Klimtesque 2 Journal Quilt

I've finished the second journal quilt for the Contemporary Quilt Group. They are all sized 12" wide x 8" high this year and my theme for all of them is the Austrian painter Klimt. Every month I'm selecting a small detail from one of his paintings and use that as a starting point for my journal quilt that month. At the end of the year I hope to put them all together into one large quilt.

The detail I've chosen to use this month comes The Embrace, which is part of the Stoclet Palace Frieze, dated 1909. Sadly this work of art is not accessible to the general public as the Stoclet Palace, located in Brussels, Belgium, is still in private hands. You can see the detail above and will notice it consists entirely of triangles, a form that returns again and again in Klimt's work.

I drew out my version on Stitch and Tear and foundation pieced the triangles using batik fabric. I'm trying to use the same fabrics with a few variations on each Klimt journal quilt so that they will form a coherent piece when joined together. And I'm using the envelope method to layer the quilt top, backing fabric and wadding so that there is no need for binding, for the same reason.

Klimt was an immensely ornamental painter and loved gold. Tastes that I share with him and for me the fun begins when I start to machine stitch (using gold thread), hand stitch and embellish the piece, using vintage buttons, size 11 seed beads and sparkly embellishments as shown.

If you want to see all the journal quilts I'm making this year check out the slide show in the side bar or click on the Journal Quilts 2013 tag below this post. Remember I'm making 2 different ones each month, one on the Klimt theme and one on a theme set by the Sketchbook Challenge site. The latter are sized 10" square so it's easy to differentiate between the two.