Advice for recreating a heavy tied old fashion style quilt
 

Hi there,
I do commission quilts and I got a special request to make a "like my grand-mother's" quilt. It's for a young man who wants this for his bed. From his description, I understood he was looking for a tied quilt; I sent him a picture of one I found on the web and he was unbelievably happy that I got it right. He told me it was like a dream coming true finding someone able to make him such a quilt.
He understand it is an handmade item and he's willing to pay for it. But I would love to keep it affordable for him, since he is quite young and I'm very touched by his desire to get a very old fashion item that will remind him of his childhood.
He would like the quilt to be as heavy as possible.
My first idea was to
1) make a wholecloth quilt on my longarm with all my batting leftovers and large piece of ugly fabric; this would serve as "batting"
2) make a simple layer cake top with corduroy fabric, and tie it to the "batting" with a recycled bed sheet
Would it work? I've never made a tied quilt before.
I also have a bunch of wool blanket, but since the young man really wants to sleep under his quilt, he will have to wash it. So it may not be the best choice.
Any thoughts will be most welcome! Members of this board always find solution to every problem :-)
Thanks!
Annie

Do you have a photo of the old quilt? Does he remember the type, or color, or theme of the old quilt? I have visions of recreating a quilt made by my great aunt, but am never satisfied with the fabric I see. Sometime I think some things survive better just as memories.

A used, washed blanket would work as batting. The old army blankets were warm and heavy - but scratchy - even after being washed.

Some of those old quilts were actually worn out quilts with more layers added as needed.

That's true, bear. When I was growing up we had a favorite sit on the the floor in front of the TV quilt made of samples of velveteen upholstery fabrics in large rectangles. It was a tied quilt and much used. When it was getting lumpy from the "batt" starting to come apart and shift, my mom decided to take it apart and repair it. When she took the binding off, there was an old wool blanket inside.

My mother was raised in a rural area of the midwest in the twenties and said that they always sandwiched old quilts in new fabric to make new quilts. They also cut up the boys old wool trousers in strips to use for log cabin type quilts as the wool was heavy and warm (no central heat in those old farm houses!) and there was no money to buy new batting.

I have a really heavy, old tied quilt that my neighbor gave me. It's made with polyester double knits in 6" squares, poly batting and a sheet for the backing. It's kinda ugly but I love it in the winter.

Cari

My great-grandmother's eldest brother was in the Army during the late 1800's. He gave her a bunch of wool blankets that were stamped as the U.S. Calvary. She used most of them as batting. They were washed. Probably not a lot, because they didn't was items as often then as they do now, but they were laundered at least once a year. They were tied. Neither my great-grandmother or my grandmother were sentimental, my grandmother did not sew so when the quilts appeared to be worn-out I am sure she got rid of them. We used them when I was a little girl when my GGM was still alive but no idea what happened to them, just assuming they were either thrown out or given away when the two homes were combined into one.

I have a heavy quilt that I made. The top I pieced using muslin as a foundation, sort of crazy quilt style. Then I used polyester batting and flannel for backing. I didn't tie it but machine quilted it.
I think the flannel adds to the weight. It was just cheap flannel from the big box store.

I would check some of the thrift stores for corduroy and denim or even estate sales. Heavy flannel or cotton blankets would work well for batting. They've probably already been washed so no worry about shrinkage and washable. Did he say what size he wanted. One way of checking the weight is to gather all your material together, put it into a basket and weigh it. By the time you add the tying and binding, I'm sure it will be very heavy. Good luck and please share photos.

Yes, Tessagin, he wants a queen size :-) Here's the pic I sent him. I told him that I would do larger squares to keep the pricing low, but it was exactly what he was looking for. [ATTACH=CONFIG]571697[/ATTACH]