Cutting her out is not going to solve your problems, the colors will still be weird. Keep it as is, maybe border it with some browns an or gold's. Then just quilt it and it could be his lounge quilt for the man cave. You could put a flower or butterfly where the weird fingers are.

I wouldn’t cut her out because that sounds like a nightmare to manage, but I would definitely make something for her to “hold” in that raised hand!

It's art nouveau style, look up "The Golden Age of Illustration" for similar artist examples. Most of these are fairy tale illustrations, so could be a goddess, a princess or a fairy. Usually they are standing by a pond or a babbling brook, lol.

Yeah, ai has taken over the fabric world very hard!!! I’m trying to stick with tried and true panel brands and designers. But even I fear some designers will start to pump out slop instead of creating the art.

Yikes - yeah cutting off that arm fixes it a lot.

I think she's underwater - like a river nymph or something. So fabrics that evoke water could be fun.

I share the “don’t cut the arm off” theory. Your mockup shows that. Without something in that hand where her eyes are focusing and giving her a reason to hold her head back of midline, she’d be giving a very “wtf”/spaced out vibe. I’d personally find something like a bouquet to put into her hand that would maintain the focus/posture, but mask the awkward hand. The rest of it reads “stylized flying hair, Mucha style”. If you hate that part, maybe create a hanging branch with blossoms covering it. In fact, she could be holding/cupping a blossom to get a better look, which would complement the overall “read” of the theme. IMHO.

Could she be a mermaid holding a bouquet of beautiful sea-ish flowers with her potentially magic arm lol. I think you could get away with any of your ideas! If you can paperpeice you could probably make a bunch of things to tie her into any story line!

Maybe make her hold a flower and place flowers over... whatever got stuck in her hair??

I think they’ve gone for “art nouveau” inspiration with the swirls, but her figure does not match that aesthetic.

Is it worth bothering with this? I mean, there are so many great projects you could be doing, instead of spending time on fixing bad ai design.

What about using this as a background for a collage quilt?

Cover over any bits that are dumb and add more bits so that whatever theme you decide to go with is more clear.

A dark brown or a navy blue would probably work to frame it, and then you could work with colors that are closer to what is in the panel if you wanted.

I would take it to a fabric shop and lay things out on top of it until I found something that worked. If hubs likes it, don't fuss with the AI hand- just leave it as-is, and try to ignore that. Cutting her out is just going to make it more complex, and will probably make other smaller AI details stand out more. You could probably use some creative quilting lines to make her fingers seem more like standard issue human ones.

If you want to go a slightly darker or sinister route OR a tongue in cheek satirical style turn - could her hand be covered in growing coral reef or be diseased in some way - dying thanks to all the plastics we’ve chucked in? You could make it somewhat sculptural with 3d elements.

If you went the appliqué route with the growing / consuming coral reef you could have it cover the hand, some of the problem hair, maybe do some at the base of her legs as if she’s being frozen in place.

If you went a more sculptural route you could literally recreate garbage in fabric - cans and plastic water bottles, thrown away textiles made out of fabric appliqued on. She could be drowning in trash (and kinda says something or other about AI too). Not the most ‘beautiful’ piece but heck of a lot of fun

I like the idea of putting a butterfly on her hand. Maybe leave some of the hair on that side near her shoulder? I feel like a forest background would look amazing.

She could be a fairy, a mermaid or an old mansion ghost. What is the story you want to tell?

I agree. I wouldn’t cut her out. I love the butterfly idea. It would look like one had landed on her hand and she is looking at it. I would lean into the pinks and beige for a border to get it to size and call it good.

I don't doubt the AI bullshit, but isn't there a famous series of paintings where the models had six fingers on each hand? I think they were made during the Renaissance period. I'll go look it up and let you know. 

I remembered a thing...

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1119286/

https://cima.ng-london.org.uk/documentation/files/N-1171/02_Provenance/Proceedings_2007_BILLINGE.pdf

I think she’s a mermaid or sea nymph because of the way the plants fade away and because of the way both her hair and the leaves are “floating”.

I agree that the arm and hand in particular are problematic but if you’re stuck with her because your husband loves the piece, I’d just quilt and bind it rather than trying so hard to match tones and make it into two separate pieces. It is AI, but it’s not diabolical and it has a certain charm in its own way.

