Thank You Hancock!

"Cling to Joy: audacious and unbridled joy, that looks for light in everything, even in your waiting." Morgan Harper Nichols

I've shared a few glimpses of a fabric piece I've been working on....and it's finally hanging in its new home.

Back in 2015 our church went through a major renovation which included an elevator and an open center staircase with fabulous windows looking into the memorial garden.  There were two art niches built into the walls on two different landings of the stairway, and for the grand opening Joan and I made a tree quilt for one of them.  You can see and read about that here: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-tree-quilt.html

But the second irregular shaped niche has been empty....until now.

As a token of my appreciation to Hancock Church I'm leaving a little piece of my joy. 

It may still be a while before the doors are open....but virtual Hancock Church continues to be vibrant and joyful...even while they're waiting.

The quilt is made up of hundreds of tiny pieces of fused batik fabrics and

I'll share a little about the process in another post.

It hangs in the niche in the upper landing of the stairwell where you access the balcony and the youth space. You get just a glimpse of it from the sanctuary level and I kind of like that's tucked out of the way....a somewhat literal reminder to always look for joy.

I wasn't prepared to have my photo taken on the day Joan and I installed it....but here I am in all my dishevelled glory. Thank you Hancock Church for inviting Paul and me to share in part of your journey. 

All Decked Out

Paul was all decked out in his new stole and what he calls his "long black dress" ready for a celebration this afternoon. All that was missing was his "happy face."

I'm pleased with the stole.

And here's who we celebrated with. Alex was a student minister at our church in Lexington and is now the new associate minister in Andover. Today was his installation celebration service. His red stole is from Africa....I love the back.                                                              

 

Celebration Stole

Way back in January I started a red/rainbow celebration stole for Paul. (he's a minister) You can read about it here and here. I promised him I would have it done before the next ordination he had to attend...which is this Sunday. So I was down to the wire and had to get it done.

I had to figure out how to deal with the curve of the neck and the red borders I wanted to use. I started by extending the pieces I already had to make the curved collar.

Then I added a red border to each side piece...around the neckline I used bias strips to help make the curve. Next I mounted it on stabilizer and stitched it to red fabric backing. I did three rows of topstitching on the border and I hope no one looks too closely because it was too late for me to be sewing straight lines.



Tah Dah!  It's....ALMOST...done.  I have just a tiny bit of hand stitching....but there's no way I could thread a needle at this point.  A few minutes in the morning and it WILL be done....just in time.

It was inspired by this stole I found on Pinterest.

 

If you remember I had a chunk of the rainbow spectrum left after I cut my two pieces for the stole back in February.  Some of it ended up in "That Piece" that I put in my show. I should have called it "That Extra Stole Piece!"

Snow Day Stole!

The blue bottles in the back yard were pretty in the snow.

Paul and I came up to Maine yesterday....and today it snowed all day. I had no place to go and things are pretty simple up here...so it set me up for a very productive and enjoyable day. And...I'm quite proud of myself because I started the day getting my taxes 95% organized and ready to send off. They would be 100% done if I hadn't forgotten a few things.

Paul took this one in our little park while he was out on a walk.

Another goal for today was to sew together the strips of fabric for Paul's stole.  It was pleasant sitting at my table in the guest room/sewing room watching the snow while I worked. 

I started by sewing two strips together at a time....just pushing them through. Then I pressed them...and did a little trimming before I sewed those sets together. My goal was to be at about 45 inches...

...and I came pretty darn close. I will add more reds at the top....but this is where is it will start to curve around the neck...so I need to think through this.  I'm just winging it...and making decisions as I go along.                                                                                                           

I decided I wanted a 3 inch wide band for each side of the stole. The second ruler on the right helped me get a perfect 3 1/2 inch cut.  The extra 1/2 inch is for seam allowance on both sides when I add the red edging.  (use the link above to see the inspirations stole)

The best part is now I have a 7 inch extra piece to play with for something else....and I have a couple of ideas.  The two stole pieces on the right are ready for the next step.....but that might be a little while. But I did make good "snow day stole" progress.

A Little Distance

This afternoon I pinned the fabric I had picked for Paul's stole up on my board. (a piece of rigid insulation)  It allowed me to stand back and look at the scheme...see what I liked...what I didn't...and what was missing. It also gave me a sense of how wide the strips needed to be to get the length I needed.

