L is for Lenten Banners

I have made a series of Lenten banners to hang in our church. A previous minister Suzy encouraged me to use my love of quilting to serve God and our church by making banners to decorate our sanctuary. I was a bit reluctant at first as most banners that we had at church were pictorial and I am not a good at drawing things. They also tend to have words on them and again that isn't my strong point. However Suzy admired some of the wall quilts that I had made without thinking of them for church. She could see a real message in the colours and patterns that they made. So we hung them in church and then I started to design specific banners to be used in church.

Suzy was big on the ecclesiastical colours... the colours of the church year. She encouraged me to make quilts that fitted in with these colours... green (for ordinary Sundays) red for pentecost, white for Easter Day, Christmas Day and some other special days, and purple for Lent and Advent.

A couple of years ago I made a large purple banner to go out the front but we didn't have much else to hang for lent. There were two small banners but they were pretty tatty so this year I made 2 new banners to decorate the church with.















   The first was simply a purple heart on a white background.The purple squares of the quilt varied from dark indigo to palest lavender. I was going to put some words on it..... I was thinking of For God so Loved.... but then think that pictures speak louder than words. (words are for those who cannot read the pictures)












I had another design floating around in my head inspired by a banner I had seen on the web so I made it too. Again I thought about adding words but decided to leave it to speak for itself

Sunday Stash -all boxed up

Its been another low usage week but up till yesterday it was a no usage week - well no finishes that is.

 I had completed some hand stitching on one of the POD blocks - the names of some books on the book spines. I don't know if I will do it to all of them though. It is very time consuming and some of the fabrics I have used are so busy that I don't think titles will stand out. I might do it for some of the plain spines but leave the rest. I am still debating it. 

Other people in the POD QAL have embroidery machines and are doing them that way which is much quicker (and neater) I do have some letter choices on my stitch selections on my machine but haven't ever used them and don't want to mess up any of my blocks trying to do it. Should I embroider the material before I make up the block - in which case I have to be very careful in putting the blocks together that I don't get the positioning wrong - or do it afterwards.... I'm in a quandary. I figure that by the time I learn to use the stitch selection well enough not to wreck the block I can probably have stitched a couple of blocks by hand!!

 It is good to have a hand project to do too. I could have done with one on Thursday when we went on a friendship day visit to another quilting group in a near by town (an hour's drive) I took my machine and associated projects but we didn't get to set it up at all. By the time we had morning tea as soon as we arrived, and then show and tell, then it was time for lunch, a bit more chatting and time to come home. I had one of the book blocks with me and I got it finished off but I hadn't written the titles on the other block I had with me so couldn't do any more. It was a might bit frustrating.

The other group had lots of projects to show us and when they found that I was stitching for a stall they generously shared a lot of ideas with me so it was a beaut day - and more handwork would have made it even better!!

Yesterday I decided to get stuck into a couple of projects. One was the words to go on the banner for church today. I have shared pictures previously of the purple banner I made a few years ago to hang in our church for Lent and Advent. I made detachable words that could be added to the banner to emphasise the theme of the service and build the banner towards the climax of Easter Day (Lent) and Christmas Day (Advent) Both of these seasons of the church are periods of waiting, anticipation, preparation and so the words I had made reflect these actions. The minister we had when I made the banner really valued the visual side of worship. She was always very careful and thoughtful about the choice of words to go up (in fact when I was making the banner and the first lot of words she drove me nuts over the length of time it took her to come up with the words she wanted). She has since moved onto another parish and currently we have an interim guy who is lovely - excellent preacher, friendly, caring outgoing BUT not into the visual side of worship at all. He happily handed over all responsibility for setting the worship scene as far as banners go to me.

I posted a picture of the long purple banner in situ, without words, on my Twitter and Facebook feeds at the start of Lent and asked my followers and friends what words they would put on. 

One friend (another minister as it turns out) suggested "Are we there yet?" For the first 4 Sundays of Lent I went with various words I had already made but yesterday I sat down and made those words and put them on the banner today. I think they looked great. They weren't a big usage of fabric but did account for .66m

Inspired by the ladies we had visited on Thursday I also made 2 boxy zipper pouches to go on our Handmade With Love stall at the afternoon tea for Our Rainbow House next Saturday. I am counting them as finished although I still have to stitch on the label and also make a zipper pull for them. They took a little over .46m each so that was a .93m altogether.


