This quilt probably took as much time in the planning stage as it did in the making. I’ve always liked the idea of a temperature project but could never settle on what it would be – cross stitch, knitted or quilted, and then all the various options in all of those cases.

About the same time as I was seeing temperature quilts on social media, I got interested in fabric yo yos. I made a practice wreath to see how yo yos were made and then decided to use yo yos in my quilt. The size of the yo yos was the next decision; if there were going to be 365 of them they needed to be small enough that the quilt wouldn’t be super-sized, but they had to be large enough that I’d be able to do some quilting between the rows.

Next decision had to be what year I would choose to represent in my quilt. After some checking to see if I could find historical temperature records I decided to use the temperature readings from Saskatoon during the first year of my life – September 20, 1950 to September 19, 1951.

Once the year had been decided I needed to sort out temperature ranges, both highs and lows. I was working with a fabric line from my stash that had a restricted number of colours. Once the ranges and the fabric that corresponded to the ranges were decided it was time to get started.

The low temperatures of the day are reflected in the background colours while the highs for the day are reflected in the yo yo colours. It is interesting to note that the highest temperature of 33.3^o F was on August 4, 1950 and the lowest temperature of -37.2^o F was on February 7, 1951.

Surprisingly the whole thing went together quite quickly. The quilting is a simple mattress stitch both horizontally and vertically. I was able to complete the quilt in time for the Guild’s 2025 show.

This quilt represents the temperatures (highs and lows) for the first year of my life. The yo yo’s represent the highs and the backgrounds represent the lows. Interesting to note the highest temperature of 33.3 F on August 4, 1950 and the lowest temperature of -37.2 F on February 7, 1951. See the label for the temperature ranges. I quilted this on my domestic Janome.

It was a surprise when Moreen asked me to test her instructions for the January retreat project. I certainly now understand why she picked me. Not only am I not the most experienced quilter in the Guild but also I’m not a fan of bags and such. I quickly agreed as when she made the request we were about to sit down for Christmas dinner at her home.

It didn’t take me long until I was quite confused; I made notes on where my confusion lay but as each new step came up I struggled more and more. Finally, in frustration, I sent Moreen some photos and questions and she immediately suggested a house call.

Moreen was able to get me sorted out but because of something I had done wrong in a previous step the fabric I picked for the lining of the bag had to be the outside. Not a big deal.

My next struggle was with the tab closure. I was working with less than perfect bits of velcro and once I inserted a mug I realized it wasn’t going to stay closed. So I added another circle of velcro and that seemed to do the trick – until I opened the bag and the circle of velcro came off. Out came my glue gun and I stuck that sucker down so it won’t move.

Moreen adjusted her instructions and passed them along to a second tester – a much more experienced quilter. I overheard their conversation and there was only one point where the pattern needed to be improved so I felt I had done a good first test.

Mission accomplished!