Today Roan and I took a breather from the day to do some reading. As I pulled a quilt up from the end of the bed onto us I realized that we don’t sleep under any quilts I make.
We use them on the couch and to cover up on a cold evening in the yard or for a quick snooze when the beds are made, but never for an all-night snooze fest.
I think for me it’s a weight thing. I like a down comforter and lately with the weather it can stay on all year.
How about you all?
We use quilts the most on the couch. (I need a cocoon while I watch tv, even in the summer!) We do have one that I made for our bed, but we usually put it on top of the down comforter in the winter so that we stay warm enough!!
That is a beautiful quilt! I love the colors and the close quilting — I’d never have the patience for so many lines. >_<
The one quilt that I've made and kept for myself is a couch quilt for movie nights. I do have a quilt that I use on my bed, but it was made by someone else. It's got a corduroy top and a flannel back, and it's heavy and snuggly, and I love it!
Thanks, but this one was quilted by the talented Angela Walters. I love the quilting too.
I both for different reasons. A quilt is on our bed only if we have our nice hefty cotton blanket in winter, but in summer (Seattle summers anyway) its perfect on its on.
We are being sooo lazy!
I’m the same. I’ve been quilting for 15 years and still haven’t made a quilt for our bed. We certainly have plenty for snuggling under though.
I like sleeping under my quilts. I don’t love down comforters, every time I’ve used one it’s been super hot. I’d rather layer thin quilts. There is a quilt on every bed in our house! I love it! (I also have a pile of them near the TV for couch snuggles).
If I could free-motion quilt like you I would have a pile too!
We live on the sun. Most of the year, a lightweight matelasse coverlet or even a prety blanket and sheet is sufficient. But I don’t sleep under your quilts either.
I’d have gorgeous pillowcases I guess. Where on the sun do you live?
We do a similar thing. I love the squishiness of down. But I am working on a heavier quilt for our bed.
I use a quilt on my bed all year round (unless it’s a stinking hot night).
In winter months, I use a doona (duvet) and a quilt on top.
It’s very comforting to sleep under one of your own creations. There’s something cathartic about it.
It has been 90 with heat index here in the Boston area, and so I’m not thinking of anyting other than a sheet on me!
we need to hit over 70 for a few days. sending fan-like thoughts your way.
I love the heavy blanket and my husband likes just something lite. I love your quilt that you have on your bed
I love a good napping quilt. We’ll add a quilt to our comforters in the winter, but mostly we use them on the couch or napping while fully clothed. There’s something so special about having a quilt specifically for napping.
Even when it’s steamy during the day here, it’s usually cool at night (yay!), so we have a quilt on the bed year-round, and add a light-weight down comforter during the winter (yes, we have winter in Hawaii, if you count a 10-degree temp change as a season). I still need to make us a quilt, though.The one we’ve got was a wedding present. Love it, but want a me-made one eventually.
It used to be down, but one summer I made a quilt for our bed and we never took it off. We just add or subtract blankets under it, or throw quilts over it, although I am shopping for a down blanket for this fall. That’s the season after “summer”, right?
The next one for our bed will have a wool batt. The planning has begun!
I was just thinking about this exact same thing tonight. I have a king size bed with a down comforter and duvet cover. I love crawling under the cozy down comforter no matter what time of year it is but lately the duvet cover is driving me crazy. I hate putting it on and off and it never seems to settle right on the bed. I was thinking about making a quilt for our bed but king size seems daunting and I still love my down comforter. So I’m still thinking about it 🙂
I slept under one of my quilts for the first time last night and it was awesome! It’s the first quilt I’ve kept for myself and it was the best sleep ever
One of my goals when I started quilting years ago was to have a quilt on every bed in the house. It seemed impossible at the time, but it is now the case. I know that even my grown kids, now in homes of their own, sleep under quilts I’ve made. In summer, we have one lightweight quilt on our bed; in winter, we layer two, rather than add a blanket. We love the comfort of sleeping under quilts.
I havent made one big enough yet though I am close. I have slept under a vintage grandmothers flower garden, and a quilt made by some ladies from a family reunion.
We sleep under our quilts. I have three that I use. During the winter it is all three at once. We also have cuddle quilts. Even the guest bed has a quilt but also just light blankets so the guest can adjust to their liking. I LOVE the weight of the quilts. I’ve been making smaller quilts recently but it’s about time I made bed size ones to replace our well loved current ones.
I too love your quilt! And the quilting. It is amazing how much heavier quilting makes the three layers that make up a quilt. Toni
Yes, we sleep with a quilt on the bed. In the winter we use a duvet [this is Michigan] with a quilt at our feet ready to pull up if needed [not usually]. In the summer we sleep with a sheet and a quilt at our feet to pull up if needed [just before morning].
And there are quilts for the sofas, and quilts for TV-watching-legs, and quilts for the kitchen wall, and quilts for the next time I need a gift, and quilts for just-because-I’m-inspired.
I’m from Michigan. Where are you from?
Every night! I want to wake up to the beautiful colours of my quilts. I switch them around but I have one at least, on top of the doona every night.
before i got married, i was a heavy comforter girl. my husband’s grandma is a quilter and all he’d ever slept under was his grannie’s quilts. i just had to adapt :). now i can’t sleep under anything but a sheet and a low-loft quilt.
i don’t sleep under any quilts that *I* have made because I’ve given them all away.
I do have two quilts that I like to sleep under. One has a minkee backing … the other is cotton. I use the cotton in the summer, and the minkee most of the rest of the year.
