machine quilting a silk quilt

[Terry K.]

Any advice? silk top, silk batting, silk backing. Needle size? Tension? will be quilting on Bernina 440

[Teri L.]

The most important thing with silk is to make sure it's well basted so it doesn't slip around too much. I used spray baste (love this stuff!) with wool batting and have not had a gunk up problem at all. I recommend changing the needle a bit more frequently as the silk does seem to cause more wear on the needle than cottons or wool. I'm using Superior Glitter on top and a 30 weight cotton on the bottom and it's going great.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

[Teri L.]

Thanks so much......here goes!

[Teri L.]

One more thing, I tried some silk thread. Oooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I know why Diane Gaudinski quilts with this. Yummy. The color, texture and sheen match the quilt beautifully!

Teri

[Beth A.]

Terri - what weight silk thread do you use?

BethMI

[Teri L.]

On the spool it says 23 dtex which translates to about a 50 weight thread. I searched for Kinkame silk thread and found a link to this site http://www.thesewphisticatedstitcher.com/ki10sith.html which proved helpful.

Superiors' site has a great page for learning about the "tex" thread system that is being used to help us determine thread weight.

Teri

[Teri L.]

How many spools would it take to quilt a quilt? It seems a bit expensive.

Pat in Rockport, TX

[Teri L.]

I don't honestly know. I picked up two spools of this just for one piece and it's an accent on the piece (less than 25 x 25). Diane Gaudynski would be great for answering that question, from what I understand she quilts exclusively with silk thread. Expensive yes, worth it, depends on what the quilt will be used for.

Teri

[Teri L.]

I use 100 weight silk thread and a Microtex size 60/8 needle for machine quilting on my home sewing machine. I quilt with 100 weight silk thread almost exclusively now; it looks so beautiful I can't bear to use cotton. The 100 weight thread comes in 1000 yard spools which are a bit more economical than the 200 yard spools, especially if you are working on a big quilt. How much thread a quilt take depends ... on the size of the quilt and density of the quilting....

I'm not usually able to measure, but I recently quilted an 18" square class sample, densely, with silk thread in the needle; I estimate it took ~ 100-150 yards of 100 weight silk thread (half, or a little more, of a small spool).

I recently posted photos of 2 small quilts, they were both quilted with silk thread.

Diane
(also a student of Diane Gaudynski's)

[Teri L.]

Your quilts are gorgeous! What kind of machine do you use? Do you have a stitch regulator? Do you mark the quilting or do freehand?

Pat in Rockport, TX who is very impressed.

[Julia L.]

WOW!Look out Diane,here comes Diane!I love the concentric circles in "Not Quite Centered." Julie

[Patti P.]

Diane, I'm so glad to have a chance to tell you that when you posted your quilts in the gallery recently, it took my breath away! Your machine quilting is exquisite. And yes I'm listening closely to what you are going to answer to these other questions.

[Patti P.]

Hello,

I'll start from the last question first.

I mark part of my quilts, but not all. I mark the complex motifs (celtic knots for example) feather spines (usually), and grids used for background fills. After the spine is marked, I love doing feathers freehand, but it took me years to work up to this - I started out marking all of the feathers on my quilts.

I do not use a stitch regulator; and I quilt on a Juki TL98E - (its the older one). I do love my Juki!

Thanks for everyone's kind words.

Diane

[Margo C.]

Diane, your quilt is absolutely gorgeous, but when you realize that it is only 25" square it just boggles the mind! Thank you so much for sharing it with us!