3/4 UQ questions

**slowhike** · 03-15-2008, 17:46

hey, that looks great! keep us filled in on how she preforms.

**Dutch** · 03-15-2008, 19:08

Looks great. How much loft do you get? It looks like it it sewn through rather than have baffles. I'm planning on starting some quilting projects soon and a 1/2 or 3/4 is definately on the menu. Again really good work.

**Schneiderlein** · 03-15-2008, 19:55

Originally Posted by Dutch

Looks great. How much loft do you get? It looks like it it sewn through rather than have baffles. I'm planning on starting some quilting projects soon and a 1/2 or 3/4 is definately on the menu. Again really good work.

Thanks for the compliments. The quilt only looks sewn through when you look at the under side. I made the panels for the underside larger so that the down would not get compressed when pulling on the sides of the quilt. It is based on a drawing by Youngblood earlier in this thread, and is what he used for the Speer Snugfit.

The quilt is baffled to 1.9". Half an inch of that comes from the French seams that the panels are joined with. The rest is noseeum netting which is attached to the inside of the French seams. I wanted to have a quilt with 3" loft. I figured I would split that between the baffles and having wider panels at the bottom. The width of each down chamber varies along the length of the quilt. So, for a given width W, I knew I wanted to have an area of A=3"xW, and I already had 1.9"xW from the baffle. I then computed the additional width of the bottom panel that would be required to make up for the missing 1.1"xW assuming a parabolic shape of the panel. It turns out that the narrower the panel, the more extra width is required. I thought I could use this to my advantage and simply widened the bottom panels by the average widening required to get to the 3" loft. This would put more cross-sectional area in the wider parts of the panels and less at the ends.

I think my theories worked out pretty well, except that the quilt seems to be overstuffed by much more than I calculated. I had figured the 7.5oz down would be only 11.5% more than required. I think I made too many approximations or bad assumptions, and could have easily saved 1oz or more of down.

I guess if it doesn't get any colder, the first thing I will be testing is how well the quilt can be vented.

**Cannibal** · 03-15-2008, 19:56

That does look sweet! I've been going through some rough weather (cold/wet/windy) and have been thrilled with the torso UQ concept. Stayed warm in a cloud last night. Really, I was sleeping in a cloud.

Heaven is a lot colder than I thought it would be.

**Dutch** · 03-15-2008, 20:07

That is some incredible loft for 7.5 oz of down. Speer's down must be incredable. You understood youngblood much better than I did. I have to go back and look at that.

**slowhike** · 03-15-2008, 20:11

Originally Posted by Cannibal

That does look sweet! I've been going through some rough weather (cold/wet/windy) and have been thrilled with the torso UQ concept. Stayed warm in a cloud last night. Really, I was sleeping in a cloud.

Heaven is a lot colder than I thought it would be.

good to see you checking in on us<g>.
i was wondering how you guys were making out w/ some of the storm systems that have been moving through the south east.
guess i better catch up on reading your trail journals.

**Schneiderlein** · 03-17-2008, 14:35

Originally Posted by Dutch

That is some incredible loft for 7.5 oz of down. Speer's down must be incredable. You understood youngblood much better than I did. I have to go back and look at that.

I am really happy with the Speer down. The loft is not really all that incredible if you consider the size of the quilt. It would be about equivalent to a full-size quilt with 15oz of down.

**Schneiderlein** · 03-17-2008, 15:18

Quick update: I have used the quilt for the first time. I was wearing lightweight fleece pants, cotton T-shirt and lightweight fleece top. I hung the quilt from four corner pull tabs using shockcord over the ridgeline. I got in the hammock and was immediately hot. First, the pants came off, then the socks, fleece top and finally the T-shirt. I was still hot. I finally adjusted the quilt to create an air gap and was comfortable for the rest of the night. The temperature was about 50 F.

The coverage of the quilt is really great. It comes up over my shoulders by a good amount on each side and it is plenty long with the addition of the sit pad. The suspension, however, is something I need to work on. I currently have a piece of shockcord with a Prusik knot on the ridgeline. The ends of the shockcord are looped through the pull-tabs and secured with a tautline hitch. The tautline hitches let me adjust how tightly the quilt is held against the hammock, and the Prusik knots adjust how much longitudinal tension the quilt has.

The good news is that I can hang the quilt very loosely before getting air gaps at the ends. The quilt conforms very nicely to the hammock at the ends with minimal tension.

The bad news is that the sides of the quilt will fall away from the hammock unless I put a bit of longitudinal tension on the quilt. However, doing so leads to some down compression under my butt.

I did hang the quilt with no longitudinal tension and then grabbed both sides of the quilt in my left hand at about chest level while feeling for down compression with my right hand. I did not notice any compression in this configuration, even though the sides of the quilt were pulled very tightly since I essentially closed the quilt around me. So, one additional pull tab at chest level should be all that's needed to pull the sides of the quilt against the hammock while avoiding all compression. But I don't want to have another piece of cord over the ridgeline.

So, I think I will try the original plan of adding two more pull tabs on each side and running cord through the tabs on each side like warbonnetguy.

Unfortunately, no pictures yet. It was already dark when I set up, and my wife left too early in the morning to take pictures.

**warbonnetguy** · 03-17-2008, 15:31

cool, sounds like a pretty good fit, you know it's a good design when it makes you hot. what i recommended was to sew a drawcord sleeve/channel on the sides and run the sc through that, just running it through pull tabs might not have the same effect. if it's not too big of an opening, it might work , but a drawcord sleeve is not much if any heavier, and would probably perform better as it would pull the whole side snug, rather than just at the pull tab points.

lets see some pics of it in action.

**froldt** · 03-17-2008, 15:35

Originally Posted by Schneiderlein

I was wearing lightweight fleece pants, cotton T-shirt and lightweight fleece top. ... First, the pants came off, then the socks, fleece top and finally the T-shirt.

Unfortunately, no pictures yet.

I have to admit that I'm glad there are no pictures yet! I dunno that I want to see someone (besides my fiance) naked in their hammock!

However, I'm glad that it worked so well for you and especially that you've figured out a possible solution to your problem!