 
I haven't got to sit down and work on the quilting of Tea Shop Quilt and I wanted it for the afternoon tea next week as well. I am going to have to get my act together and do it. I am not sure how I want to quilt it which is probably what is delaying me.

No purchases this week. I was looking at some fat quarter bundles on Massdrop this week but resisted. I do NOT need any fabric whatsoever. Its my birthday on Friday and occasionally my family give me quilty stuff so I might score then... but maybe not. I might have to treat myself if they don't :)

This Week (week 12)

Fabric Used                               1.58m

Fabric Added                              0.00m

Year to Date

Fabric Used                               44.78m

Fabric Added                             12.78m

Net Fabric used                         32.00m

WIP Wednesday

As usual it has been a busy and varied week of sewing.

My Sister in Law Christine (from the blog Bluebirds and Bumblebees) designed a block of the month set of embroideries several years ago. I have spoken about them before.  (She is now putting them one month at a time on Etsy).  My mother completed several sets of them including 2 for me. One I made into a quilt for my daughter Fangirl and one I made into a quilt for myself.

 My sister Joy also completed a set of the blocks but never did anything with them. Earlier this year she offered them to me  and of course I said "Yes please". I decided to make them into a quilt for my niece, Joy's daughter. I was sure she would really appreciate them and enjoy having something special with links not just to her mum but 2 of her aunties as well.

This week I got them out and trimmed them back. I meant to trim them to 8.5" so they would be 8" finished but somewhere along the line I had a brain explosion and trimmed them to 8" instead. Ho hum. I then calculated the size of the triangles I would need to make (I used this tutorial from Pieceful Living  to work out the size) I'd asked my niece what colours she liked and if she liked brights or pastels. She said blues and brights :) If I only used the 12 blocks themselves the quilt would have been rather small, unless I put a huge border on them so I decided instead to alternate other blocks with the embroidered blocks. I cut 8" squares from a variety of blue picture fabrics. The triangles for all the blocks I cut from a variety of mostly bright blues. All the triangles have now been attached. I am still tweaking the arrangement of these blcks but hope to settle on something suitable soon.

Next I have to trim the blocks to a uniform size before I stitch them together. Then I will work on the border. I could just do a simple border but knowing me I will probably end up making flying geese.... or checker board.... or piano key... cause I love scrappy borders so much. We will see.

I made another banner for church this week. Its another banner for lent so its lots of purples. It was inspired by a banner I saw on pinterest whilst looking for banner ideas. Its from PlayfulStitching

My banner was substantially different in the end but this was my initial inspiration.

I made it basically as big as I could with the fabric I had. I used scraps I had already cut in my scrap stash. Some I had to cut down to 2.5" as they were wider than that. I did cut a few strips from my yardage but only a very few... maybe 3.

For the backing I used some fairly thick fabric... not sure what it was exactly or where it came from. I suspect from fabric I inherited from my elderly aunt. She died a little over 2 years ago at 99yrs and 9 months. I didn't use any wadding in it but did quilt it.

 I echo quilted around the cross and then went out from it about 1" for 10 rows then went to 1.5" then 2" then 2.5" and finally 3". I have declared it finished although am thinking of doing a little trapunto type work on it and stuffing the cross to give it a 3 dimensional look. We shall see. If I do that I will have to go back and stitch another row on the cross as at the moment the first row of stitching is 1/4" outside the cross.

At Patchwork this week I continued to work on the blue block donation quilt that our group is putting together.  Its all random - asymmetrical and its challenging to me cause I keep wanting to make things all matchy matchy. I got 2 sides just about put together. I might have to take off the sashing from the previous border as its a bit wavy. I have been trying to ignore it but.... its annoying me so might as well give in and redo it.

I have completed the week 8 block for POD . I followed the lead of some of the other participants in this challenge and chose some more adventurous fabrics for the book's spines. A new one was released today so hope to make a move on it soon.

 I am one week behind with the Elephant Parade blocks but I have got eyes on the frog block

The fabric is all cut for the next two blocks I have to make - the turtle and the bird. Hopefully I will get them both done this weekend too.