I take the minkee into theaters, and use it in the car. [Rule is that the driver has to be comfortable — and it its my husband driving, the A/C is set on ‘penguin’.]
I guess that I should have said that the minkee was the ‘first’ quilt done by the love of my life. 🙂
The cotton quilt was a purchase on Quilts for a Cause several years ago.
I’m so glad you wrote this post. Ever since I’ve become a ‘serious’ – if you will – quilter, I’ve been carrying around some weird guilt that we don’t use quilts on our beds. On the couch, on top of the bed to cover up with or over the back of a chair. I’ve been getting obsessed with making a king sized quilt for us and frankly just the thought is exhausting. I guess I needed to realize that we’re really just comforter people and that’s OK;) It’s good to know other ‘serious’ quilters are too.
I love the quilts I’ve made for us. As its Winter down here I’m currently sleeping under 4 quilts that I made. 3 with cotton batting and 1 with wool. I’m in the process of making some more for the big girls bed as she only has twin size and is now in a queen size bed. The wee boy sleeps under 4 quilts I made for his bed too, again 3 with cotton batting and 1 with wool batting. Store bought bedding is only for emergency coldness.
I made a huge patchwork quilt for our bed a while back, and unless it is over 95F, (which is a large patch of the year in Virginia) we use it over top of our feather duvet. Hubby likes the texture of a quilt, and I like the weight for sleeping. But we also have a couple for the TV and naps.
We keep a quilt on our bed year round (one that I spent two years hand quilting). I’m in the process of making a couple more with the hope of having one for every season. I really like weight on me when I sleep so what changes is whether we have an extra blanket or two (during the winter), or just a sheet and a quilt (in the summer). I do love taking naps wrapped up in a quilt and have four others laying around the house.
We JUST switched to our wedding quilt at night. It’s the only one that fits on a King Size bed and doesn’t result in us fighting over it. And I’m trying to finish off one for my girls’ bed with the same requirements. Seems silly for something that will get used for a month or two, but since when to quilters think about practicality?
Just about as practical as ordering more fabric without a plan.
Our (king) bed is quiltless–tho I have slept under every quilt I have ever made–all the quilts have been gifts. My hope is make a quilt for the top layer of our bed & then use blankets to layer to the needed warmth. I remember my grandmother saying (in Michigan) that you needed 3 quilts for every bed in the winter–that’s sounds about right. Katie, your work is stunning, your blog inspirational! Thank you
The sofa and 3 chairs in my den all have quilts on them that we snuggle up under year round when lounging. Our master bed has 2 quilts on it right now but when winter arrives we will add another. Both my daughters sleep under a quilt or two also. Actually, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized a quilt could be made a size that WASN’T for a bed. ha! I was raised sleeping under quilts.
My girls both have quilts I made on their beds but it was just this past winter that I put one on our bed. It wasn’t a quilt made specifically for us, but I just decided I needed a quilt on my bed.
Unfortunately, we can’t have a quilt on the bed during the summer – way too hot!
We all sleep under the quilts I made, which makes me smile every night I go and check on my kids. Each one of them is snuggled under their own quilt – perfect for our Chicago weather.
I keep a quilt at the end of the bed to go over the Pottery Barn Quilt that is king size (gasp! I bought it long before I ever even touched a sewing machine!) I love pulling the quilt up at night as we keep our air on rather chilly and my husband prefers fewer layers than I do. I like to be snuggled under covers when I sleep.
I just LOVE the quilt at the end of your bed. xo
As you know…my first quilt was for me/us – King size. I love to sleep under a quilt – have for years. I like the weight of it. In the winter I add a blanket under and my ‘baby’ (yes, I’ve had it for 42 years!) blanket on top of just me. We have a down comforter/duvet at the cabin – and I never sleep as good!
We have quilts on all beds of the family members. We sleep under our usual bed blankets, but add the quilts as an additional blanket on top, as soon as the tempreature cools down a little bit. I just love to know when I fall asleep there is my precious handmade personal quilt in my bed. From which material is the basting made? It looks not too heavy.
We used to use quilts on the bed when I made them with high-loft batting but now I use warm & natural. Like you there isn’t enough weight for us. So I use a down comforter on the bed and now make smaller quilts that lay just on the top of the bed more for decoration with quilted pillow shams. I’m actually glad I don’t have to make king size quilts…..so hard to FMQ on a standard machine.
My husband is very supportive of my quilting habit and likes to use them on the couch and such, but no other form of bedding than a down duvet will work on our bed. Not even a top sheet. And year round, too. Otherwise one of us is too cold or too hot, or stealing the blankets from the other. I might consider one day making a patchwork duvet cover, but the dog just gets the covers messy anyway!
I’m the same as Andi (which make’s sense as we’re in the same city) – I use a combination of my duvet and quilt and find it covers the span of the temperatures quite well. From quilt + duvet in the colder months, to just duvet for the middle weather, through to just quilt in the warmer times (and just a sheet when it’s really hot).
the quilt i’m finishing off at the moment is destined for my bed – a bit wider than the one I currently use, and hopefully warmer as it has wool batting rather than cotton.
In our house we all have the usual duvet, but then during the winter we have several quilts on top. I think you need more than one!! The record for a child sleeping under quilts, is a visitor to our home who slept under 17 quilts one night. don’t ask, I do make too many quilts. Any way, with 2-5 quilts on every bed, its a great excuse to keep making!! The summer, that’s a bit trickier because they have to go somewhere!!
It is soooo pretty! I’m just wondering if you quilted squares first and then sewed them together?
Thanks, nope sewed the whole quilt top together and then quilted.