When Victorian Crazy Quilting was at the peak of popularity, Cigarette companies (such as Zira Cigarettes) began putting small rectangles of silk printed with all kinds of pictures in their packs of cigarettes. Butterflies, Flags, Actresses, and many other pictures were printed on these small pieces of Silk for use in Crazy Quilts.
These premiums were added to entice the ladies to get their husbands to purchase Cigarettes from companies containing these printed silks. You can still buy Antique Cigarette Silks, though they can be expensive and hard to find.
I decided that it would be great to create modern-day "Silkies" for our customers that are in color, and well printed for very reasonable prices! I love using them! You can create a whole block around the colors and theme presented just by these lovely Silkies.
At this time, we are offering two different types of Silkies. Our regular Silkies, and with the benefit of a license from Warne & Company, we can also offer beautiful Silkies of Cicely Mary Barker's delightful Flower Fairies!
Read below to see lots more information about our Silkies!
Visit our Flower Fairies Galleries (pictures are alphabetical) to get a first hand look at each fairy:
Unlike antique cigarette silks, these "silkies" are printed on 283 count Premium Cotton Satin! It has a lovely weight, is slightly off-white, and the pictures are printed with photo-quality sharpness and detail. The colors and sharpness of the images is amazing!
This fabric is easy to work with, I leave enough of a margin to easily incorporate them into your CQ piecing, and in spite of the high thread count, I was surprised at how easy they are to needle - making them excellent for adding embroidery!
We have many collections of designs to choose from. They are listed above. You can buy them separately, or by the sheet, which will give you a great savings!
We keep adding collections for you to choose from all the time! I will be adding some instructions to our Free Patterns section soon, showing ways to use "rectangular" Silkies such as the Flower Fairies Silkies in your work. So watch for that soon.
Evening Star Designs, 6140 Wolverhampton Drive, Raleigh, NC 27603
