I made a weighted quilt for my hubby. It was the width of his side of the bed plus a bit more to hang down his sides. Problem is it will slide off him if it gets too far over and if it is too far towards the middle it's like a wall and I have minimal space on the bed. ): I used the beads in small pockets so there wasn't a whole lot of sliding bead issues. I Made the quilt out of his old shirts. It's about 20 pounds and plenty heavy for him. He weighs about 230 so I did not follow the exact guidelines for weight. He absolutely loves it! I can see how if you were doing a queen size quilt you would need 35 pounds. His is more twin size.
I don't think you would get the same feeling if you just used heavy fabric and not the beads. The beads allow the quilt to form around a body and not have air gaps where a heavy fabric will give the weight but just lay flat over you without being cozy and comforting. Good Luck!