Mona Lisa Quilt Panel

Wall-Hanging Quilt

Size: 85 x 103 cm(33.5 x 40.5 inches)
This Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa Panel is printed by Robert Kaufman Fabrics.

In my 20s, I could spend a whole day shopping for clothes, but now in my 30s, crafting and fabric stores are my thing, I guess any quilters can relate. And I found this fabric panel on clearance sale while browsing for fabrics in one of the local crafting stores here in Japan. It came with other famous paintings like the "Water Lilies" by Claude Monet, and the "Sunflowers" by Vincent Van Gogh. But since I love the works of da Vinci, I chose this from the rest.

When quilting a portrait like this, leaving the face and skin unquilted is very important. Yes, this is kind of a general rule that I've learned from watching FMQ tutorials by Angela Walters. I remember her said that the quilting would certainly ruin the face so better leave it as is, and she's right.

Looking at the fine lines on the hair, it is clear that Mona Lisa has a brown curly hair under her veil, so I attempted to create that curly silhouette by stitching waves. And I love how it turned out. While the neckline of her dress has well-defined intricate loops that accessorized her dress beautifully. So I traced the lines along the neckline to highlight them. Then, I moved to the drapes of her dress until I reaches her hands.

While quilting each sections, I've noticed all the subtle lines that da Vinci made to create this masterpiece, and I was blown away of the intricate details he has made to make this painting comes to life. So for the background, I decided to quilt "stippling" to preserve the original lines and colors as much as possible. For the brown frame, I played around with different patterns even if they're not so visible due to busy print pattern and color.

For the outer border, I opted for geometrical shapes to give it a modern twist and feeling. And I'm super happy of how it turned out. It was also fun doing it for the first time, as the quilting process was just like meandering, you can stitch anywhere around without worrying about spacing as long as they're stitched in straight lines.

Well, I couldn't be more happier of this quilt, so to inspire me to get better with my craft, I hanged this in front of my sewing machine. Every time I see it, I think of the time it took for the artist to complete this masterpiece. Some say it's 4 years, others say 7 or 12 years, while Louvre Museum wrote 1503-1519, that's 16 years in the making. This gives me the realization that great artists are nurtured by time, and that great works are results of continuous learning, practice, and persistence.

If you have questions about this work, please don't hesitate to contact me. Happy quilting.