Quilting a Klimt Panel

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Written by lenneamw

Quilting this Klimt fabric panel was such a joy! As always, I started with outlining and SID with MonoPoly, outlining the woman’s form first, and then outlining all clamshells in the top portion and lower portion. The borders were then SID all around, including the borders at the lower section of the panel.

Dense outlining and McTavish type quilting brings the woman’s face, decolletage and hands to prominence. I decided to use a single color of solid light gold, high sheen (Magnifico), 40 wt poly for quilting the entire piece (with the exception of her hair). The focus here is the figure, not the quilting.

Curly hair for the woman! I accidentally quilted a tiny bit into her face in the left, but decided that I liked the look and left it.
Her arms, like her face and chest (all the natural flesh) are outlined and left unquilted). The dense stitching follows the shapes of her body and clothing.
Dense outlining in upper left hand corner, repeating the clamshell shape.
This section follows the darker area of the painting/panel, a backdrop to the woman.
Major elements of the “dress” and her jewelry (chocker and bracelets) were outlined with the gold thread.
The woman in gold from the back of the quilt!

The dense quilting of the center caused the piece to warp a bit, so I decided to do a dense feathered border, which would mimic a carved frame and also help balance out the different quilting densities.

The feather border from the back. I am using a 50 wt gold poly in the bobbin for all the quilting.
The bottom section.

Once the quilting was done, I needed to block the piece to remove the last bit of waviness from the different quilting densities. I didn’t want to immerse this in water as there are some silk clamshells. I pinned the piece to my design wall, spritzed lightly with water and used steam. My Oliso iron can be used vertically to steam! It was left to dry for 36 hrs.

After checking to see if it was indeed square, I trimmed the corners and then bound.

The deep blue was used for the binding (2.25″ binding) and the binding turned to the back as I wanted a very narrow binding. I stitched the binding down on my domestic machine, using MonoPoly on top and my walking foot and SID.
Finished size is 29” x 45”.

The Lady in Gold was such fun make and to quilt! I am sad she is finished, but she now hangs in my living room and I get to see her every day. The varying textures in the quilt delight me. I think she may be my alter ego!

Happy quilting!

Lennea

11 Comments

  2. Brilliant, simply brilliant, Lennea. You are so generous to share the details of your work, how you achieved such a stunning, over-all look to the panel, the woman. I have been procrastinating for months with a top I designed, block by block, no two blocks related to the other. When the top was done, I felt like I had created a monster to quilt. Seeing your original lines, and knowing what threads you used may help me get started. Your work is an inspiration for anyone looking to do something original, “outside the box.”

    Thank you so much for your generosity. Donna Viitanen

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    1. Thank you! My suggestion is to stop looking at the whole “monster”. Divide it down, as far as you need to. Maybe even go block by block. Using a solid, single color for each block, even they are quilted differently, might be a unifying element.

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  3. Linnea, as I’m studying your quilting more and I realize the one photo is the back. What thread did you use in the bobbin? I’ve used the gold Magnifico with great luck on my machine, but I must ask what you used in the bobbin with both the Monopoly and the Magnifico. If you don’t mind my asking.

    Donna Viitanen

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    1. I am using a 50 wt Aurifil. Unusual for me, but I wanted gold in the bobbin and it is the only matte gold thread that I have on hand. You caught me! Lol. Usually I use 50 wt So Fine. I used to use Bottom Line, but since the company was sold, I do not like the feel of this particular thread.

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      1. Thanks, Lennea. I totally agree with you on the Bottomline and switching to So Fine. I did just buy a lg. spool of Aurifil 50 wt. That idea will help me get going.

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