Thru-hiker quilt finished

[Matthew Steingass]

An ounce of fill should do it plus your extrashell material. buy 3 ounces and make a balaclava with the other 2. If it's permanetly closed you'll have a pretty specific bag. It's my only sleeping bag so it had to be versatile. What are your plans?

[Eric Beaudry]

Beautiful location Matt. Looks like the DuoMid is also working well for you!

[Matthew Steingass]

Like Ron said. It really is the perfect shelter for a dog and owner. I can't wait until next year when Oakley is ready for a pack and some mileage. PM me with your phone number whenever you start constructing your quilt and have a question.

[Eric Beaudry]

Matt,

Sorry, missed your question on shelter. Right now I'm finishing up sewing my tarp. I went with a spinntex flat tarp 5×9'. Hopefully tonight. I also just ordered my materials to make a bivy from a polycro ground sheet and momentum with mesh head net (* need to thank Bill for the idea). This is for solo use and good'ish weather.

BUT, I'm still very much considering getting a DuoMid. Just something about it I really like. I might consider e-mailing Ron about doing a spinntex version. I think I'd still use a bivy (mine should be sub 5oz) for bug protection.

Onto the quilt again, based on your pics, I'd think the ground was still fairly wet plus being near the water, the potential of having condensation should be very high but it sounds like everything did it's job well. The explaination you gave on how you slept with the quilt is my exact reasoning for wanting to build one. Very much multi use/configurable for conditions.

Curious if you used any type of ground cloth and what your using for a sleeping pad?

Thanks again for all the information.
Eric

[Matthew Steingass]

I used my GG polycro ground sheet and 60" GG 3/8" thick thinlight pad. The polycro seems like tough stuff. Just wondering how you plan on joining the momentum to it? Sounds like a cool project.

[Matthew Steingass]

From my trip report

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=21896

[Ben W.]

Matt,
I'm impressed that this was your first project. It looks great! Can you offer some suggestions on how you got started? Did you use a pattern, where did you get your material, cost, lessons learned?

[Matthew Steingass]

Thanks Ben. It's a thru-hiker.com momentum quilt kit and I definitely recommend buying their kit. It's $150 but you still need to buy thread, closure and draw cord plus construction aids. I had to buy a sewing machine too and I found one on Craigslist for $40. If I totaled it all up I had about $210 in the project but now I have a sewing machine too. If I were you I would buy a yard or too of sil nylon and practice constructing stuff sacks because nylon is tricky to sew. I used other manufacturers dimensions like jacksrbetter and the mld spirit quilt. The mld quilt is 78" long and has a max user height of 6'2". I'm 5'8" so I took 6 inches off this and it fits me perfectly. I wanted the warmest quilt I could make so I chose to be able to close up the whole taper. Now The closure ends right under my but so theres no drafts. I found my taper length by adding 6 inches to my inseam. The draft stopper at the end adds a little length and does it's job and so does the 8" of closure up on the neck. The only thing I believe I did wrong is the draw cord at the neck. Center it and make sure it pulls from the inside like mine.

Here's some links I used

http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=34&products_id=60&osCsid=ec7f2ec8629cf7c768e483526f4e4095

http://www.backpacking.net/makegear/make-down-quilt/index.html

http://www.brianandlis.com/projects/gear/quilt

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=6114

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4362

[Mike Philip]

when all was said and done what was your cost on the quilt?

any info would be great.

Thanks,

Mike

[Matthew Steingass]

The kit is around 160 shipped then you need close to $20 in misc supplies that you can buy from walmart or joannes. I did it because I was able to make a custom sized quilt with all the features I wanted that made the most use of the 12oz of down in the kit because it was sized to fit me.

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