Today is a Present

The Documented Life Project 2015 has started and this is my first contribution. I will be labelling all my projects this year with the label DLP15 to make it easy to find them. It works slightly differently from last year as all the themes and challenges are hosted on the new website. The artists themselves are working in an art journal but as I have mentioned here before I'm continuing to work in a planner and tipping all the pages I make in every week using washi tape.

The challenges also work slightly differently in that we will have monthly themes which for January will be: The Blank Page and how to face it. The Art Challenge for this week is Book Paper and the Journal Prompt: Be your own Goal Keeper. One thing however hasn't changed and that is that the project remains entirely free of charge.  That is wonderfully generous considering that this week alone we were treated to videos showing the 4 artists involved making their interpretation of this week's task. I loved watching it all but once I started I simply took off doing my own thing.

My pages are sized to fit into my planner and are 7 x 8.1/4". For this page I started by collaging on a collection of vintage book paper as per the challenge. I painted over these with gesso and then coloured this background with fluid acrylic paints and rubber stamping. I even did some gold embossing which is highly unusual for me. But I loved the effect. Hard to spot on the pictures though. Neither the camera nor the scanner are keen on glittery stuff.

I added words that I found in a magazine (The Simple Things) reading: Today is a present to be treasured. This is something that really spoke to me and also refers back to the quotation I mentioned a few days ago by Jean-Paul Sartre: There is only one day left, always starting over. It's given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk. It's up to us to honour this day and treasure it by making the most of it each and every time we receive such a gift. This message was brought home to me even more this morning reading about what happened to a good friend of us over the holidays.

I cut out the words and emphasized them with a variety of paints and marker pens as you can see above. I added the transparency (from a Klimt painting) as my Goalie! It will be me and her who have to make sure I stick to this goal all through the year. The edges of the collage were darkened with shimmer paint.

Klimtesque Quilt

You may remember I made 12 Journal Quilts last year, sized 12 x 8" and on the theme of the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, for the Contemporary Quilt Group. The plan always was to put all of them together into one large Klimt dedicated piece. I've finally finished doing it, resulting in the above piece which is 38" high by 39" wide (or 96.5 x 100.5cm). I wish I could say it was a pleasure but really it wasn't! First of all despite careful measuring while making the individual journal quilts we're talking about textiles here and hand stitching which can have an effect on the ultimate size and they are definitely not all exactly what they should have been. You don't notice that when seeing each one separately but you sure see it when putting them together.

Secondly who was that bright spark who though doing it on flimsy gold fabric would be a good idea? I wish I could say it wasn't me. But sadly I did this entirely to myself. Once I had seen them on this fabric no other would do. If you want a word of advice on dealing with this I can only say: Don't do it! It was a total pain with everything slip sliding all over the place.  Thank goodness for fusible wadding, although even this is not straightforward when using a gold fabric that is inclined to melt.

But it is done now and does look satisfyingly glittery and Klimtesque. I have the feeling Klimt himself wouldn't have been too displeased about this interpretation of his work.

If you want to find out more about how I made each journal quilt you can click on the Klimt label underneath this post or at the bottom in the side bar, or click here.

The Klimtesque Journal Quilts

Life has returned to normal and so has the weather. It's a grey and damp day but I'm only too happy to be able to return to my studio, with the lights on, the radio playing and my laptop in operational mode!

And as promised here are all the 12 Journal Quilts (all sized 12 x 8") I made this year on the theme of the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt for the Contemporary Quilt Group shown in the order they were made, left to right and top to bottom. This won't necessarily be the order in which I will sew them together as for that I'm going to find the best compositional arrangement and they will probably be on a background fabric with space separating them but all that is for the future.

For the moment I'm enjoying the sense of achievement that comes with having finished them!

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.  

Klimtesque 11 Journal Quilt

This is November's Klimt dedicated Journal Quilt. Only one more to go and that one is well under way! I'm making this small (12 x 8") Journal Quilts for the challenge set by the Contemporary Quilt Group of the Quilters' Guild. We had to choose one theme for the entire year and mine, as you probably know by now, is the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

I've chosen another detail of the Sketch for The Knight for the Stoclet Palace Frieze, 1909. This has been my source of inspiration for several of the Journal Quilts and the entire Stoclet Palace Frieze is among my most favourite of Klimt's work. It's such a shame that at the moment and for quite some time now this Palace (located in Brussels) is not available for public viewing and we can only hope that Klimt's work is still safe and secure within it's walls.

