Another Flake Bites the Bobbin

Back in January, I created my first lap temperature quilt using the digital image I created in Photoshop and had printed via Spoonflower. I was still working on the remainder of the 2021 digital temperature quilt segments. I had two more segments printed once I finished a summer month so I could make another lap quilt, this one featuring a totally different color scheme on each side. March is on the front, and July is on the back.

The binding for this little lap quilt is leftover binding from other quilts AND the Spoonflower edges from multiple panels I've ordered. Sometimes the fabric comes with a two- to three-inch white border, and I couldn't see throwing it away after cutting it off. So I pieced all the borders together and made a binding. No scraps went to waste on this baby!

Now my entire 2021 digital temperature quilt is done, and I'm hoping to have it printed on fabric, too, but I have to do some more retouching, first. Some of the flakes in today's quilt aren't as white as I'd like them to be. And some of the dark blues and dark purples look black. Back to the computer drawing board...

My 2021 digital temperature quilt actually displays nearly 13 months instead of 12, and the December 2021/January 2022 segment is my favorite because it includes some of my more recent snowflakes, as well as background colors I really like.

I had a request to share my temperature chart so others can see the temperatures represented in my digital quilt.

I had decided back in December that I wanted my temperature quilt months to be represented by blocks instead of rows. Using this method, I would need an even number of vertical days to accommodate two rows for each day, a high and a low. I couldn't do seven-day weeks because the last week of each month would be missing the overnight lows in a 7x7 block. (Seven rows by seven rows.) Six days by six rows would leave off too much of the year. (216 days instead of 356.) When I decided to do eight days vertical and four columns of highs and lows horizontally, I hadn't done the math, but I knew I would have to include some January 2022 days. (Or some December 2020 days, but I'd already started the January segment and didn't want to have to alter the snowflake squares I'd already digitally pieced.)

Math has never been my strong point. When I was trying to figure out how to describe how I created what I created, the only math term I could think of was square root. And I guess that sort of applies. 28 days, 30 days and 31 days do not have a workable square root. (It would be a fraction.) But 32 days does (when you multiply by two for the high and the low of each day)... 8 times 8!

I thought my digital quilt would be maybe three or four days into this January. As I finished the 11th segment (which I thought would be mostly November with a bit of December), I was shocked to discover I'd nearly finished 2021 and would need nearly the full month of January 2022! I was just a tiny bit tempted to create a really unusual 12th segment with just three days (or six blocks, including highs and lows). The snowflakes would be really big, and I even considered doing real applique! But, in the interest of finishing quickly so I can get on with other waiting projects, I went ahead and used 30 days of this January, far more than the four I thought I'd be using!

So my digital temperature quilt features 768 blocks and 768 snowflakes. I hope to create another digital temperature quilt one day because I actually have enough snowflake patterns to use a different one for each day. I wasn't able to do that with my first try because I didn't have photos of every snowflake I've designed in a range of colors. Most of the white flakes for the first eight or so years of designing were photographed on blue fabric. Many of those flakes have been given away, so I will have to make them again and photograph each on a range of colors.

Needless to say, that project is going to have to wait a while. I've got too many other things that need to be finished first!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Tweet

Pin It