the most English, and told me that the bread I really liked was Bolani, and was filled with pumpkin and spices. The rice was amazing, and Tahira wrote to tell me it is called Qabole Paluo. Although this family doesn’t have much, they teach me about graciousness and hospitality every time I interact with them.

Right after my mother died, I had a chance to serve them by taking the four younger children (one is missing from the photo) to get language-tested for our school district. They were a light to my day that day, and for one whole day I wasn’t weeping. It was a gift, being with them, and all that I thought was complex and hard and difficult in my life paled by comparison to what they were facing: a new land, a new language, new home, and basically no earthly possessions. This time we saw them, they had new glasses (filled with Pepsi), a new-to-them kitchen table, rug and sofa. My niece, Emma, has taught me a lot about working with refugees. They don’t want handouts, but they will accept a hand in getting established. Anyway, it was a beautiful table and I thought you’d like to see it.

We took them a bag of tomatoes from our garden, but left this one home for us. We are in a race to the finish, the tomatoes and us. We put up the sunshade, but now they have been infected with wilt. Sigh. They are so delicious.

Finished my Summer Camp Quilt-A-Long blocks, but after working with some layouts, I think need 24 more the finish I have chosen.

I threw this up on the design wall (at night: hence, soft-focus) thinking of Jen Kingwell’s Boho Quilt. Yep. Not going to work, and I think it’s largely because of the soft contrast between the colors. We were steered toward a not-too-dark, not-too-bright palette on purpose, as the reason why would come at the end. So obviously, this isn’t the end, although I do know where it’s going.

While I stitched down the binding on the Raincross Challenge Quilt (due in September), I watched Fat Quarter Shop’s Kimberly Jolly do a presentation of the new Moda lines, and a couple of other fabric designers they’d chosen to carry. There’s a couple I’m interested in, of course!