As you can see I've taken the liberty of turning the ovals on their side for my interpretation as it worked so much better that way. I've used the same batiks in all the journal quilts as I hope to put them together into one large Klimtesque quilt at the end of the year. Apologies for the shine but with a gold fabric that is almost unavoidable.The piece is partly pieced, then machine appliqued and hand and machine quilted.

Of course I had to add embellishment in the spirit of Klimt who was a master or ornamentation! You can see details of the beads and other adornments above.

Klimtesque 10 Journal Quilt

My Klimt Journal Quilts are growing in number. There are only 2 more to go till I have finished the challenge issued by the Contemporary Group of the Quilters' Guild to make a monthly journal quilt for 2013, sized 12 x 8" and on one theme of our own choice. As you have probably realised by now if you have been following this blog my theme is the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

I select a detail from one of his works each month to translate into fabric and I also put my own mark on it. I am trying to use more or less the same fabrics on all the journal quilts so that at the end of the year I can put all of them together into one large piece. The detail I have selected to interpret this month comes from Klimt's Sketch for The Knight, Stoclet Palace Frieze, Brussels, 1909. Sadly the Palace is not open to the public at the present time. You can see the detail above and originally this was a vertical detail which I turned as all our journal quilts this year had to have a horizontal orientation.

I pieced the background loosely following the colours as they were in the detail, then machine and hand quilted in matching colours and added size 11 seed beads around the edges of the different colour strips.

After that I left Klimt behind in order to put my own spin on things but staying in the spirit of Klimt. He was a master of embellishment and decoration,  and like me had a particular love for gold so I'm sure he wouldn't have minded me adding all those delicious sparkling beads and gold lame to the piece.

Klimtesque 9 Journal Quilt

The rhythm of the year is partly defined by the journal quilts I'm making monthly. Twelve of those will be for the Journal Quilt challenge on the Contemporary Quilt group. The requirements for these are first of all the size (12 x 8" horizontal orientation) and secondly the theme. We all had to choose one theme for the entire year and mine is the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

The detail I've chosen for inspiration this month comes from a detail of The Embrace, a part of the Stoclet Palace Friece 1909.

My version is even more lavishly decorated than Klimt's piece. As well as masses of hand stitching I added buttons and beads as you can see on the detail above. The applique is all done with raw edges and gold stitching.

At the end of this year I hope to put all the Journal Quilts together into one large Klimtesque quilt.

Klimtesque 8 Journal Quilt

Life has returned to normal here after my mother's visit and she has taken the sunshine back home with her. In a way I don't mind (as long as it returns shortly!) as there is lots to catch up with. We've also entered a new month and thus it is time to upload a new Journal Quilt for the Contemporary Quilt Group. My theme for all of these this year is the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, and the size is to be 12" x 8".

Triangles figure in a lot of Klimt's work but I took my inspiration for this particular piece from the above detail that can be found on Klimt's sketch for The Knight, for the Stoclet Palace Frieze in Brussels, 1909. It has a lot of goldwork on the drawing.

My translation uses the commercial black and gold spiral fabric that was based on the spirals in Klimt's work combined with pieced triangles from batik fabric. The piece was hand and machine quilted. As I share Klimt's taste for elaborate embellishment gold sequins, and beads were lavishly added. I hope to put all 12 Klimtesques together at the end of this year into one large work celebrating Klimt.

Klimtesque 7

The months seem to fly past and already I'm past the midway point of my Klimt Journal Quilts. I'm making one each month for the Contemporary Quilt Group. They are sized 12 x 8" and we had to set ourselves a theme for the entire year. Mine, as you will probably know by now, is the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

 For July I've chosen the above detail of his painting Judith II, painted in 1909, as my starting point.

I strip pieced in a higgledy piggledy way a combination of batik fabrics and that black and gold fabric, itself inspired by those very typical Klimt spirals. I cut strips from the strip pieced fabric and sewed them back together, interspersed by a larger piece of the spiral fabric. Then I machined quilted that middle bit and hand quilted the strip piecing. Embellishments were added as shown and of course seed beads were also used for further decoration. Eventually all these Journal Quilts will be put together into one large Klimtesque quilt at the end of the year so I'm keeping that in mind as I go along.

