My "Go To" Quilt

[Aaron Sorensen]

I have made about 15 quilts and a few sleeping bags over the years.  In the past 5 years, fabric has made huge leaps in weight and down-proffness.  Then came the huge incline in the price of down.

So in the past few years, the one quilt I have for myself has a Nobul1 liner which leaks 1000’s of plum pieces all over me each night.  I just turn it inside out and use a bivy, but it was never my “Go To” quilt.

So now that I have tested and used every 10d fabric you can get your hands on, I decided it need to be done.  This would be a quilt I could grab anytime for anything and would not have any issues.  I went with Membrane .66 for both the inner and outer layer.  Membrane seems to have a slightly higher T-rating than Argon .67 so it’s a little more downproof.  It also has slightly more calendaring on the inside but doesn’t have the trash bag fell of Momentum 50.  Membrane is a very nice fabric

So here it is.

5.5 ounces of fabric and 16 ounces of 800+ down  Yep that’s almost 75% down!!!  42″ foot-box and a whooping 62″ width.  On top of that, it will fit someone to 6′ 3″.

So it’s between a Wide and Ex-Wide and between a Regular and Long length.  It would have a 15 degree rating but I would rate it to about 25*.  I pretty much always add 10* to a rating.  From experience, (it’s just what works for me).

Because of the size, I can bring this up to the top of my head and snap the cam-snaps and still fit with enough room to shift to my side without the cams coming loose.  It’s very warm but also has about 2″ of excess room in both the foot-box and on top.  However, this will allow me to have whatever layers I need for colder temps.  With the size of the quilt, I also have the option of loaning it out to someone other than a person my size or smaller.

For the build, I decided to go for a slightly modified EE baffling.  The way EE does there baffles so well baffles me.  This was the absolute biggest pain to make.  The lines all have to match perfectly and it must be sewn the exact same way because a bottom and top layer will pull more one way or the other.  Once you get completed with a long baffle, you could have 2-3″ excess one way or the other.  Even an inch on these baffles is not an option.  I almost took it apart half way through to re-do it as a vertical baffled quilt.  My hats off to the seamstresses that sew those baffles.  Hopefully this will be the last quilt I will need to make myself for a while.  That is until .5 ounce 7d hits the market!

[Ken Thompson]

Looks good Aaron

[scott owen]

Wow! that’s good work!

 

[Jerry Adams]

man, you have a problem, you’ve made 10 quilts???

where is the MYOG 12 step program?

I’ve made 2 synthetic and 1 down quilt so now I don’t feel so bad.  I’m working on my 2nd down quilt but just barely.  My current one is Nobul1 and leaks like yours, not so bad though.  2 inch loft.  Good to 30 F when I wear my 2.5 oz/yd2 Apex vest.

Membrane 66?  I need to buy some.

Not treated down?

How wide are your baffles and what’s the loft?  What did you make the baffles with inside?

[todd]

She’s a beauty, Aaron!

You packed a lot of warmth into that shell.

[Aaron Sorensen]

Baffles are 5″ wide and 2″ high.  The 3 middle chambers have 2 1/2″ high baffles and it’s at least 20% overstuffed.  About 4 1/2″ double loft and 2 1/2′ single loft in the middle baffles.  Used Nobul1 for baffle material but should have used the Membrane 66 because of the unequal pulling issues.

I had some down laying around so no treated down.  I think it’s all 850 fill but some might be from Thru-hiker.  His stuff is the same thing as the 850 you get elsewhere.

[Jerry Adams]

thanks, nice work

maybe I’ll do 3 inch loft and figure it’s good down to 20 F

[Richard May]

awesome!

[rick .]

Very nice quilt!

I made a similar one, with pertex quantum / momentum T and 16oz of 950 down.  Total weight of 26 oz, with drawstring and velcro closure.  So your fabric choices saved about 3 oz (10%).  Damn!

I agree with the rating, I start getting cold on an air mattress at about 25.  I would be concerned going much colder, but during my PCT thru-hike I’m sure there were a few nights below that.

Those baffles baffle me too.  I used straight (perpendicular to length) baffles and that was arduous sewing.  I taped the bug netting to the fabric with scotch tape then sewed along the tape edge, worked great.  That might help with alignment because the tape holds very well.

edit: How well do the baffles work?  I found that the straight ones allow down to slide to the outside after about 3 days’ use without re-fluffing, so I just re-fluff it every night (hold at seams and shake down back into middle).

I think I need a summer synthetic quilt, maybe that Membrane is the stuff.

[Aaron Sorensen]

Rick

The problem with the baffles was that with all the angled turns.  With any quilt, if you are off from one side or the other, there will be a pull or tugging between the top and bottom fabric.  You can easily get by with strait lines by just pining it every 18″ and pulling both fabrics tight at each pinned location.

Problem with this quilt is you have a lot more turns and getting the baffle fabric to line up through all the turns is very very had.  It would have been easier if I would have used the Membrane as the baffles because the slippage between the everything would have been equal.  With the Nobul1 fabric, the grab and slippage from the sewing machine was completely different which just caused a lot of difficulty.

Do I like the baffles?  Yes and no.  Because the bottom of the quilt utilizes the same baffles as the footbox, you get a lot of down push its way into the footbox every time you get in from the pressure of your body.  In a way that is a good thing as your footbox stays nice and lofty.  However, because of the way the baffles turn and how the quilt footbox is sewn, it makes it very difficult to get the down out of the footbox once it gets overstuffed and back into the bottom baffles.

With the zipper like the EE Rev has, it would be simple.  I’m sure the EE Enigma would be less of a problem than mine, but the Revelation would be the way to go.

There really isn’t much difference between Membrane and Argon.  Argon is just a bit softer and Membrane seems to be a bit more downproof.  On a synthetic quilt, it wouldn’t really matter.  As far as a synthetic quilt goes, Nobul1 would by far and away be the best inner fabric.  It is softer than any other 7-10d’s out there.  It’s down-proofness just blows.

[rick .]

I’m wondering what the gain of complicated baffles is, though obviously EE doesn’t do it for kicks.  I don’t experience ill affects from simple straight baffles, but I suspect that’s because I over-stuffed the quilt, so I have less loft, but less shifting too.  My baffles were 10″ wide by 2″ high, and also overstuffed (Its hard to determine how much).  If those baffles work better, it’s when the down is stuffed appropriately.

Thanks for all your fabric experience!  I clearly need to make a fourth quilt, 35f synthetic for 3-season mild temps and winter over-quilt.  I like having variety for friends (they carry the warmer/heavier one!)

I like the feel of Momentum 50 90 Taffeta – feels silky smooth and cool on my bare skin

[Author]

Posts