Klimtesque 12 Journal Quilt

It was a horrible night filled with storm force winds and even the dogs refused to go for a walk this morning. So it was a quick trip around the garden for us and back into the house to recover. The worst seems to be over and I'm uploading my Journal Quilt now just in case we have power issues later.

It's amazing to think I've come to the end of my Klimt inspired journal quilts. These were all made for a challenge by the Contemporary Quilt Group and the group set the size to 12 x 8". We were to select our own theme for the year and as you will know by now mine is the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

For this one the detail I selected to interpret in fabric is the above part of The Embrace which is to be found on the Stoclet Palace Frieze and was painted in 1909. In fact this frieze has proved to be very fertile in delicious details so it's specially sad that at the moment it isn't possible to visit Stoclet Palace, in Brussels. Hopefully some time in the future we will all be able to feast our eyes on the frieze again in person.

I used a commercially available Klimt spiral black and gold fabric for the background and layered ovals on top, starting with gold fabric and followed by a selection of batiks. I have used the same fabrics for all 11 previous Journal Quilts too as I plan to put them all together into one quilt. I will make a start by photographing all 12 together, so look out for that in one of the coming days.

I was looking how to interpret the centre of the oval,  and as luck would have it (and by another amazing example of synchronicity!)  I had bought these eye like embellishments on Etsy some time ago, just because I loved the look of them. It was glued on and then surrounded by seed beads to hold it in position.

The quilt was both hand and machine quilted and hand beaded as you can see above. This might have been the last one but I think it might be my own favourite. If someone told me I had to continue making Klimt inspired journal quilts I would have no problem finding more inspiration in his work. It has proved to be a very rich source and it has made me appreciate his work even more.