Quilter in Distress: Susan Woodall
Rescuer: Anne Montgomery

"Jellyfish" • 17" x 13"

Susan: "I started a class on design at the North Carolina Symposium and just didn't click with the instructor, so I took my stuff and went out into the hall to try on my own. My idea is an impression of an underwater scene. I worked on it that day and then lost the image when I took it back out at home and haven't been able to visualize a complete image. It has hung on a wall or my design wall for a few years with no inspiration. I like how I started and the hint of a sparkle from the Angelina but maybe I should spend more time looking at actual photos of the mid-deep underwater. I know I didn't actually see fish or sea creatures, nothing that realistic."

Anne: "When I received the UFO I was so excited to see the beautiful batik fabrics. The colors and patterns reminded me of an ocean scene so that's the direction I decided to go. Since the fabric pieces had been glued together and much of the glue had started to flake and show through the fabric, I decided to do quite a bit of surface embellishment to hide the glue residue.I began by heat casting velvet over rocks to create the organic forms at the bottom of the quilt and adding burnt polyester "seaweed." Thinking the overall quilt was still quite dark, I decided to make jellyfish by heat casting layers of tulle over rocks and adding felted nylon slivers to give the illusion of gentle waves and sunlight shimmering down, and then added the jellyfish. Silk selvedge was tacked on to look like waving seaweed, and beads were added on top of the original Angelina to create a bubbly whoosh of water. I hand-quilted the areas I thought needed more quilting and added the orange yarn to the bottom to balance the jellyfish. I also added metallic orange and gold to the swirling yarn on the left side of the quilt. When framing the quilt, I purposely left a few pieces overlapping the frame to continue the illusion of depth and movement. I highly enjoyed working on this quilt and hope the recipient enjoys it as much as I did."