50th Birthday Mental Health Temperature Quilt

It was my 50th birthday in April this year and I decided to make myself a patchwork blanket to celebrate. I've been doing a bit of patchwork using my sewing machine but I'm still at a very basic skill level, so the blanket would have to be very simple. I decided to make a mental health temperature blanket. My mental health has been quite a defining thing throughout my adult life, perhaps the most defining thing sadly. I wish it was better, wish I hadn't had 33 years of being on self destruct mode and have only recently attempted to sort myself out but unfortunately that means there's still a huge amount to fix before I'm truly there.

Anyway back to the blanket, I was hoping it might help to carry on trying to keep my head above water and actually it really does, its a good way to look back at your life and realise that maybe it hasn't all been as bad as previously thought, I was truly surprised by the results.

First I made a 50 tile template, 5 x 10 seemed the most blanket shaped scale and it also gives you a good layout for reviewing how you've felt over the years and also to adapt if you're older or younger. 

Next the key - I decided on yellow for happy, fawn for neutral (so this colour is for when I was young or for this year which is tbd). Grey is injured, I'm not right, maybe on the verge of something and black is ill. I put my colours into my blanket template and bought some corresponding cotton fabric, then I set about marking with a quilting ruler and cutting the squares out. I used 15cm squares, to be sewn with a 0.6cm seam allowance meaning a blanket of 140 cm x 70 cm will be the final result.

Next step is that you lay out the fabric blanket squares in the right order and then pinch edges from the back to get right sides together from the top horizontal row, sew all of them from L-R together. Put back down in place and move to the second row down. Once you have all the horizontal rows joined it's time to start working vertically down the blanket and sewing the rows together with the same seam allowance. For finishing you can use wadding to pad and also line with a backing fabric. Remember not to stress if it isn't perfect because life isn't perfect but you will still be so proud of the blanket you've managed to make.

Ive popped in the blank printable A4 template below in case you'd like to mark out and sew your own life journey, just print it out and colour it in with your own colours, it's truly therapeutic and a great celebration of reaching your own personal milestone.

Download the free printable quilt template (PDF)

I've taken a picture of me and mine for inspiration at one of my favourite happy but also one of my saddest places - in Margate near my parents home and where I grew up in Kent, it seemed appropriate for me.

Happy sewing, can't wait to see yours and where you choose to show it off. That's important too.