Alex has made me kind of excited about silk, so I'm planning on also collecting pieces and someday making a pieced quilt. I guess I'll be zigzag'ing all of the edges as I get them! Don't want to loose too much of that beautiful fabric! I'll have to think about whether I'll take the easy way out and use fusible interfacing when doing the piecing or taking the time to zigzag each piece (ugh!). I'm guessing I'll end up taking the easy way out for that, at least on my first try! But I have plenty of time before thinking about that since you know what kind of a UFO list I have already!

Nancy

Nancy, I look forward to seeing what you do with your silk. I recently received several half-metre pieces of silk from a friend in Thailand and I am still merely admiring them, while they keep fraying all on their own! Maybe I better hurry up and zig-zag them all!

Renata wrote: alternatively you could back your silk with a piece of pre-shrunk cotton (muslin?) or linen that also works well (alter frontals which are silk damask were/are frequently interlined with linen over here)

Thanks Rosemary & Renata!

Good idea to wait on cutting when binding. I don't think I would have thought of that on my own! And for batting I'm planning wool on top of cotton, so I'll get that nice puff. It'll be a while, but I'll post pictures on my blog both in progress and finished. And I'll ask questions as I run into problems!

Nancy

Nancy, I called my mom--she cuts her piece extra-large and then does a zig-zag around it, just as you did and like Rosemary said.

On an aside, she also mentioned that if her silk is too lightweight for the job (which I doubt would be the case if you're using duppioni), she still does not fuse; rather, she adds another piece of silk behind it and works with a double layer of silk. In her case, though, she is usually hand-embroidering a block and doubles it to make it more manageable. Finally, her preferred batting for silk is wool.

Hope this helps.

Nancy, I would think that cutting your piece over size and then zig-zaging the edges should work fine. When making up consider leaving larger seam allowances, and not trimming down for binding until the binding is half on, or at least having a line of stitching holding the edges together before you trim.

Renata - I would be interested to hear what your mom does with the raw edges. I've got a dupioni silk wholecloth in my stack of UFOs and what I did with that was cut it large and zig-zag the edges. Haven't worked on it long enough to see if that's enough. That one's pretty far down on my list, but I just ordered some more silk for my angel wholecloth and it would be nice to have some ideas of how to handle it well.

Nancy

Thanks, BJ! My mom has already had it photographed in its entirety plus each vignette prior to giving it to me.

I believe my mom gets around the issue of raveling by cutting her pieces larger than required and later trims, but I will be happy to ask. She has been embroidering since the 1930s continuously and I am sure that many of the classical techniques of embroidery have carried her through to this day. Therefore, her techniques are quite refined and devoid of the more contemporary contraptions that, on the surface, make the job easier (fusing and glue), but avoid the issues of conservation over time. Like you, Rosemary, my mom's the real deal! I'm glad to see the RSN hold the same view about working with embroidery of any kind.

Renata wrote: I am very pleased to hear that she didn't use an fused interfacing - the adhesives break down over time and at the RSN I was infused with a serious avoidence to using glues or adhesives near any embroidery (still have trouble with the idea of glue sticks for 'tacking/basting')

Renata, I don't know how I missed this subject earlier, but your mom's quilt is fabulous. Have you thought of having it professionally photographed? It is surely a treasure.

Thank you, Lotti! and would you believe, my photos just don't do the quilt justice? It is even more fabulous when you get up close to it. I wish I could do half the job my mom does... even a quarter... What I did not mention is that she did this without any stabilizer or fused interfacing.

Wow, what a fabulous, fabulous quilt... You're mom is a true artist. And you really should think about getting it 'recorded' if only to ensure it lives on - no matter what might happen to it in person! Love, love, love these fabulous panels.

Thank you, Lois and Roseanne, for the info on the Quilters' Save Our Stories project--I was not aware of it. This quilt has never been displayed publicly--I've only shared with you here and a few people who have visited with me who have an appreciation for these kinds of things.

Lois, yes, have been meaning to mention the link you're thinking about. It's http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/qsos/
It's the Quilters' Save Our Stories project. Amy Milne is terrific to work with. I volunteered at Houston last year and did
some of the interviews. It was a wonderful experience.
Renata, if this is something of interest to you, send Amy an email and she will let you know about the process. You will probably be able to interview your mother using the Alliance questions.