My mother made tied quilts all the time. She just used any kind of material. Wool, cotton anything available. Once she formed the top she would use a sheet for the back and put a wool blanket for the batting. She then tied it with crochet thread or some sort of heavy thread other than sewing thread randomly. Not sure how close she tied it but it held together for many years. They were very warm and lasted a very long time. I sure wish I had one of her quilts that she had done.

You may want to check his definition of "heavy" too. I decided the Bargello I was sleeping under last night is too heavy for right now. And it is just a regular Warm and Natural batting.....

Dina

Profannie, that quilt looks just like the ones my mother and grandmothers made. If I were doing it I would go to Goodwill and look for men's shirts for fabric. When DH had open heart surgery I bought some really nice shirts at Gw for $2.50 each on senior day, size 2x. Lots of fabric in them. I would not use wool blankets for batting as the quilt may get washed in hot water and that would be disastrous. Fleece blankets would work well for batting. If you use polyester batting remember that the ties need to be about 4" apart.

If one gets a wool blanket that has already been shrunk -

Remember this guy is requesting a quilt from a childhood memory. A "normal" quilt made from flannel, front and back, with a cotton batting will be heavy enough for what he is wanting. His grandmother probably did not make a quilt, quilt it, and then add another top, etc. I doubt a wholecloth, tied, is what he is thinking about either. Hope to see what you come up with.

Ellen

We never washed our quilts. When the top/outside started to look bad, the quilt was taken apart. The outsides were washed and repaired and maybe replaced. The wool inside held up better if it was encased in cheese cloth. If not, it may have needed to be re-carded. I don't know if there are woolen mills around anymore that do that. Ours closed about 20 years ago.

Wool is a natural fiber and does not hold bad smells. A few hours on the clothes line refreshed it. Overnight was even better, if you trusted the weather.

Perfect quilt for a guy. They don't want all those flowery things--lol.

I don't think you can go wrong with old army blankets. They have been washed more than once and boy, are they warm. With 3 brothers in the Navy, we had a good assortment of blankets which my frugal mother used to make quilts.
They were tied also and were heavy also. I remember that it was difficult to turn over under such a quilt but I also remember how warm they were. (in my 80's now, so that was a long time ago.

Just wanted to add, if the old tied quilt had what looked like little knobs of yarn holding it together, it was probably tied using wool yarn. That was the only option years ago. Also, using two sheets instead of batting makes a nice weighted feeling like the old quilts my grandma had. You can even do the quilt with the birthing method or blanket stitches with the yarn. If you use the wool yarn around the edges, be sure to do it real loosely so when it is washed, it will shrink to fit.

I made my son a quilt using 2 thrift store sheets for the batting, as I was replicating his worn out quilt my mother and grandmother had made together that he had been using since he was in his teens. The original quilt had heavy muslin feed sacks and a sheet for batting and was fairly heavy. He loved that feeling of weight so I used the sheets to match what he had before. It came out almost the same as the original in weight and feel.