SueSew

Are you using it with cottons, or all on its own?
What kind of project?

I saw a nice set of pre-cut silks bundled for a pillowcase or sim. at my LQS, but the thought of puncturing that gorgeous fabric with a needle was beyond my capability at present.

marymm

I have used silks in crazy quilting---mixing it with other types of fabric...With a bit of embellishment, you could make a lovely pillow o small wall hanging.

Jackie Spencer

I also use it in my crazy quilting.

Scissor Queen

I used silk in a wall hanging. It was more of a dupioni or raw silk than the slippery stuff.

liont

I've used kimono silk for a quilt, and used the kimono linings for the quilt back. I used a cotton sheet as batting as I want a flat, light quilt.

ILoveToQuilt

I have used silks in crazy quilts. I found that with the really "slippery" ones I've had to use a lightweight fusible (something like MistyFuse) to stabilize the silk.

Anita

Peckish

I found several on Pinterest:

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=silk%20quilts

Alex Anderson made this gorgeous silk quilt:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harrispen/7579725734/

I'd love to make a silk quilt someday. I saw a gorgeous antique quilt (I believe it lives in Bill Volckening's collection) that I think would be fun to interpret in silk. It was made of diamonds that were maybe 1.5" long from tip to tip. The seams were embroidered in a crazy-quilt style. Several diamonds were made up into larger diamonds that were bordered in black fabric. The result was a simple but stunning quilt.

quilttiger

Google Ann Petersen. She is a longtime quilter who does FMQ on her silk quilts on her DSM...long before the stitch regulator came into use! She has some classes on Craftsy. Our guild had her as a guest speaker a couple years ago, and her trunk show of her silk quilts was just wonderful and inspiring.

CarolynMT

I ran across 5yds of a peacock blue/green dupioni silk for $15 I have it in my stash, waiting for the right pattern. I have some beautiful embroidery for quilt blocks that I will embroider using silk thread on my embroidery machine.

I plan on picking up some of the taupe dupioni for the back and doing a two sided quilt all in silk.

here are a few things my mom who does heirloom sewing told me about dupioni
1. If you want to wash the finished product, wash the silk yardage before cutting/sewing. delicate cycle, dry on delicate too.
2. Stabilize the silk before cutting, using a very thin interfacing. Not really sure what misty fuse is, but if it is a light fusible stabilizer that would work too.

the stabilizer should keep the fabric from fraying. which is the biggest issue with silks.

I say go for it everyone should have something that is beautiful and stunning just to have it

SueSew

Thanks for all the ideas and references and encouragement! I have never used a stabilizer but it sounds like a lightweight iron-on interfacing which keeps the silk in shape as if it were cotton, and I will use it for sure.
As soon as I finish the quilt with the 80 flying geese I am going to start a little experiment in silk!