Fixit Guy is going away this weekend so I will have a clear run at my sewing. Not that he ever stops me sewing but sometimes he does suggest alternate activities like going for walks or doing other jobs. In fact he is a great enabler getting me lunch and delivering it to the sewing room if I don't emerge and often cooking tea etc. I really need to get stuck into some small projects for the sewing stall Hand Made love is having at the Afternoon tea on the 28th March. I haven't made anything for a couple of weeks now. Better get some of those pouches sewn.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday, WIPs on Wednesday and Lets Bee Social.

Love at Lent

Lent has started and our church has been decorated in purple. 2 years ago I made a banner to go out the front of our church. It goes almost ceiling to floor- and its a high pitched ceiling. It has no words on it but I made a series of words that can be pinned onto it to suit the theme of the service for that week. Our minister at the time, who is also my very dear friend Suzy, came up with a series of suitable words. Purple is also the colour for Advent so some of the words are more suited to that season.

 

Suzy was always very thoughtful and deliberate with her preparation of the worship space. After she saw some of my quilts at a quilt exhibition run by our quilt group she asked if some of them could be used in the church. I had always thought that banners in church needed words on them I had never thought that my quilts would be suitable for use in church so I was really delighted by her request. Then I made a green banner, for use in ordinary Sundays, and then I made the purple one.

Now Suzy has moved on to another church and at the moment we have a temporary placement. He is a beaut bloke - friendly, articulate, straight forward - but not into decorating the worship area. He is happy to have it done but hasn't got an artistic bone in his body, he says. So I have taken over the role of decorating the sanctuary. Last Thursday I took down the green banners and hangings, removed the green table cloths and put out the purple ones. As well as the long central banner, I spoke of above, I looked at the other purple banners. We had two small ones. They had both been ones that had been interactive banners many years ago, which had been added to each week - a grape vine that had started as the trellis, then had the bare vines added, then leaves and finally bunches of grapes. The other was an apple tree along a similar line. 

I decided that we needed a new banner for lent. My practical side stepped in and I knew that whatever I made for Lent I wanted to be able to use for Advent as well. The text "For God so loved the world" was running through my mind as I sat in church pondering a new banner. Love made me think of the heart shape and I remembered a pattern I had found on the internet and printed off, featuring a large heart made from a charm pack. It was a rainbow coloured heart but I knew I could use purples. I had separated out my purple squares, strips and bricks a while back when I decided I was going to make some more banners for church. I had pulled the cream, white, gold, red and green ones too - all with the aim of making colour banners. I had used the green to make  Riverwalk, a banner for ordinary Sundays for which the colour is green. I finished it last July. (Go here to read about it)

I laid it out on my design wall, using 4.5" squares since that is what I had a lot of already cut. I chose to do a colour fade, with the darker purples at the top and coming down to the pale lavender at the tip of the heart. For the border I chose to use a mixture of purple 2.5" squares and it has turned out really well.

I decided to be a little bit adventurous with my quilting. Usually I do stitch in the ditch or shadowing the ditch if I use my walking foot. I often do free motion quilting but not following any rules. This time I decided to use my walking foot and do straight line quilting echoing the shape of the heart. Inside the heart I did this shadow quilting along the blocks. Outside the heart I used the width of my walking foot to follow the outside line of the heart so about an inch apart. I had intended to change my thread to white for this bit but decided that I would continue on with my varigated purple thread. This means that every wiggle and waver shows up but I was pretty happy with it, even in the photos!

 The quilting wasn't without mishap in that the backing for the quilt on one side got caught up and so was stitched folded and I had to unpick the last inch and a half of each line and redo them. That then meant I had to hide a lot of threads from the top.

 It was very quick to put together. I am thinking of making another one using some more of the 2.5" squares

The banner has no words on it. I don't think words are always necessary however some people may prefer one with words so I am thinking of making another banner to hang near by it with the words "God so loved....." and a picture of a cross and a manger on it. Again it will be useful at both Lent and Advent. I am not much of a pictorial artist though. The cross I could manage but think I will have to find someone else to draw the manger ... or else find some art on line to copy.