There's nothing more luxurious than to be covered with silk. Not only can you pamper yourself with a Silk Quilt,but this jeweled beauty can be passed through the ages as a family heirloom.

Materials List:

Scraps of silk
The guts
Large piece of backing material
Embroidery floss, needles, thimble, scissors

MATERIALS

Scrapes of Silk: Scour the Goodwill Industries, Garage Sales, and Second Hand Stores for anything that's made of silk. Here are some things to think about when choosing your silk.

1. Pick solid colors, and only those that attract your eye.

2. Don't pay more than a few dollars for each piece.

3. Think about a particular theme, such as different tints of the same color, all dark, all light colored pieces, or just an assortment of your favorites.

4. You can buy silk garments that are torn, but not threadbare or discolored. This does not look attractive on the finished product.

5. Wash all pieces by hand or in the washer separately. Keep in mind which ones lose their color and which ones don't. It is possible to build a quilt with color fast silk. If you choose, you could wash your quilt in the washing machine.

The guts: This can be anything that has body to it. Old mattress pads are ideal. But you can also use baby blankets, other worn quilts, or a thick towel. (Polyester batting will not work for this project.)

The backing: The large piece of backing material that is sewn to the back of your silk creation. It should be cut 1"-3" larger than the guts, depending on how large you want the border.

1. This can be any material that you are comfortable with.

2. Pick a machine washable material if your silk is washable. Remember velvet makes for a luxurious quilt, but it has to be dry-cleaned.

PROCEDURE

1. Cut your silk into various shapes and sizes. This makes for a more interesting quilt. Larger pieces will give the finished product a much different look than if you choose all small pieces. Decide now on the kind you want.

2. Starting at any point, pin 5-7 pieces of silk on the guts at one time. Machine stitch, overlapping the pieces in a 'crazy' pattern. Attaching this amount at a time allows you more control in creating the pattern and also in the 'puckering' that occurs in the sewing process. Don't worry about this. Your embroidery will cover it up.

3. When you have your silk pieces covering the entire area of the guts, it is time to embroider over the rough edges where the silk overlaps the other piece. The color you choose can be the same tint as the adjoining piece of silk or you can use contrasts.

4. You can get a book on the many different embroidery stitches. Start with the blanket, satin, feather, cross, outline, dot, and back stitches, and build from there. Practice with new ideas, invent your own, combine different stitches to make one. Here are a few to get you started:

Flowers/Tulips/Daisies
Spurs
Bows
Hearts
Houses/Skyline (particularly affective on dark colors)
Anchors
Stars
Bunches of X's
Squares with a star at each corner
Sheaves
Numbers/Names of family members
Paw Prints
Bursts
Crowns
Stick People
Weaves
TV Antennas
Loops
Cactus

5. When your embroidering is finished, place the quilt on top of the backing, wrong sides together.

6. Fold over the raw edge of backing and press.

7. Corners: Fold the corners of your backing in toward the corner of the quilt, making sure that the inside of the fold has a perfect 45 degree angle as a result.

8. Fold the edges of the backing in until you've mitered the corners and no raw edges are showing. Pin.

9. Fold the rest of the backing until this folded edge covers the rough edge of the silk pieces. (Some of the embroidery will be covered.)

10. Machine stitch or slip by hand. Your quilt is now finished.

TIPS

1. Use your quilt as a decorating focal point, such as a wall hanging or to drape over the door of a cabinet for that country look.

2. Don't place the quilt in places where it'll come in contact with human oils too often, such as head or hand rests.

3. Store out of direct sunlight, placing velvet covered poles/sausages at the folds. Creases can cause thread breakage.

4. Dust off with a very soft, bristle brush.

5. Dry clean quilts made of silk that loose its color, and with velvet backing.

Now that you're an old pro, make the next quilt bigger.