Are quilting loops required?

For my most recent quilt (one layer of climashield xp within a momentum/silnylon sandwich) i chose not to do the loops. i have used it a couple times, and so far so good!

I made a quilt using the 5oz Climateshield without loops. I stuff very loosly in a trash compactor bag and have not had problems. I am gentle with it.

The Quilting loops keep the quilt stablized when you pull the quilt out of your pack and it's stuff sack.

If you stuff it loose in a, trash bag or similar, and pull the sack out of the pack instead of the quilt, you can greatly minimize the need for loops with the newer XP insulations.

If you're rough on gear …. the use the quilting loops.

If you're the type of hiker that has his first potty trowl shined to a high gloss, then skip the loops. (only hand wash and hang dry if you don't have loops) The synthetic insulation will degrade and begin to lose some of it's ability to insulate in about a 100 to 150 bag nights typically, unless you're really, really, really careful with it.

Me …. I just make a new one every two years and forget it …. The technology cycle on new synthetic insulations is about every 2 years anyway, and since I don't wash em, they start to stink, so it works out well for me.

I take the old quilts and use em on the couch in the winter, or cut em up for prototypes of new quilt designs and then toss em out.

Sorry for the tangent.

Dave, did you put the momentum on the inside or outside of your quilt?

Would you still go without adding the loops?

My understanding is that quilting loops are generally required on insulation that is not continuous filament, but optional on continuous filament insulation (e.g. Climashield) if you are gentle with it.

My attitude is that the quilting yarns weigh so little, are so easy to install, and take little enough time to install that I put them on all my quilts. And partly because being gentle is not my forte.

I use a larger pattern with continuous filament, smaller otherwise. I think this topic is discussed in "Trail Life" by Ray Jardine.

Good point Elliot. I'm not always as gentle as I probably should be also. Thanks for the link.