When I started free-motion quilting the circles on this piece, it was my intention to name it "Stones" -
Many photos, few words...
"Ancient Flames ~ New Flames" is now hanging in the sanctuary.
"The Stars Project" - 125 stars with names of the ancestors written on them. Accent stars created by the artists in the church. Suspended by 2 floral rings, each is attached by monofilament line.
A detail photo of the stars taken from the bottom, looking up.
I'm getting ready to sew the last stitch on the binding. Although I usually dred this step, it always brings me to reflection. The whole process, the time, the late nights. But it's really about the art itself and who it's for. This time around, it's all about the community at Emmanuel. The banner is for all of us. The title finally came to me while I was writing an artist's statement for the church bulletin:
For the 24 words and phrases that represent who we are at Emmanuel, I printed them on dupioni silk fused with Wonder Under, and painted them with red Setasilk paint. After heat-setting the paint, I removed the release paper from the back and fused them onto the deep red dyed cotton. Rotary cut them into narrow strips, then I attached them only at the top with a small gold heart bead. I had planned to fuse them completely on the surface, but after I pinned a few of them down, I noticed that they looked beautiful, just waving like ribbons.
All 125 flames are now appliqued ~
The right panel of the banner is now appliqued. I used one of my machine's shading stitches, in various widths, from 4mm.-7mm. to applique the 5 sizes of flames on the panel. I free-motion stitched them using my regular opened-toed foot because I felt I had better control with it, instead of using my darning foot.
35 more to be stitched -
I just finished quilting the center panel of the banner. Using the two forward, one back stitch on my machine, I was able to get the top-stitch effect that I wanted. I worked on about a 10 inch area at a time, changing thread color quite often. I was having a few problems with my bobbin thread showing too much, so I changed that thread each time too. Since I use this stitch quite often in my quilting, it really wasn't that tedious.
After removing over 10 flames from the banner, I felt I needed to break it up a little. I started working on this center panel by fusing small strips of the same hand dyes that I used for the flames. The Luther Seal is about 2/3rds of the way down the panel and in the photos here, you can see the silk organza with some images from the church printed on: the "1882" is taken from the cornerstone. All is going well...when can I start quilting?
This is the "Estrogen Patch" quilt that I made 5 years ago when I was still a newbie. At the bottom are actual estrogen patches sewn on and along the top third of the piece are words related to HRT at the time: 'breasts beware' - hot flash finis - beautiful bones - mellow moods - ??? - healthy heart? - sublime sleep.
The quilt is in Lois' (nurse practitioner) at my gyne's office. When I showed it to her back then, she arranged to have me meet the drug rep from the company who made the patches (my brand). The drug rep fell in love with it, had her company purchase it, and then they donated it back to my Dr.'s office. It still hangs in Lois' office.
I didn't just go to visit my quilt. I had an appointment with the doctor. This past Monday, I had a mammogram and an ultrasound because of some "nip fluid." We have a breast health center here in Rockford that tells you what's up before you leave. Nice.
A few months ago, I found a postcard of Emmanuel from the late 40's - on it was a description "the church beautiful" ~
I was a little unsure of how to add the colors to the Luther Seal that will be on the banner...
