My first UQ - shaped baffles!

[jwright]

Final product

[Detail Man]

Can't wait to see pics of the quilt hanging on a hammock. Shaped baffles are something I've thought of, but never worked it out in my mind how it would function. It seems like you've got something here. You've definitely done a nice job on the quilt. The dart templates are a great idea.

[MAD777]

Can someone say, "DELUXE!"
Whew! I'm not showing anyone my quilts from now on

[jwright]

Can someone say, "DELUXE!"
Whew! I'm not showing anyone my quilts from now on

Say it isn't so.

Your thread and HappyHiker's thread are 2 of the clearest out there.
I'm still eyeing your zing it+shock cord combi suspension to cut some weight.

My suspension is still up in the air. It works great, no midnight slippage, but I need to cut some weight. I'm going to play with it for a while to see what works. Had originally planned to attach some 'D' rings at the corners to attach to, but this hasn't been needed.

The best thing about waiting so long to post this is that I seemed to have lost all of the receipts
jason

[DemostiX]

Looks terrific.

But the sign of fine tailoring, they say in the dressed world, is your button holes!! Sharp.

I have wondered whether it might be less of struggle to make mesh / noseeum baffles in two parts.

• Long narrower baffle halves to inner shell,
• then the long other halves to outer shell,
• then sew the two long halves of every baffle together.

Advantage? All of the fabric except the baffle overlap stays to the left of the needle when sewing.

Yes, a whole extra step, and a little extra baffle material, which can be trimmed to a modest minimum. Stitching the two halves together would be very fast, no pinning required.

Do OP and other experienced quilt makers have an opinion on that, or do you find you learn to handle the second, inner, shell pretty easily?

[jwright]

Well, with my sample size of 1, I didn't find it too difficult to attach the inner shell to the baffles. Following the curve of these baffles made it a little tricky, but was doable. Trying to control all of the material took a few cheap plastic clips, but was easily managed.
Now the outer shell corners, arrrrrrrgh, the corners. That was difficult, and I really struggled. This was before Doogie's great post - a must read for any quilt makers.

Attaching the inner shell (the lid):
-lay the inner shell out flat, with the inside (marked) face up. Roll/fold up the fabric from the right and secure it, leaving the first (left most) baffle placement line exposed. About a 10" width will allow you to easily guide this through the machine.
-Pick up the outer shell/baffle unit by the first baffle (note--watch the orientation here), allowing the sides to fold down/backward against themselves (^). Secure the excess material, there will be a lot of it.
-Lay this down on top of the inner shell’s first baffle layout line (allow for the baffle’s seam allowance, I used ¼”).
-Sew away and you are done with #1.
-Reposition and secure the fabric, working your way rightward across the inner shell. Sew the remaining baffles to the inner shell. Be careful not to allow any wrinkles or folds to work their way under the sewing foot.
-That’s it. Sew the perimeter of the quilt except for the stuffing end and pat yourself on the back.

Jason

[hppyfngy]

Wow!

That's some nice work. Really interesting design.

[DivaB]

Holy cow!!! Now that is workmanship at it's best You should be selling these.

[wwk10]

OP, as to attching the lid as you put it.

I followed MAD777 and happyhiker instructions.
Happy hiker is elegant. It took me a while to follow his idea of bending the baffle 90 degrees at the end but once I did I liked it. It's too hard to explain so you will have to read his original post. I didn't copy him bc it requires an extra 4" of length for the bottom part and I was already committed.

I wanted to avoid bunching up extra fabric as you described. So I made tiny darts between each baffle on the bottom. By tiny I mean .5 - 1" wide by 2 -3" long. This took up enuf slack that the top and bottom edge lined up with no bunching. I was able to sew a straight line across to sew the ends shut.

[chickenwing]

All I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!