Klimtesque 6

It seems like much longer than a month since I last posted one of my Klimt Journal Quilts. I guess that must be because May was such a busy month, filled to the brim with all kinds of activities so it feels like it lasted forever. But June is here now and it's time for another Klimt themed journal quilt. I'm making these for the Contemporary Quilt group which is why they are all sized 12 x 8" and on one theme, in my case that's the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

The detail I'm taking my inspiration from this month is from his painting Hope II, done in 1907 which you can see above.

I've used a piece of batik fabric as the background and machine appliqued it with gold lame circles, and then  batik circles appliqued on top of those, followed by a sparkling embellishment. The final touch was to surround the circles with size 11 seed beads in various colours.

The journal quilt was mainly hand quilted as you can see on the above detail. Eventually I hope to put all 12 finished Klimtesque journal quilts together to form one large one dedicated to Klimt, but that time is still quite a bit away. First I have to continue making my monthly ones.

Klimtesque 5 Journal Quilt

May has begun and even the weather seems to have received the message. And of course a new month also means another journal quilt on my Klimt theme for the Contemporary Group of the Quilters's Guild. All the Journal Quilts for the Contemporary Quilt Group are 12" x 8" and on the same theme for the entire year.

This time I have chosen a small detail from Klimt's panel The Embrace, in the Stoclet Palace, Brussels, 1909. Sadly the Palace is not open to the public so the beautiful frieze by Klimt is not available to view. Hopefully one day it will be!

I have used and will continue to do so, the same batik fabrics in all the Klimt journal quilts as I aim to put them together into one large quilt at the end of the year so I'm paying attention not just to each individual piece but also to fitting them all together in due course.

Like Klimt I have given myself over to lavish decoration including a lot of gold (which he was very fond of too) as well as beads and other embellishments as seen in detail above.

Klimtesque 4

This is my latest contribution for the Journal Quilts I'm making this year for the Contemporary Quilt Group. My inspiration for all these journals is the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.and they are all sized 12 x 8".

The detail I choose to interpret in fabric for this month was his portrait of Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein, painted in 1905. You can see the detail at the bottom of this blogpost.

The quilt uses batik fabrics, a commercial cotton featuring Klimts spirals and gold lame. It was machine pieced, hand and machine quilted, hand appliqued and hand beaded.

As you can see above I stiched quite a large part of the JQ with gold thread and although this was a tedious task it paid off in a lovely effect!

I'm sorry the blog for this JQ is not as extensive as usual but Blogger seems to have quite a few logistical problems and I have been trying to upload this post since early this morning. Sometimes the frustrations of the internet are almost more than I want to cope with. Just hope they sort it out before long. All my other internet issues from yesterday have been resolved so I'm assuming it's Blogger rather than me that is at fault!

Portrait of Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein 1905 detail

I'm adding links  and revising the text just a bit as it appears Blogger has decided to cooperate with me again. The picture order isn't what I originally planned but I'm leaving it be for the moment. This day was frustrating enough already! Would you believe we received another 2 cm or so of snow overnight as well. Will it ever end?!

Combined with the feeling that I was hitting my head against a very hard brick wall this was not my best day ever. But I have another Blip meeting to look forward to tomorrow and hopefully that will be a much more enjoyable time.

Klimtesque 3

A new month means that it's time to make the 2 Journal Quilts I'm making each month this year. One of them is for the Contemporary Quilt Group and for that group the size has been set as 12" wide and 8" high and we  also had to select a theme to cover all your 2013 JQs. That theme for me is the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. I am selecting small details from his paintings and translating them into quilts, putting in my own artistic interpretation at the same time as well as enjoying adding the decorative elements that were so much a part of Klimts work too. 

The detail I choose this month can be seen above and it comes from his painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, 1907. It's a combination of squares within squares and circles within squares. And it has a lot of gold. I too set to using gold in the shape of gold lame. This is hugely temperamental to use (as is the gold leaf Klimt utilized) but pays off the effort in the shape of its sparkling presence. The other fabrics are batiks and I'm trying to use some identical fabrics in all my Klimt JQs so that at the end of the year when I hope to put all 12 together there is some cohesion to the whole. The quilt was pieced and raw edge appliqued. Some of the small gold squares are foiled and I used gold stitching for the initial machine quilting.

All the other embellishments were done by hand in the form of running stitch and beading as you can see above.

All Klimt JQs are put together by using the envelope style so that there is no need for edge finishing in the shape of binding or satin stitching which should help making them into one large quilt at the end of the year.