If you have your heart set on cutting her out, what if you cut in two straight lines cutting out the majority of the arm and the hair swirls that will be hard to cut around and then make it look like she’s passing by an underwater arch or something similar?

Why would you cut her out? Why can't you use this gorgeous image as your backing?

Can you just not use this at all?

Go a complete different direction and one block wonder it? The colors are nice.

She's underwater. Maybe have her hold a giant sea shell?

How about printing one of the flowers on fabric and appliquéing it on her wonky hand? There are methods to print on freezer paper, as well as ready-to print fabrics for purchase.

Exit: Look at Hoffman watercolor batiks, or watercolor fabric.

Edit: found her.

https://share.google/images/LrchOBpT1Md4ocGd4

I’d leave it whole, I think cutting it up will only call attention to the weirdness. With AI art like this any weirdness is only noticeable on inspection. Like others said, I’d appliqué something in her hand, and maybe some butterflies or leaves or something to cover parts of her hair on the left, to make it less obviously weird. I don’t think you’ll get an exact color match either but maybe you could do a sort of mosaic outer border of similar colors that together look cohesive. I think the best bet here is to create something that looks good from afar, rather than trying to force it to make sense

Instead of cutting off the arm can you applique fish going around her and the hand. Help create lots of movement.

Perhaps just give it up as a bad job and look for a similar genuine piece?

I’ve been mulling over your panel problem and I wanted to share a few ideas that might make fixing her poor hand a little easier. If you want to cover the hand completely, you can trace the area onto freezer paper or fusible web and build a new shape over it — something like a little bird, a tropical flower, or even a seashell if you’re leaning more mermaid than river nymph (I’m Team River Nymph myself). Once you’ve got the shape, you can scale it up however you like, either by enlarging it on your printer or using a projector or even the old grid‑method if that’s more your style.

The colors on your panel are really unusual and lovely, so you might have good luck looking for things in the dusty‑rose, muted‑teal, warm‑ivory, gentle‑coral family, since those tend to blend into that kind of palette without fighting it. If you want a little contrast for borders or accents, the warmer browns — terracotta, chestnut, dark taupe — would look great, and if you prefer something cooler, the deeper teals and plums usually play nicely with those tones without overwhelming them.

If you decide to print your own little motif to appliqué, you can use printable cotton sheets or transfer paper, and if you need it bigger than standard paper, you can tile it across multiple pages or take the file to a print shop that can scale it up for you. Lots of ways to make it work depending on what you’re comfortable with.

If you want to talk through ideas more, or if you’d like me to email you the little mock‑ups I made while thinking this through, I’m happy to do that — I don’t use socials, and I know the mods here are strict about what can be posted, so just let me know.

Hope I’ve helped. Amateur Muse hard at work. :D You’ll post again when you’re further along?

I think she's supposed to be otherworldly like a fairy. It's an interesting study in what AI is programmed as beautiful tho.

You could go deeper teals vs the aqua and deeper pinks but the "flower" blobs could be replaced with something more real looking. You could add some actual celtic knotwork as a frame instead of squiggles.

Or you could decide she needs more clothing and add medeival clothes 😆.

Or maybe she needs snakes in her hair.

It's all up to you. What are trying to make? A collage? Quilt? A body pillowcase? I musta missed that part.

I would just use the panel as FMQ practice as is tbh.

If you cut her out, you could freemotion over the lines to create more definition in the hand and the rest of the weirds like flowers, hair, etc. It wouldn't be perfect but it would create consistency and texture throughout the whole thing, making it visually easier to digest?

https://preview.redd.it/arn5vzi1f0ag1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6a49b8ec58aa27d3c5ecdda23034c9e3afb1081

I'd go the under water route. Not cut it out and find a cute underwater creature she could be holding in that right hand. The underwater would take care of the weird hair.

I wouldn't bother cutting her out. 100% your husband is not looking at the weird hand when he looks at this panel. What is the plan for it? Bed, wall, throw? If it is going to be a throw or on the wall I'd just bind it as as and focus on the quilting.

