Yvonne Fuchs from Quilting Jetgirl hosted a quilt along called Wayward transparency. Thank you, Yvonne, for this awesome pattern.
I picked up some silk fabric on my recent India trip and decided to use them for this quilt. The colors are not exactly light-medium-dark of the same color but they seem to work well together and give a transparency effect.
This is not my first time working with silk, so I knew this is not going to be easy. I used a lightweight interfacing (Heat’n Bond Non-Woven Lightweight Fusible Interfacing) to back the silk. With the interfacing, it has almost the same weight as quilting cotton. It was easy to cut and sew for the most part. However, with right sides together, the silk is more slippery and does not “stick” together as cotton does. I had to pin a lot during piecing as well as for matching seams. Also, I had to remember to turn down the heat on the iron – use the silk setting or slightly warmer. I scorched a couple of HSTs initially but fortunately, I had enough fabric to make up for them. I love how this turned out.
The silk has directional color – the warp and weft threads are slightly different shades. This is quite common in Indian silks, especially saris. This is particularly apparent in the dark background fabric. Sometimes it looks like dark coffee brown (indoors) and sometimes dark cherry-purple (outdoors). I did not take this into account in the piecing. I’m amazed how different it looks from different angles. I’m not quilting this yet. Waiting on getting better with my skills on my new mid-arm quilting machine.
Linking up One monthly goal finished, Wayward transparency, Let’s Bee Social and Finish it up Friday at Crazy mom quilts. 
Your quilt is fantastic. Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and congrats on your finish.
Thanks, Patty, for hosting the OMG. I’m loving it!
Wow! That’s GORGEOUS in the silk! I don’t think the warp/weft effect detracts from it.
Thanks, Lynette. The directional effect adds an interesting texture. I’m curious to see how it changes once I’m done quilting it.
Interesting about the war and weft threads being different colors in silks. I never knew that. Beautiful and shimmery.
I don’t think it’s true of all silks. It’s fairly common in Indian silks though. “Double color” silk saris are very popular.
Oh Vasudha, this is so beautiful. I love the choice of colors – the coffee, the honey and the caramel. I could just eat it up 🙂 I admire your determination to work with silks since it required the extra step of interfacing. I know I will be looking to purchase silks when I visit India next.
This will be such a gorgeous quilt – so rich so luxurious and almost impossible to part with. I hope you get to keep this one.
Thank you, Preeti. Silks are good for small projects and for mixing with cottons as in my applique quilt, //storiedquilts.com/2017/03/27/a-flowery-journey/.
This will be a wall hanging once I’m done quilting it. The colors and textures are so rich, I spend more time just looking and touching than actually quilting it.
I too have some silks but haven’t ventured into piecing and quilting them yet.
Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you make something beautiful with your silks. With interfacing, they are not too hard to handle.