blan·ket ( P ) Pronunciation Key (blngkt)
n. A large piece of woven material used as a covering for warmth, especially on a bed.
com·fort·er ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kmfr-tr)
n. A quilted bedcover.
du·vet ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-v, dy-)
n. A quilt, usually with a washable cover, that may be used in place of a bedspread and top sheet.
n : a soft quilt usually filled with the down of the eider [syn: eiderdown, continental quilt]
feather bed
n. 1. A mattress stuffed with feathers.
2. A bed having a feather mattress.
quilt ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kwlt)
n. A coverlet or blanket made of two layers of fabric with a layer of cotton, wool, feathers, or down in between, all stitched firmly together, usually in a decorative crisscross design.
2. A thick protective cover similar to or suggestive of a quilt.
sheet ( P ) Pronunciation Key (sht)
n. A broad rectangular piece of fabric serving as a basic article of bedding.
[HIJACK]You must not have tried very hard to determine if they’re still sold. I found a bunch via a simple Google search for “electric blankets,” despite the “nanny agencies.”[/HIJACK]
I use quilts. They don’t get matted or threadbare from washing - they’re made of cotton just like the sheets, and SHEETS don’t get matted or threadbare, so why would the quilt? And my sister has a duvet which she purchased at, I believe, Bed Bath & Beyond.
Do you haave hand made or commercial Quilt(s).?
Do they or dont they get matted. Your message is not clearly stated.
Hand made quilts are an art form. The generally consists of a cover or top face pieced together from many pieces of colorful cotton scraps into a geometric pattern. The backing or back face is a single sheet of cotton fabric. The two are layered with cotton (or polyester) batting to make a sandwich which is rolled up on one beam of a quilting frame, stretched across the working area and rolled up on the second beam. It is finely hand stitched in the quilters favorite pattern to bind the sandwich all over. The final result is not only a work of art but a durable quilt.
If you have a quilt the gets knoty from washing it is most like a commercialy made quilt with a widely space quilting pattern.
:smack: I’ll have to admit it has been a few years but none of the stores here carried them for a long time. I’ll call today.
An electric sheet with dual controls on top of the normal top sheet and a light blanket was cozy for either side of the bed! You didn’t feel weighted down either.
You should experience sleeping on a feather bed with a feather comforter in an unheated attic or loft in the dead of winter. That too is a cozy way to sleep.
My personal WAG:
Your warm body heats up the room temperature sheet to body temperature lickety split, because it is so thin. Put a blanket in its place, and your body has to heat up the entire heavy blanket to body temperature, or at least most of it. This takes more heat energy and feels colder.
You heat up the sheet and the blanket insulates the sheet, the comforter insulates the blanket, etc.
I specifically said they DO NOT GET MATTED. I didn’t realize “They don’t get matted or threadbare” was “not clear.” They are handmade quilts; my mother taught me how to do it when I was young, and the one I’m currently using was a joint project between the two of us.
Here’s how I do it.
Summer:
Floor
Dog
Bed
Fitted bed sheet
Sheet
Me
“Winter”:
Floor
Dog
Bed
Fittted bed sheet
Me
Sheet
What is this “cold” of which you speak?
In the before-time, when night temps got below 20C, it would be:
Floor
Bed
Fitted bed sheet
Me
Sheet
Duvet
Cats x 2
When I stay at someone’s place (or a hotel) and they use blankets, then the sheet goes between me and the blanket because sheets are easy to clean and blankets are uncomfortable against the skin.
I agree with the Death Ray. Who needs blankets?
In summer I have:
Fitted sheet - me - top sheet
In winter I have:
Fitted sheet - me - duvet
Sheets do get threadbare after enough washings (or enough time against a body), it just takes a long time. But sheets are cheap, so no one expects them to last forever. Storebought quilts will eventually get threadbare, too, and they cost a lot more than sheets. Also, as spingears pointed out, the cotton or polyester filling is likely to get matted.
Handmade quilts, as spingears also pointed out, are works of art. I wouldn’t dream of washing a handmade quilt unless I had to, nor of letting my oily body touch one. If I put one on my bed at all (instead of on the wall) it would go only on top of whatever else was on my bed, as protected from my body as it could be.
Of course, if you make the quilt yourself, you’re allowed to be a lot more prosaic about it. I’ve seen artists toss their paintings around like old newspapers. Once I own one, though, I take care of it. They can replace it; I can’t.
I don’t see quilts as works of art unless they are sewn intending to be works of art. They are at heart utilitarian objects used to make a warm blanket out of scraps of otherwise-useless cloth; while this can certainly nbe a form of art i don’t think all quilts count as such.
Hmmm, to bump or to post in the new thread…hmmm.
Anyway, IME when I had both a sheet and a blanket, blanket on top, with the sheet next to my skin produced the most warmth.
When you put the sheet on top and the blanket beneath it, there isnt much the sheet adds, but when the sheet is on bottom it creates a larger air pocket, thus trapping more of your warm air. Now that ppl mention it, perhaps this is due to the fact that the sheet clings closer to your body than a blanket does, resulting in a disconformity between the sheet and blanket which results in a larger air poclet, whereas the sheet placed on top of the blanket clings quite nicely to it, resulting in a smaller pocket.
I’ve never seen an electric blanket that goes over the top sheet. In Australia electric blankets go under the bottom sheet. I never even suspected the other kind existed.
Learn something new every day, thank goodness.
In the US, that style of electric bed warming device would be called an electric mattress pad.
For more than twenty years I’ve used the following arrangement:
(And since I don’t live in Australia, I’m listing these from top to bottom, unlike everyone else here, who apparently lives upside down):
top sheet
electric blanket
undersheet
me
fitted bedsheet
matress
floor
China
Yes, that’s a total of three sheets, including the bedsheet. I find that the top sheet holds in substantially more heat than just letting the electric blanket radiate all its warmth into the room.
My wife and I like a cold room to sleep in. We will keep a window cracked open even in the winter. I checked two nights ago just for the heck of it… 57 degrees F in our bedroom. -10f outside.
We just use a sheet, blanket and thin quilt. If it’s cold like that, we will sleep in a tee-shirt or something.
Our dog sleeps with us. Sometimes, if she seems to be curlling up for warmth, I will throw a tee-shirt on top of her so she does not get cold.