The way I see it her hand could be covered with an appliqué like so many other people have said, but if you choose to cut off her arm because of where her eyes are looking I’d have her on the top of something looking out, eg a cliff or waterfall. Or if you’re feeling fancy appliqué a bit of balcony over her waistline and have her standing on a balcony of a castle or something looking out, again cliffs, beaches, landscapes, there’s so many options for you to play with depending on the colour schemes you’re feeling and how talented you are/how difficult for yourself you want to make it 😅

I’d change the framing of the character by pulling in and cutting in the corners of the “frame” - that would get rid of a lot of the ai artifacts then choose sea glass colors and maybe black bias tape and make it the centerpiece of a stained glass style quilt.

You can tell by the sway of her hair that she is under water. I like it! I would not cut anything out of it! But I believe if it were me, I’d have her holding some tiny water creature as if studying it but also communicating with it. You pick one you like..maybe a seahorse? A clam? Or a clam offering her a pearl? Let your fantasy imagination find your answer! lol and let us see the end results please!

Oh BTW…if this reminds hubby of You? Then what would You be holding?

Hmm.... def applique over that creeeeeeeepy hand, but i think if you get a gentle greyed-pink batik or colorwash (Hoffman's got some fabulous ones that should fit your colorway) and do a flower to cover those creepy fingers and a few extra flowers for her hair/spread em around so its not just a single on the hand and it should look fab

Applique a bird in a deeper blue or a tropical flower in a darker pink/purple with her thumb holding it?

Please, don't cut her apart. Who says colors have to match? There's a whole palette to work with. Find colors that go, not match? I think those caramely browns (pink-brown) leaning into darker browns would really pop the blues. I wish I could go to the store with you. :)

If it's posing you so many problems, perhaps the best thing is to let it go - gift it on etc? I wonder if you're ever going to feel satisfied with the outcome. Perhaps you could spend your time doing something else and enjoy it more?

She's being viewed through a magic glass. The glass is inside, she is outside, somewhere. The image is slightly wavey or distorted, resulting in temporarily seeing doubled limbs. She may be a ghost, she may not. Maybe she's actually a fragment of some other time period colliding with ours. That's a mystery for the viewer to solve.

You can put something over the weird hand maybe? I wouldn't chop it up entirely if your husband likes it, unless he's into that. Trim is with some colour that comes close to matching a colour in the piece.

this is an art nouveau style piece, that has been shifted at least mostly just badly Photoshop. Probably runs through one of the very early prisma filters. But it's not super AI, if you wanted to quilt it, you could actually just sort of Quilt, the fingers in place to create the emphasis you feel you are missing

I like the idea of putting butterflies on the weird parts

Frame it (border or just binding) with a golden brown fabric, appliqué something over the freakish hand, then let it be a cuddle blanket for his couch.

Something like that might benefit from a minky backing and a flowing pantograph. Lean into the soft lines.

It’s salvageable as-is, but don’t spend a bunch of time and effort to fix the design.

I’d consider deep gold as a single border

Maybe she’s a mermaid or Ariel, fresh from the ocean. Or a ghost. I like that idea. That could be fun to embellish.

I like the funny fingers.

I would leave her alone and use jet black borders. This will always be something to remember and talk about!

A forest!!

You are over thinking it. Whenever a husband promotes your hobby, go with it and appreciate it. You don't want to discourage him!

A few thoughts. I assume there is no color blocks along the selvage? Robert Kaufman has a line of gradient fabrics designed by Jennifer Sampou. I've used these extensively on the backgrounds of Art Quilts and worked them into traditional blocks. These fabrics are designed to blend with divergent colors so they may work for you if you can find the correct color combination. Check out https://www.jennifersampou.com/ and see if any of her gradients would work.

Being that it's a vintage artwork I would do something with probably either like a foresty background or even a go sleep backgrounds but it's speaking to me I'm thinking I'm like some of those olds vintage absence ads but I would do is I would go to like Pinterest and just do a vintage artwork search and just you know look at some of the things that they have and then go from there but I would definitely keep it vintage I don't know about Forest I'm thinking of like maybe like a garden or like you know wrought iron around her fireflies flying around I don't know I would check it out good luck it's beautiful

Maybe a sports goddess. If he likes sports, add a football or baseball and she'll be blessing it?