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.

Klimtesque 1

It's unlikely that I would have participated in the Contemporary Quilt Group's Journal Quilt challenge this year if they hadn't made it too tempting to resist and if I hadn't already had an idea in my head which suited seamlessly with it.  I have long been an admirer of the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, even before I ever made a quilt. His work is beautiful, decorative and jewel like and all three appeal to me. He is also a very quiltable artist. Hidden in almost all his work there are gorgeous details that just ask to be turned into textile art.

In fact when I saw a gigantic book about him (Gustav Klimt by Rachel Barnes) in Costco before Christmas I simply had to have it. This book can only be read while having it on a table as it's so large and heavy but that also means the illustrations are enormous. When I bought it I justified it to myself with the idea that I would one day make a quilt based on the imagery. And that moment came sooner than I had thought when I read that the requirement for the Contemporary Quilt Group's Journal Quilts was that we would have to set a theme for all our JQs this year. Oh yes! Well, you can guess the rest. Klimt will be mine. The other requirement is that all JQs must be 12" wide x 8" high with a horizontal (or landscape) orientation.

I have also decided that I will put all 12 of mine together at the end of the year to make one Klimt inspired large quilt so I'm keeping that in mind while making each individual one.

This first one came from a detail of Klimt's painting Portrait of Fritza Riedler (1906) and it's part of a frieze behind her head. You can see the detail above. I adapted it to suit my purposes but just have a good look at all the delectable patterns. You could easily make 12 Journal Quilts just based on this one painting!

I used a selection of batik fabrics (as I will for all of them) and the entire Journal Quilt is pieced. The squares with strip piecing and the diamonds are pieced on a foundation using the stitch and flip method. I then removed the foundation. All pieces were stitched together and the backing and wadding (batting) were added using the envelope method so that there is no binding. This will make it easier at the end to put all 12 JQs together into one. At least that's what I hope.

Then I started my favourite pastime: adding decoration in the form of appliqued golden circles, hand and machine stitching, some with gold thread. Klimt and I share the taste for gold and all things sparkly!And of course I could not help but add beads and other embellishments.

There are photographic problems to be overcome regarding all the shine, but I will do the best I can with that.

Remember if you want to see all the Journal Quilts this year you can find them by clicking on the Journal Quilts 2013 tag below this post or in the sidebar. They will consist of the 12 Klimt ones (click on Klimt to find just these) and the 12 square ones inspired by the themes on the Sketchbook Challenge site this year.

51. Stoclet Journal Quilt

I'm nearing the end of the 52 Journals project and just had to make at least one journal quilt inspired by one of my most favourite artists: Gustav Klimt. This Austrian artist is a master of decoration and also used a lot of gold in his work so a man after my own heart.

The Knight, one of the 3 panels that together form the Stoclet Frieze, is a piece I've always loved which might well have something to do with the fact that when you look at a picture of it (see above) it could just as easily be a quilt as a painting. It's hanging in the Dining Room of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels. This house is still in private hands and is not open for public visits so at the moment there is no opportunity to see it in person, although the entire house is now a Unesco World Heritage site. This panel in itself could inspire many pieces and in fact Klimt's work could have provided me with the inspiration for all my 52 Journals! Now there is a thought! If you look for instance at the square filled with triangles at the bottom you can see that was the start for my Fluttering wallhanging. 

For this Journal Quilt I choose the area slight higher and drew it as a pattern using my Electric Quilt computer program. At first I wanted to use it as a strictly geometric pattern but in the end decided that random would be more to my taste and using my collection of batik remnants set to work piecing away and you can see the result at the top. I then machine quilted over the entire surface of the piece with a variegated thread. That worked quite well but the journal quilt  needed something else to finish it.

And I found that something else in the shape of inchies. This was a rage some years ago, with the idea being to make art on a 1" square.

I looked around again for something to make the inchies out of and found what was left of the background of a fabric postcard made many years ago, called Forest Lovers and which you can see above (the image of the lovers is from Alpha Stamps). I had enough left to produce 7 inchies which I spread over the surface of the journal quilt as you can see above and then followed in Klimt's footsteps by beading around them using real gold seed beads. Of course the edges along the binding were also beaded.

So this is it, no. 51, and only one left to go! Remember you can see all the JQs thus far on the slideshow in the sidebar here or by clicking on the 52 Journals label below this post.