Unveiled! the Winter Coat (te-waunderquilts.blogspot.com)

**Bankheadboy** · 10-12-2009, 21:38

Ive seen this UQ over the weekend with angrysparrow and I got to say this is the puffiest down quilt that I've seen. If looked like a balloon and should be super warm!

**RAW** · 10-12-2009, 21:52

Thanks, Angrysparrow. Looks great.

**sir_n0thing** · 10-14-2009, 18:09

Wife's been bugging me for a wish list for my birthday coming up this month, and this Winter Coat is on the list!
Looks like a seriously nice piece.

sir_n0thing

**HappyCamper** · 10-18-2009, 09:01

I haven't been able to post on the Winter Coat because the temps have not gotten all that low but I did sleep out in it twice backyard testing where temps were 37 degrees for most of the night. Last night add in some cold rain and wind. So far so good. Toasty warm.

I have to say I wasn't a big believer in these shorter quilts but the weight was too hard to resist and many HF people have been posting good reports so I emailed Mike to see what he had. True story. . . My postman, Tom, was at my door one day when I got home early from work and I saw it was Mike's quilt. I said to Tom, "You bringing me an early Christmas present?" He replied, "I guess, but why am I delivering you a big box of empty?"

Like others have said you will be impressed with the quality of the Tewa. But when I put it on my hammock I was truly frustrated by the size. I thought, there is no way this little quilt will keep me warm, but it has so far. Nice and warm.

The first night I slept in it I had shoulder slip, but then I've had shoulder slip with other quilts. When I mentioned it to Mike, he decided to put loops on both sides of his Tewas for people like me who may have problems with cinching and don't wanna fool around with it. Great customer service!

I slept in it last night and by attaching the quilt loop to my Blackbird with some shock cord and a mitten hook, I had no shoulder slip whatsoever and had solid sleep until a biobreak demanded attention. I also like the way the suspension allows you to take the bottom shock cord over the BB footbox so the quilt doesn't slip from that side either (even though the quilt doesn't go down that far.)

Because I’m a cold sleeper, I bought this underquilt more for shoulder season camping. Mike mentioned he thinks it will take most people into the teens. For me, that means 20's. I was hoping for low 30's from this 18 oz quilt so 20's would be a bonus. I'll update my experiences as the temps drop.

**te-wa** · 10-31-2009, 13:56

for anyone interested, made a quick vid at a local park to go over the basic design components of the Winter Coat.

**Dyehard** · 10-31-2009, 14:52

Do you plan to make a full length winter quilt?

**RAW** · 10-31-2009, 15:11

I've only had a chance to hang with this quilt once so far. It was only about 45º, so I hung the quilt a little loose. It kept me very, very toasty. I ended up pushing my top quilt off of me in the middle of the night to keep comfortable!

The quilt appears to be very well made. All of the stitches are tidy and tight and straight. The suspension worked great. I kept the bungee over the top of the hammock's footbox. And I clipped the shoulder stay to the blackbird's tie-out. The te-wa winter coat stayed put.

I can't wait to put it to the test over the course of this winter.

**SmokeHouse** · 10-31-2009, 19:49

UQ looks awesome...

**bonsaihiker** · 11-02-2009, 21:46

I took the plunge. Can't wait to try it out! I'll report back after it arrives.

Thanks, Te-wa.

**HappyCamper** · 11-03-2009, 06:39

I had mine out for 2 nights on the Quehanna Trail in PA this past weekend. I used the Winter Coat, JRB topquilt and 1/4 inch Speer pad (under legs and feet.)

Since this is my first cold season experimenting with the WC, I cut my pad bigger than most people. It's 6 oz and I use it as my sitpad as well. It covers legs and feet in hammock and is a nice width. The second night temperatures were dipping down to freezing so I experimented with putting pad under legs and butt (just wanted that extra security for a good night trail sleep, call me sissy!). I figured if my feet got too cold, I'd sleep on my side with my legs curled up and my feet would be protected by pad, but my feet were fine all night long in quilt footbox with only one pair of thick wool socks. No cold spots under back or shoulders either.

No wind that night. We hiked 10 miles with some pretty good ups and downs that day in cold rainy conditions and I was pretty beat. I was very happy to be so comfortable and warm. Got cold spots on sides every once in a while when I moved around and quilt would need re-tucked. But other than that, really good. Even vented a few times during the night.

So my new low is 34. Looks like I get to keep going. Haven't reached its limit yet.