I was brought up in an all duvet household. I do not come from a family of quilters, and the only vaguely blanket related things I might have been in danger of inheriting were the scratchy woolly ones my granny used to use in the ‘dormitory’ aka the freezing back bedroom.
So anyway, I am now building up a modest collection of quilts, and I am debating whether or not to do my best Princess and the Pea impression with them instead of my duvet:
What do you guys do though? Do you use your quilts for decoration, and then use a duvet for the actual sleeping part? Do you sleep under your quilts? Do you do both?
I’m really only talking about popping the duvet in the spare room though, so I could always get it back, but I’m rather liking the idea of sleeping under a pile of quilts…
I'm using a quilt on top of my summer-weight duvet at the moment, then if I get too warm I just throw off the quilt. In the summer I slept under a sheet and a quilt. If it gets really cold I shall use my winter duvet with a quilt on top of that. I like to have the layers so I can throw the top one off easily, better than adding a layer if I get cold.
We all sleep under a duvet with one or two or more quilts on top. In fact we keep the duvet for most of the summer with one quilt on top, and in the warmest days we just use the quilt. It is cold in Canada, as you know, much like it is at your house.
In summer we use just a quilt, and in winter a duvet plus a quilt on top.
What Charlotte said!
Same here – we have a 4 tog duvet in the "summer" and add a quilt for winter, we love the extra weight as well as the warmth. Amazingly we have recently kicked said quilt into touch as we experience the current Indian summer.
Other quilts are thrown over settees and chairs.
I grew up the same!
But here we use a duvet with a quilt (or 2) on top in winter and just a quilt in Summer.
I'm almost to the point of having a full size bed quilt on each bed now. Almost because at the moment Abbie just has her cot size on top of her duvet or folded at the foot of her bed. Not for long though 😉
It's only really been in the last year that I've had a quilt anywhere near big enough to put on the bed and do any good. That said in the summer I have taken to sleeping under a sheet with a quilt on top. Even if it only covers part of me. In the winter I've had a duvet with a quilt on top to again add a bit of extra warmth in places. In future I hope to make quilts large enough to go on the bed – unless they're to be gifted. Of course then I have the added issue of basting and quilting the beast. So I may well have to start getting my quilts long armed or similar.
My choice would be light weight duvet plus quilt but I have to share with Man, and he doesnt like the weight, so the quilts live on the back of sofas for extra warmth watching TV or snoozing
We're a duvet house, but even my husband is cheering me on to finish the spinning stars quilt to put on top of the duvet this winter! And my mother is looking for an eiderdown! (A nice flowery one!!) She has a quiltaholic daughter & doesn't want a quilt!!! I say pile them up and keep warm!!!
My kids have quilts on top of duvets but we call them downies (no idea why, that's what my mum calls them!). I haven't made a quilt for us yet….but when we do I imagine it will be used in the winter on top of downie – and then maybe I might make a summer one to go over sheet. But that is really all rather hypothetical at the moment! juliex
Duvet plus quilt or quilts, any more than 3 gets a bit heavy! Sheet and a quilt in the heat of summer! Lol when we have them 🙂
I have a summer-weight downie like Julie, and a quilt on top for decoration. When it get colder the quilt stays on as well, and when it's freezing I change to a 10 tog downie and my we squable about whether the quilt stays on.
The kids have a downie plus 2 quilts each and they choose what they want to stay on each night 🙂
I do what everyone else does and have sheet + quilt in summer and duvet + quilt the rest. A 4 tog for spring/autumn and a 10 for winter. Although it got to March this year and I realised we'd been using the summer duvet + quilt all winter! Cotton quilts are surprisingly cozy. I might chuck the winter duvet – takes up too much space and I'm running out of quilt storage!
I have a doona and then a quilt or two on top. I have different quilts for different seasons because of different batting/wadding I've used. I lay a lot of my other quilts on the spare bed, that way they don't get creases if they were folded, that bed is stating to look like the princess and the pea.
I use a duvet on the bed and in winter I'll have one or two quilts on top. In summer I still use a duvet.
Most of my quilts are gifted to others but the ones I do keep lurk round various areas of the house as extra blankets for the colder weather. I do like the idea of using a ton of them for the bed but they might rather heavy .
I have a duvet and a quilt on top. The quilt only covers my half of the bed though since I'm the only one appreciating it's warmth. The quilt is pieced and hand quilted by all in our quilting group and has lovely wool wadding, so it is warm also in a emotional sense (made by my friends)… I do regret having to take it off on the (very) occasional hot night!
They are meant to be used. I use one on my bed and the ones I don't need on beds I hang on old wooden ladders for decoration. They are too good to be folded away, and not seen.
Hugs
Kay
You are going to hate me. In winter I use a duvet and if it's really cold at night (under 10 deg) I add a quilt. In summer it's too hot, so I take the duvet out of the cover and just have the duvet cover on the bed, so that it looks nice but it gets kicked off at night as it's too hot for anything but just a sheet.
Living in Dallas, TX, it's too hot for much in the summer. In the winter, we use a comforter and a quilt. There's always a lap quilt by the couches and recliners because watching tv is always better when you can snuggle.
I love conumdrums: the word itself is one
And I would love to seen you on top of that pile of quilts, yes with pea!
As for a real answer to the quandary: duvets all round, summer and winter ones. With extreme cold, I use both.
My husband uses a quilt on top: always
I just get instant hot flashes at night (without having asked for them).
Apart from all that we're fine: all other quilts were gifts
Duvet house here- the quilts are for sofa naps and wall decoration! But I'm amassing quite a pile now too, they're a bit small for the bed though.
quilts for this household. Duvets are just too hot for California. Although I do like them when we travel. It feels so "European" to me to sleep under a duvet.
Just duvets here, quilts are on the beds but get taken off at night, smaller quilts are draped over various armchairs and settees for snuggling under when watching crap TV!
We used a quilt this summer and it was just perfect during the hot weather, as the temperature has dropped we have gone back to the duvet, and once it gets cold enough, the quilt will be added for warmth. :o)
I would totally princess and the pea yourself… just don't pee your bed…
1 Quilt in the Summer 2 Quilts Spring & Autumn 2 quilts plus a 4.5 tog quilt in Winter…. & no heat on in the bedroom… I'm working on finishing a 3rd King size for the bed in winter but it may get long armed…. I hate wresting duvet covers… So always use a sheet as well to cut down on changing them too often…
I was really surprised by all these comments. I assumed that if you had a quilt you just had the quilt!! That's because we call duvets quilts in our house…
I have a duvet ( we call it doona) on the bed and then quilts I make on top of that. In summer we don't really need the duvet, so I just have the quilt on the bed.
Pile of quilts!
Goodness, I'm catching up on ancient blog posts… what did you end up doing?
Everytime that I have to put a new cover on the duvet, I curse that I don't have my quilt finished yet. Man I hate that task