I am making a silk quilt for my Granddaughter and the fraying is really a pain! If the silk is off grain it frays really bad so I decided to use heavy starch and it worked pretty good to keep it from fraying much. I then zig zag or surge around each block and then sew it together. I just have to hand rinse the starch out with a light soap and air dry the fabric do not ring the fabric. I also found out that make sure your iron is on a low setting as the heat will distort the silk fabric.