Full Circle

Yesterday, I attended the service at Village Church in Cummington for the dedication and hanging of the stained glass quilt that I finished for them back in January.  They also dedicated a beautiful sari which is sometimes hung in the sanctuary for weddings and special times.  The service was thoughtful, and the people are warm, gentle, and appreciative of the wilderness which surrounds them.  Everyone was welcoming, and the quilt was happy to have come full circle from design to completion and to finally be installed in its new home.  

The arch is painted on the wall behind the quilt.

The quilt was given by a local couple in loving remembrance and joyful celebration of the lives of their parents.

The sanctuary is peaceful and full of light.

Tiffany Window Quilt is Finished!

After roughly 100 hours of work, 265 pattern pieces, and 250' of black bias tape, the stained glass quilt is done!  This piece will go the the Village Church in Cummington, MA to adorn their sanctuary from time to time.  This was a fun project, engaging every step of the way (except for stitching on the sleeves).  The fact that I still want to do another one must mean I enjoyed it!

orchid details

trout lily detail

X-mas

Even at Christmas, I still find time to sew!

Cookie Break!

The Tiffany quilt continues to make progress.  Back spasms over the weekend slowed me down a bit but they're gone and  I'm looking forward to going back to my usual routine of getting up at 5 am to stitch.  Measured the remaining pieces today and have about 150' of black lines to go.  Of course the tape get's stitched along both edges, so that translates into 300' of thread.  I'm so eager to see it all finally pieced together!

Of course, when I'm not stitching, I'm busy doing the usual holiday activities, like making cookies with my son and his friends...

Tiffany Quilt Update

Tree layout for the top-most section

Well, I took most of the weekend off due to a mild case of the flu, and we've pushed the due date for this piece back a bit, but it's still moving right along.  I believe I woefully underestimated how long stitching all the little black lines down would take.  I'm using bias tape - 96 feet of it so far, and I don't think I'm half-way done yet.  I've bought out the supply at the local Joann's twice and will have to go back for more!  Here are a few more recent pics...

when I get tired of one section,
I switch to another area

it's amazing how much difference the black bias tape makes!

Tiffany Quilt in progress

The bottom 1/3 of the quilt is coming together well.  I've assembled it like a puzzle - tracing and cutting each piece and then figuring out where it goes.  You can see how I laid the pattern down on top to make sure everything lined up.  There were a few sections I'd missed, so I had to go back and trace more of the pattern to get the final leaves.

the lines on the jack-in-the-pulpit are hand drawn

trillium and orchids, before the iris are added to the background

took a while to get these placed just right

My best work time is from 5 - 7 am every morning, when only the cat is awake for company.  She tries to help as much as possible.

All the pieces are fused in place, and I'm ready to baste and quilt it.  Right now it looks busy, but after the black leading lines are added on top it should look more like stained glass, and the black will visually separate the pieces.  I can't wait to count how many individual pieces there are! 

iris, orchids, trillium, trout lily, poppies, jack-in-the-pulpit, clover, and assorted wild-flowers!

Tiffany Window Project

So, my latest big news is that I'm working on a big piece!  This will be a 4' x 6.5' Tiffany window style quilt for Village Church in Cummington.  The goal is to post regular updates as I go along, but it's been under way for a few weeks now, so it's time to get the blog caught up!  Here's the original sketch.  In the final piece, the mountains will be altered to reflect the local hills, and there will be a slightly different assortment of wildflowers.  The quilt will hang inside the painted arch at the front of the sanctuary.  See below.