One of the topics for my photography is dragon and damselflies.  I have hundreds of pictures of over 15 different types just on my small pond.  I have always wanted to incorporate them into a quilt.  When I received a flyer from Aullwood Nature Center announcing a quilt competition with insects as their theme, I knew I had to take the initiative to do my quilt.  I decided it needed to be a pond scene with cat tails to showcase my dragonflies, since that’s where most of my pictures were taken.  I knew I’d never be able to draw  a picture large enough to make my dragonflies visible and the appropriate size for the wall hanging, so I drew my picture on a sheet of 8 ½ X 11” tracing paper.  I then projected it on the wall and placed 5 X 7 pictures of my dragonflies on the projected image, until I felt the background size was appropriate.  I then, drew the larger image, moving some of the cat tails to different positions than I had them on the original, so that I could get  a fish, turtle, and frog in the water.  These were to represent predators, dangers, hence the title, "Damsel and Dragonflies in Distress".

Rather than doing the design first, as we had in Ruth McDowell's workshop, I let the fabric decide on the “lines” in the design. I tried to keep some of my seams under my appliquéd cattails. I worked on the background at a BTQG quilt retreat at the Ozarks.  I had taped my pattern onto the huge window, and because the drapes were drawn, ended up leaving it at the condo.  I had to call and have it shipped back to me. After all, it was the first “art” quilt I had made outside of a workshop.

Once the background was pieced, I began making the items to appliqué down. I chose 13 dragonflies I had photographed that I wanted to include.

I traced the wings onto Sulky dissolvable and tulle, then placed it in a hoop. You outline the wing twice, and then thread paint in the parts needed for that dragonfly.  Once done, you wash away the Sulky, leaving the transparent tulle and the threads.  

I had one dragonfly that I've ONLY seen once.  I looked it up and found it was called a Metallic green blue and rarely seen in this area.  I only got the one shot, because as I tried to get closer, it flew away. I wanted to capture him and didn't have any fabric that color so I cut off the sleeve of  my robe. (Quilters will use anything at hand. LOL) I wanted to have his wings so that they were 3 dimensional, so I sewed wire around some batting and covered it with the fabric, so that the wings could be positioned the way I wanted.

I then beaded and stitched with metallic to give that shine that he exhibited.

The spider was a photo of a garden spider I took the first time I walked the Odessa TT property my son purchased.  The Turtle was taken on that property years later. Both are thread painted. I couched down some yarn for the web. The red and golds on the turtle are all thread stitched onto the green fabric. The cat-tails were made from some "fake" fur I bought, to make them look like rounded cat-tails.  

The piece that took a lot of time thread painting was the fish. I drew the fish on white muslin and placed it in a hoop to hold it taunt. (I have since learned it's best to use the color of the major part for the item thread painted. It takes less thread to cover.) I started adding the top color, leaving space so that I could make large stitches to blend with the last color so there would not be a "line" showing between the two colors except where it was supposed to be. I threadpainted all the areas I intended for that color.  Then I started blending in the next color. Continuing on with each color. Next, I cut the fish away from the muslin and appliquéd onto the fabric.

I had a lot fun with the bird. Because of having to make the bird smaller to give it perspective, I still wanted it to have different fabrics so that the feathers could be distinguished from one another. I used 8 different black fabrics to accomplish this.

I also had a lot of fun with selecting the fabrics for the tree. I used quite a few batiks for it.  I fussy cut some leaves out of a couple of fabrics, and at the end free-motioned some leaves and some dragonflies in the negative spaces, even though still new to free-motion. I even free-motioned some nymph to show that stage while in the water. Overall, I really enjoyed each new technique I used for the first time.

"Damsel and Dragonfly In Distress", was accepted or juried into Aullwood Audubon Center "Insecta", Dayton Ohio, August, 2006, the show for which it was made.  Quilts were displayed from artists in 13 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Washington plus Australia and Canada. My first juried quilt.