ugh, after days & days of isolation, cramping fingers, and a gnarly hunchback, i'm finished with my 2-person quilt. it's basically a copy of the Nunatak Dual Arc, made by loosely following the "17 oz down quilt" instructions found at backpacking.net and thru-hiker.com. i accidentally noted to make the baffles 2 inches tall instead of 2.5, but the quilt is lofting nicely over 3 inches and is stiflingly warm inside the house.... it goes on its inaugural trip in 2 days. yee haw!

now i just need to finish my Whitney jacket, sew a down bag for my alomst 5-yo son, MAYBE sew a solo quilt... and then, heaven help me, i'm thinking about sewing a new family tent. i'm frigging insane.

Congratulations Colleen! Whenever a homemade project gets done it's always both a joy and a relief, especially the bigger projects. The one project I don't envy you doing is the family tent. Those long seams can drive you out of your mind, especially if it is with silnylon. I sewed a huge shaped tarp once and quickly lost enthusiasm for trying to keep the seams straight and holding down the slippery rolled hems!

Hope the trip in two days makes you quilt shine!

Colleen, sounds like you are on your way to a home based cottage industry. Your dedication to your family and hobby are really admirable. Why don't you offer your quilts on the gearswap forum?.. oh yeah, the hunchback thing.
Congratulations on the completed project!

Got any pictures?

no pictures of the construction process. as i was sewing it, i would occasionally think "hmm, i should document this" but then one of the kids would chuck a toy, fight with the other, or have the nerve to get hungry, then i'd get distracted by them, go back to sewing and then remember about an hour later, "hmm, i should document this."

so, i'll have to save pics until the inaugural trip.

NO WAY am i going into business. sewing gear at home with an alomst 5-yo and his 1.5 yo brother is a labor of love. you'd get a double quilt from Nunatak much cheaper than what the aggravation is worth to me. ;)

Hehheh......totally understand that ;-)

Congratulations. Here are some sites for other quilt patterns.
http://home.comcast.net/~neatoman/quilt.htm

http://ray-way.com

OK, preliminary report after one night of use in freezing or below temperatures - my digital thermometer went on the fritz, so i don't know just how cold it was, but it was 45 degrees at around 7:00 pm and the condensation in our tarptent froze during the night.

the quilt did very well, but our system needs some tweaks. this was also our first time using the POE Max-Thermo full-length pads, and the pads themselves presented some problems. Unless the pad was totally covered by one of us, the bare end of the pad seemed to get very cold and transfer that cold up to our torsos. this may be because the MaxThermo is mostly full of air - the synthetic insulation in it didn't seem to do anything to keep the pad warm. our old Thermarest LEs (heavy but COMFY & warm) seem to still be superior.

i definitely need to make some kind of heavier insulated headwear, most likely down balaclavas. i had to pull my head in under the quilt, which was no problem since it's over 6 feet long and i'm 5'8". my 6' husband is also able to get his head inside easily. he has requested that i make a draft tongue as well, similar to the one offered by Nunatak. i never noticed any draft problems, but he says he did.

i've already cut out fabric for the first balaclava. i was given an old Frostline kit by a lovely lady over on TLB and i'm using their pattern for the first one, but i already think that for the second one i'm going to make some alterations to the design, so that I can cinch the opening down over my eyes - just leaving my nose & mouth exposed for breathing. i'm a cold sleeper and need to bundle up tight.

and i hope that today i will get the prototype fabric cut out for my son's sleeping bag. ugh, i need to get that cracking. we're going to the ADZPCTKO and it gets cooooold at night there!