So recently I bought two pounds of 800 FP down to use in a couple of quilt projects. Actually it wasn’t recently; it was last year. I had intended to get started on making an underquilt to match the top quilt I made https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...ad.php?t=65593. Needless to say, things got in the way and I kept putting off the project.

Until now!

For Christmas, my wife gave me several fantastic presents.
Present number one - a Sonicare toothbrush. When used with Arm & Hammer baking soda toothpaste, you get that fresh from the dentist clean feeling.

Present number two - the last two books from The Wheel of Time. I don’t get much time to read but I really enjoy it. The Wheel of Time is a GREAT series and I was really looking forward to finishing it up.

Present number three - time. I have been sitting on all this down (courtesy of Paul at Arrowhead Equipment) and fabric from DIY Gear Supply for about a year or so. She knew I had really been wanting to work on some hammock gear; so while I was on vacation, my wife let me take the time to work on the quilt.

The quilt was initially supposed to be a full length quilt but I was limited to the fabric remaining from my top quilt. I didn’t realize how much I would need when I placed my order, but I made the best of what I had. Here are the specifics of the quilt.

The inner shell is 60 inches long with 1/2 inch seam allowance and 46 inches wide plus 1/2 inch seam allowance. Starting 7 inches from the center out it tapers down to 35.5 inches at both the head and the foot end.The outer shell is 56 ½ inches plus ½ inch seam allowance. The outer shell also tapers down by 10 ½ inches but it starts tapering 8 inches out from the center. I based the dimensions for the quilt on a circle with a 29 inch diameter. I wanted the quilt to have about a 3 inch loft so the outer shell is based on a circle with a 32 inch diameter.

The baffle walls are constructed from nano-see-um and measure 3 inches by 8 inches. This gives a full baffle height of 2 ½ inches.The baffle walls are attached to the outer shell 14 inches on center giving me 8 inch walls in line 6 inches apart. The baffle walls are then attached to the inner shell at the same interval from head to toe, but the side to side interval is at 12 ¾ inches with the side to side walls darted down to 7 ¼ inches to help keep the side to side curve of the quilt. If you are looking at a crosscut of the quilt, the head to toe baffle walls look like the spokes on a bicycle.

I wasn’t able to get any video while I was making the quilt but I did get some video while I was stuffing the underquilt. The first method shown utilizes a shop vac. This method is fairly clean (comparatively) but is relatively slow. The second method involves diving in and grabbing as much down as possible and stuffing it into the quilt. This requires a large enough opening for a fistful of down.

I was also able to get some video of sewing the quilt shut. The hardest part about sewing the quilt shut was to put all the pins in place without letting the down escape.



Here are some images of the process (click on the images to see some higher res and larger images).