I discovered that it still felt muted...even with the solids I added in from the last stole post. It would be a great scheme for my living room...but not for the celebration stole.  And the symbol for Pentecost is fire!

It was lacking yellows and greens (true greens)...and had too many dark muddy colors. I pulled out several of the strips I didn't like....and went back to my stash and chose some brighter ones.

I'm certain that it's better....but I'll live with it a few days and keep tweaking. There's nothing like a little distance.




Here they are side by side. It's getting there but I can already see a few things I will change and tweak....and colors I'll look for in my stash.

The Color is Red!

Quite some time ago Paul asked me to make him a new red stole...so that's my new sewing project. I was inspired by this one I found on Pinterest done by Jeff Wunro.

In case you don't know...Paul is a minister and wears a stole with his liturgical robe. There are different colors for each church season and red is the color for Pentecost, ordinations, and celebrations.

Like the inspiration...I wanted the top of the stole to be the red end of the color spectrum....and the lower part to gradate into the rest of the rainbow.  And, like the inspiration, I want to frame it in red.

I searched my fabrics...and was drawn to the batiks left over from the quilt Joan and I made for the rainbow banner on the welcome wall at church. I laid them out on my table along with some of my own.  The colors were beautiful...but I needed to punch it up so I added in some brighter solids. This red stole needs to be bright and splashy.

Now I need to figure out exactly how I'm going to tackle it. I'll keep you posted.

Now It's Complete!

I posted back in March about the tree quilt Joan and I made for our newly renovated church.

At the time of the dedication the interior memorial garden was all torn up and still under a ton of snow.  Our goal with this quilt was to connect the inside to the outside...and now that the garden is put back together it all makes sense...and the garden is beautiful I might add.      

The Cathedral Window Cross

When I moved to Lexington almost 6 years ago....I joined the "project group" at Hancock Church where my husband is the minister.  It's a wonderful group of women who gather on Monday mornings to stitch, knit, or work on a project...whether it be personal, for the church, or for a service organization. Some Mondays we just sit and visit.

One project that was in progress when I arrived was a familiar sight...a cathedral window quilt. Yikes!

As I posted about earlier here I was in the middle of my own cathedral window quilt and I knew how labor intensive they were. But I didn't run and I joined right in...and over time....with the help of many hands we finished the quilt which hangs in the sanctuary during "Ordinary Time."

Since I explained the basic process in the earlier post so I won't repeat it...but we approached this one a little differently.  I started with 6 inch white squares...and they were starting with 8 inch colored squares.








I am working diagonally on my quilt starting in a corner. For this one we worked in straight up rows.



It took a some planning but we wanted to get packets of nine background squares to send home for people to work on...many hands!

There are the folded and stitched background squares and smaller insert squares...we were constantly laying it out to plan.

Once we got the blocks of nine back....we started attaching those blocks together. Every time you attach two squares or blocks of squares you add another insert square(s) where the two meet.  It's endless hours of hand stitching.  

Ta Da!

Next time it's up I am going to take another picture with my better camera.
This picture does not do the colors justice.

I found a tutorial on line that had some good pictures for those who are interested.  

I know how to do it and I think it sounds confusing.

You can see here where you attach two folded and stitched background squares you create a new square.









The insert is just a bit smaller and you fold back and stitch the edges around the insert.

Reinventing Easter...

....not the story...that already has a good ending.
Happy Easter, by the way!

Joan and I were at it again...this time tweaking our Easter banners and paraments for the sanctuary...and we are pretty happy with our result. Linda helped with installation today and we are ready.

The last several years we draped white fabric along with our "He Is Risen" banner and it was great....but it was time for a change.

 
Inspired by this design to the right I found on Pinterest we got to work. We wanted to reuse the "He Is Risen" for the center and build out with fabric and stoles.

Repurposing some beautiful fabric from Linda's old curtains we made two long stoles to mimic the red ones to the right.

We fused lovely brocade fabric for the accent stripes and edged them with gold trim to help them stand out a little more.  Our sanctuary is so big that details are often lost from a distance...to the "man on the horse"....so to speak.

We made white paraments (for the pulpit and lectern) a few years ago...but were never very happy with the one on the pulpit....so we started over.  Again, using the lovely brocade fabric for the background, we fused a gold lame cross edged in white.

Simple, but elegant, and looked good with
the lectern paraments we already had.

 

We changed from purple ribbon to white ribbon on the back window.  

Job well done ladies!