I doubt if washing infrequently will have too much of a detrimental effect, but I do know that silk degrades reasonably readily in light. I had a silk lace doyley that was on the windowsill in a spare bedroom in my old house (east facing) and not moved that much. It finally crumbled.

Some years ago now, I attended a series of hand applique classes over several months, each month we made a different block, it was a fairly in depth series of classes, the tutor used 100% cottton thread, not to say that cottton thread is the only thread to use but she did not even mention you had choices, I see in many of the art quilts and modern contemporary quilts, anything goes!!

Gal

Thanks for the reasoning. :-D

Thanks everyone. No longer concerned and confused :thumbup: