Pulling a plug

In April I came across the hashtag #temperaturequilt on Instagram and started one as well. Late for the year, and in typical Uta-fashion slightly overcomplicated. The half-square triangles for lowest and highest temperature of the day, that is pretty straight forward. But because the block I had chosen has more pieces, these needed to be filled as well. The additional triangles I chose to be the average temperatures of the four days represented by the four squares, again high and low, and the large triangles were the longterm average temperatures. Great idea – but required a lot of calculations. You can read here how I was faring with it along the way.

I fell behind, I caught up, and then I fell behind again. As the year is now coming to a close I have been seein nice photos of themperature quilts as people are nearing completion – I especially liked @flourishingpalms’ recent picture - and my heart was sinking. I knew I was never going to make it by the end of the year and I certainly did not want to take this project over into the next year. But I went ahead and started another catch-up. Then I realized that I must have made some mistake in the beginning in calculating how many blocks there were going to be. So I decided to just make the number of blocks I had come up with in the first place. Then I took a few liberties using up orphaned half triangle squares that were still lying around, but I kept to the averages in the single triangles and the large ones. 

Finished the number of blocks, started putting them together. And realized that there was never a clear idea about how big the final block was going to be, there would have been a lot of adjustments to make – or not matching points. 

And I was getting more and more annoyed with the result. Nice color combination, and it probably would have looked good if it had gone on to the end of the year with really getting into colder temperatures and different fabrics. But it is not my style of quilt and...

This afternoon I pulled the plug, I am not going to finish it, and I have already put the fabrics away, so there is no real way back. Also I am debating whether I will actually try a temperature quilt for next year. Having seen the results is impressive indeed, but in a way they all look similar in the end, and certainly making one is not going to increase my awareness about climate change and the resulting necessities in any way. I was considering making one where I would juxtapose two years, namely the coming year, where I live, and the year and place where I was born. But it seems impossible to get the data of daily temperatures without signing up and paying for some weather service (and I don’t even know whether they will actually be able to supply the data). I was talking to my husband about that and he thought I was completely nuts, “and what are you trying to show, isn’t this overly ideological?” So I am undecided as of yet.

I also called a finish to another project which, however, is at a slightly better stage and can be entered in a challenge in a couple of weeks, all it needs is the closing of one seam right now and photos taken.

And I have decided to change plans with yet another piece that’s on the design wall. 

I had intended to enter it in Australia, but am finding it extremely difficult to fit the pieces into the required size of 90 x 90 cm. 

So I will not enter, just let it have the size it wants to, and then we will see how it develops.

I am a bit at a loss with my quiltmaking. With the change in my life that leaves me little time for creativity, the lfow is gone. I was aware that would happen, but it is a bit sad to feel it now. Although I did have an idea this morning – which I might pursue. Perhaps that was the motivation behind these decisions this afternoon, ge things out of the way…?

Merry Christmas to you all.