Quilt out of silk

[Linda B]

I have been wanting to make a quilt using mostly dupioni silk. Has anyone done this? Do you have any suggestions? I'm not very experienced, but the block I'd like to use seems pretty simple. I think it could end up looking like a nice comforter, only larger and perhaps flatter. I'm also concerned about this fabric being too warm. Any advise would be appreciated before i go about purchasing the fabric.

[thejanet]

I haven't done this but I've seen silk and also a combo silk/velvet crazy quilt and they are totally lovely. Silk can be very warm, although, being a natural fabric, it will breathe with you and you shouldn't end up sleeping in a pool of sweat like you do under microfiber or polyester blends. Maybe, instead of cotton batting, you could just use a piece of 100% cotton flannel as your batting for a much lighter quilt.

I wanna see pictures when you do it!!!

[bcampbell3]

Hi Linda,
I made a landscape quilt entirely of silk last year for a wedding gift. I used a fusible woven interfacing to stabilize the background piece and a lightweight fusible (Misty Fuse works really well and doesn't stiffen the quilt) to attach the individual pieces to that. I stitched around all the raw edges with silk thread. It worked beautifully.

If piecing, I would recommend using a muslin foundation as a stabilizer for the silk. Silk is delicate, but surprisingly strong. Hope this helps.
Barbara