Hi friends!
Today I am chatting about a temperature quilt. Have you ever made one? I haven’t but I have wanted to, so this is the year (I hope!).
Temperature quilt idea- how it started
Wo why this year? Back in October of 2025, I was at Quilt Market in Houston and I was chatting with Jennifer from Quilters Select.
Do you know Quilters Select? They have those great non slip rulers. I love them!
Anyway, we were chatting about her plan to make a temperature quilt and I suggested she talk to Island Batik about using my new fabric line called Spring Fling. She loved it!
Just FYI – the fabric is due out in stores in another month or so AND I will have a FQ bundle giveaway here on the blog next month!
So I decided I would quilt along with her and make my own temperature quilt! She is using a Quilters Select Dresden template for her blocks.
Can you guess what I am going to do for my blocks?
How to make a plan for your temperature quilt.
So let’s talk about what EXACTLY is a temperature quilt. It is basically a quilt where you track the high and low temperature for each day over a course of time. Usually people do it for a year but it could be for a special event like a special birthday or wedding and you track the year or even just the month. There are no hard and fast rules.
There was a quilt that I saw at a quilt show that tracked temperatures for a number of years to show the range and how things are changing. So interesting!
When people hear that it tracks the temps everyday, they think, what if I miss recording the temps one day? What then? No worries, you can just search online to find the high and low temperature for each day in your area. So that is not a problem.
To create the quilt, you need to determine the color fabric for each range of temps – for example maybe temps 0-10 degrees are dark blue or icy white and temps above 90-100 are bright red!
And for each day you make a quilt block with a piece of fabric that represents the high temp and a piece fabric that represents the low temp. You can use ANY quilt block you like and any selection of fabric you like!
Quilter’s Select has videos on their FB page about using their Dresden ruler- it looks super easy and she says you can make a row for the month in about an hour!
You could just make HST units and make them into a zigzag quilt with one side of the unit the color for the high temp and one side of the unit the color for the low temp.
If it is something you want to do daily, you can.
But you could just make all of one month’s blocks over a weekend the next month. Or a few blocks one day each week. Whatever best suits you and the way you like to work.
You need 2 things to get started: a fabric plan so the high temps and the low temps have their own colors and a block plan. Oh, and a way to track the temps for each day.
Luckily, Jennifer at Quilters select shared their temperature tracker with me that I can share with you! Click here to get the PDF of the Temperature Tracker.
And, if you want to join the Quilters Select FB group, click here to open a new tab and go to Facebook and see their group.
My “blocks” and my quilt
For my quilt, I am going to use my Mini Braid and make rows! Are you surprised? I didn’t think so.
So here’s my plan:
I have set up the color key with my fabrics from my Spring Fling line. I first looked at the average temps in my area to determine a good range.
Since Jennifer is also using my line, I wondered if we set up the fabrics the same way. We didn’t! She made the light yellow her hottest temp color and I made one of the red oranges my HOT color!
Remember – there is no one right way!!
After some size testing, I have decided my braids will finish at 4″ wide. I will have the braids going side to side. I want to keep the quilt fairly small – a lap size. Each day there will be 2 braid pieces (my high and low) followed by skinny braids of my “background”. And each row will start (or end) with a letter for the month.
To add the letter for each month, I am going to use my friend Annette of Southwind Designs fun alphabet of letters.
They use her signature curved piecing that is, she says, as easy as sewing a straight line! If you want to check out her alphabet cards, click here to open a new window and go to her website.
So… have you ever made a temperature quilt?
Ok- off to work on cutting some braid pieces in prep for my first month! I figure I may work on the braid little bits at a time and if the pieces are cut and ready to sew that will make it som much easier!
happy quilting!
Kate