I would look for old flannel shirts at the thrift, I regularly see those colors at ours you can get a lot of squares out of a single mens shirts. Also look at the flannel pillow cases. My local store just had a bunch of really nice heavy duty flannel pillow cases which would allow you to get several colors and styles I buy them sometimes for rag quilts as they are soft and warm and so much better quality then most flannel you can buy. they run around 2-3 dollars at my area stores per king size pillow case.

Mens casual shirt make a heavy quilt. I was surprised at how heavy a twin size top I made.

My grandmother used to make quilts that looked like this....and she always tied them in red. Nice memory. :) My father used to sell custom made suits, and some of her quilts were made from fabric samples Dad would have left over when new fabrics came out. Those were really heavy quilts, as I think she also used army blankets as batting. The goal was to keep warm, like someone has already said.

Of course, I wouldn't use suit fabric nowadays. Flannel might be a nice choice though. If you make it as close as you can to that picture, he will be very pleased....and slightly larger squares would be just as pleasing to him, and quicker to make.

I hope you end up enjoying the project. It looks like fun.

Dina

Denim and/or corduroy will be your friend. It's heavy, durable, washable, and cheap if purchased at a thrift store. I made a quilt for my daughter out of heavy cotton denim (one side) and flannel (other side) squares, and it has the kind of weight your client is asking for.

While mine was a rag quilt, yours could be something else. What I learned is that if you put denim on one side of a quilt, something softer (like flannel or regular cotton fabric) on the other, with cotton batting in between, you get a nice heavy quilt.

I have a layer cake called Woolies Flannel by Bonnie Sullivan for Maywood that would be perfect and manly. All suit like flannels. Could incorporate into your stash as it looks like recycled clothing like Grandma would have used.

My grandma used wool 2" thick batts from Wisconsin and tied hers also.

I repaired a tied scrappy quilt for my then boyfriend (husband now) that was made by his grandmother. Poor woman really couldn't sew, but she made it out of love. It had not one but two wool blankets used as batting. Heaviest darn thing I've ever worked on. He still loves it...we use it when the electric goes out in the winter.

My very first quilt was made when I was in my teens (45 years ago - yikes). I cut triangles using leftover fabric from sewing projects ( my mom and I both sewed clothes). Cut them all using a cardboard template into triangles, then sewed them together. Anyway when it became quite worn, I covered it with new fabric and this old remade quilt is still on our bed and going strong. As far as I'm concerned, do what works for you.

I think I would use denim and flannel as the squares.

If a sheet is added to the back, it will be more washable and yet still heavy?

I think the best way to keep it affordable will be to find an already made quilt top. Maybe a vintage unfinished top. This way I would save on piecing time, and only charge for the batting, backing material and time for finishing. How about a vintage polyester top? Those are cheap, durable and colorful.