Ultralight Quilt #2 – Alpine Version

It’s been really tough to get away to go hiking over the past few months, and even sewing has taken a back seat to work recently. So finally I’d had enough and decided to bust out the threads and bobbins and sew up another quilt, this one warmer than our original ‘Woodland’ quilt. Both are from kits by Ray Jardine.

The first quilt was warm, but only to a point (40 degrees F or about 4 degrees C). When camping overnight, high in the mountains we need to be a bit better protected from the elements. This new one has thicker insulation and seems to be a fair bit warmer. Man oh man was it a bitch to sew.

During the course of sewing this I actually had a tantrum and threw the whole thing on the ground and stomped right out of the house, yelling profanities on my way out. I remember the first quilt being bad, but this one was horrendous. It seemed like the insulation just kept getting stuck and tangled and I could only sew a couple of inches before having to de-thread and re-thread everything.

It’s not perfect, that’s for sure! But I am actually quite proud of it – given the state I was in while putting it together I’m just so thrilled that it worked at all. it is absolutely functional, with the Split Zip, Draft Stopper and Foot Pocket features that make it such a great design. Jess did a smashing job with the quilting yarn bits so it’s nice and stabilized. We all had a little snuggle in it and there is plenty of room for the three of us!

The weather here in SoCal is probably getting a bit cold to try it out in the mountains, but hopefully we will be able to use it in Oz over the holidays.