A quilt rescue

I rescued a quilt the other day from my church.

In 1986, someone made this as part of a denominational capital campaign.

The marketing firm hired for the campaign researched Mennonites

and came up with quilts

and used these four quilt blocks for all the marketing.

Churches were encouraged to make a banner

and it looks like someone in my church did.

(This is before my time there.)

It's all in polycotton broadcloth, layered with a thin batting

and hand quilted.

The binding is coming undone, so I took it home to give it a bit of love.

I'm pondering how I could incorporate this in a bigger banner.

Here's one of the blocks with the handquilting visible.

I'm open to suggestions. I think doing something with it

is better than having it crumpled in a corner.

July finish #3

This one is took only six months from start to finish. I had it to flimsy stage by the end of January, but stalled on the handquilting.

A banner for the prayer room in my church. It is similar to the one I made two years ago for the nursing home where my sister is a chaplain.

I've used some of the same fabrics for the letters, although the one on top has more variety.

 

Both have a vine motif quilted around the words,

and both quotes are from the Psalms.

 

 

I like them both, but now it is time to move on to another style.

Mail call

Actually, this is the reverse. I'm good at making blocks and things for others, but getting to the mailbox is another thing. So by posting these, I'm putting a bit of pressure on myself to get them in the mail.

A Singer Featherweight pad for a blog friend, who just became the proud mama of a new-to-her FW. I pieced strips onto an 18 inch square batting, put a backing on it and practiced my freemotion quilting, then cut off a 5 inch strip from one side to make the pocket. It's sort of a placemat with benefits.

A "S" measuring 10.5 inches for Shannon, who is collecting them in bright colours to make herself a birthday quilt. Bright enough for you? oh, and that checked border around it is not part of the block -- it's a piece of flannel that was up on my design wall.

The beginnings of a banner for my church.  Sorry for the blurry pix. My camera is dying. And yes, it will say "know", but I stopped for the day before tackling the W, one of my least favourite letters to make. These letters are finishing at about 4.5 inches for the lowercase b and k. I'm using strips ranging in size from 3/4 inch to 2 inches, contrasting with the 2.5 inch strips I used for Shannon's S. The background is a light aqua batik, and the letters are batik scraps in dark greens, blues, and purples. I'm going for good contrast in this since it will be viewed from further away. I'm hoping for a finished banner 24 by 36 or so.

The big reveal

Here is the quilt which will be permanently installed today at a nursing home in Waterloo, Ontario in honour of my sister's ordination to the chaplaincy. It finishes at 27 by 33.5 and will be hung from the chapel's light wood pulpit. I made it with free-pieced letters in a variety of purple, blue and green batiks, on a light blue batik background. It is hand quilted in the ditch around the letters and there's a leaf motif in the empty spaces. It is bound with a bright sky/sunset fabric, which frames it nicely. All the fabrics came from my mother's stash and scraps. Thanks to all of you who helped me figure this out over the past weeks!

A sneak peek at the details

I've finished hand quilting the banner for my sister's nursing home, and it will be installed on the weekend. I'm posting a sneak peek of the quilting here -- you can see the vine pattern (especially if you click on the picture), for which I used a variegated machine quilting thread. The binding is done, and I just need to sew on the label, which I can do sometime during the 2,000 km trip (over three days) to her house.

Ever quilt needs a bag -- here it is rolled up inside its made to measure bag, also labeled. Really, after all this work, I don't want it to get dirty or go missing!

What shape should it be?

This is the pulpit that my banner is intended for. It's 47 inches high, 27 inches wide at the top, tapering to 24 at the base. My words are crowded if the banner is only 24 inches wide, so I'm considering making it the shape of the pulpit. I'm open to suggestions and opinions. I really need some advice on how to attach it. one thought so far is to sew a row of rings at the back and attach it to a corresponding row of finish nails just under the lip of the pulpit, so they wouldn't be visible. But some folks object to nails in nice wood. The biggest issue is that I'm far away from this pulpit, and won't see it until it is time to install the banner. Please help!