AZ Jane

That was my first thought, LOL, would it stay on a bed IF you could get it together? Also, silk comes in all quality(ies) as most fabric.

Mommalonglegs

Made a baby quilt using silk. cut and pieced it and hand quilted it. Used a lot of pins to hold the seams together and from stretching. Take your time and it is manageable.

kellen46

here is a little silk purse made with a few samples of dupioni silk and some bits of vintage trims I had saved...sewing with dupioni was not hard and quilted up beautifully. This was not handled delicately. I had to rip samples out off a page in a sample book. There was glue and they were machine washed and dried before being trimmed and sewn. Silk is a strong fiber.

earthwalker

For a bit of inspiration/cementing of ideas, visit Etsy, in the search box type in the words 'silk velvet quilt' and see what comes up....traditional and contemporary mixed material, some antique.

If you get really clever and creative you may end up making a profit from this. Check out Robyne Melia's Crazy quilt and the amount it sold for.....http://cathyscrazybydesign.blogspot....azy-quilt.html

Happy stitching.

Manalto

You're right, Etsy has some interesting stuff. It's fascinating to see what people have come up with. I'm particularly intrigued by the patterns and color combinations of the contemporary quilts. Thanks!

I'm putting a $70,000 price tag on my next quilt and then I'll wait to see if I get any nibbles.

Sherrylee3

Hi,
I've just joined and wanted to share my new silk quilt experience. I've been sewing forever, so I wasn't afraid to dive into quilting with silk. Dupioni silk is very hardy and loves a hot steam press. Some of the luster comes from the finishing process, so pressing it calms down the sheen. I am combining Thai silk dupioni with handwoven mudme cloth that I've collected over the years. The weights vary, so I've had some trouble matching points; the dupioni is the most stable of the bunch. The threads ravel, but I've got over 300 pieces so far, and no problems save for a very messy looking back! My major question at this point is what should I use for batting? I don't want whatever I choose to fight with the silk.
Thanks for reading!

grann of 6

I used silk batting in my silk quilt. Light weight and nice to work with.

Sherrylee3

Thanks, grann. Is the batting 100% silk? And where did you purchase it?

grann of 6

I don't remember how much silk is in it. It is rather expensive, I do remember that. The store where I got mine is no longer in business, but I think I have seen it in Connecting Threads, or any of the quilting sources. I also used silk velvet for the backing. That was very difficult to find without paying hundreds of $$$$ for it.

feline fanatic

I would hazard to guess that the authority on making bed size silk quilts would be Christine Wickert. She won Best of Show at Lancaster in 2013 for her phenomenal "Sampling the silk road". She has also won with "My Version of a Persian". Christine seems to work with only silk but all her work is hand applique and hand quilting.

Bethanne Nemesh's quilts, some are made of Dupioni silk and some with Radiance, are machine done but are wall hangings done more in a wholecloth style. While they have some piecing, the focus is definitely her amazing longarm pictorial quilting. Her award winning quilts are "The Shell Collector" (dupioni), "Poppy Promenade" (Radiance silk blend), "October Sky" (Dupioni) and her latest is "The Paisley Peacock" (not sure I think also Radiance) and can be viewed here:
http://www.whitearborquilting.com/showquilts.htm

One side note, she had to remake "The shell collector" it ran horribly when she blocked the quilt (the final step after completion) and everything she tried to fix the bleed ended up ruining the silk. So that is something to keep in mind when working with silk, the possibility of a dye running. Especially if you are working with dark rich colors. Additionally, keeping in mind the bargain price you got these for I would make sure I test them for bleeding.

I am not affiliated with either of these amazing ladies, just a huge fan of their work. Christine did a video interview with The Quilt Show and spoke extensively about working with silk. If you google her you may find it and pick up some pointers on working with silk.