Fibermania

Using Silks in Quilts

This is a work by Joann Kiehn, a pal from way back, who is doing a series of quilts with a dog theme. She uses hand dyed silk charmeuse, which she fuses with Wonder-under to construct her quilts. Obviously she is not afraid of color

Silk has a glow which makes it very handy for those things that should be glowy like this moon.

This detail shot shows the silk in the background and cotton leaves and stems in the foreground. Notice that the quilting is next to but not on top of the leaves and stems. This sets up the shapes without crushing the edges. Also notice that there is no fraying. The reason? The fused cottons or silks were cut without the (Wonder-Under) backing paper attached. Very important. See the sidebar under Helpful Stuff for links to more information about fusing.

One can also easily hand stitch through fused silk. The trick is to fuse the silk top directly to the batting* with no foundation fabric at all. Stitching through only two layers makes it like butter! After the hand work is done, the backing fabric is added. I use the Escape Hatch finish, also under Helpful Stuff.

*Do not use textured batting like Warm and Natural or White and Natural. It shows through the silk and warps the final product.













Some of you may have tried silk paints like Setacolor or Jacquard silk paint. There is a difference in the look of paint vs. dye. This quilt uses both. The painted silks are matte, while the dyed silks retain their shine.

I used silk charmeuse in combination with cottons to make this piece, A Triumph of Tulips. The silk must be heavy enough to be opaque, so I dye and fuse with 16mm charmeuse.

Silk shows the texture of the quilting better than anything.