Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

Each year, for about the last ten, I have participated in a Lenten practice, creating one of the Stations of the Cross. 

Stations of the Cross are a series of 14 (or more) pictures of Jesus' journey, as represented in Holy Week prior to Easter. Just ahead of Lent, a member of my church puts out a call for volunteers to create the stations, the only restriction being the 24" x 30" size. The series is hung in the church nave during Holy Week and they remain in place until the next year's call for art goes out the the church members.

Various media are used - collage, acrylic paint, oil paint, other inks and paints, photographs, and small scuptural pieces that will fit on a 24x30 frame. With one exception, mine have been fabric pieces, sort of small quilts, though none of mine really fit the strict definition of a quilt. I sew the piece onto a painted canvas.

In progress, after the hollowing out.

Each year, it is a struggle. Yet each year, I sign up again and begin the struggle. I believe this is an important Lenten journey for me, the struggle, the goofs, the final piece.

a test

This year I chose Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, an event that appears in all four of the New Testament Gospels. I began with the scriptural stories and also recalled my own visit to the Garden of Gethsemane. I imagined. I sketched. I sewed. I unsewed.

Before he was hollowed out.

Materials: 

During fall 2023, I took an intensive online course from Jane Dunnewold. The title was Color Mastery: from White to Wow. I used unbleached silk noil and Pro MX fiber reactive dyes. I am also working my way through 2024 with a YouTuber, k3n Cloth Tales. I had some eco-prints and dyes inspired by her work.

Process:

I started with the background in three segments - sky, Jerusalem skyline, and the garden itself in the foreground. The sky is raw-edge applique with an invisible stitch, to start. I really like raw-edge work because it avoids the lumps caused by seams. On the other hand, I wanted the *lumps* on standard needle-turn applique for the Jerusalem skyline, in order to articulate buildings. And the ground for the garden is also (mostly) needle-turned applique.

another test.

Creating the foreground was the most challenging for me. The story is complex so there were many ways to go. I tried out pictures of sleeping figures.

Yet another test.

I created a super-sized figure that I placed over the background, a Jesus-figure. After I appliqued the figure on and added decorative embroidery to the edge, I decided it was all wrong. So I next cut out the center. Church friend, Margaret, pointed out that, in the story, Jesus was hallowed out by his anguish. Thank you, Margaret.

Background

Then I created some bias tubes and began to form the olive branch vines and leaves. Gethsame literally translates Olive Press. And today's garden is full of olive trees.

Building up the background on cotton flannel

After that, I added embroidery to highlight and support various aspects of the piece. For example, I outlined the buildings to give them a bit of depth, adding a few details.

I was hand-stitching almost non-stop in the lead-up to Holy Week. It was such a relief to finish and be completely ready for Holy Week. The church held a *Starving Artists* dinner of soup and bread. Each artist described their journey in creating their art piece. It was a beautiful event.

St Patrick's publishes a nice pamphlet with write-ups on each station. Here is a photo of three. The one on the far right is by my wonderful granddaughter, H. This is their second year on this Lenten journey.

If you celebrate, then Happy Easter! Happy spring and Happy sewing!

Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

Each year parishioners at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in Atlanta volunteer to create a 24x30 inch piece of art to hang in the Nave (called the sanctuary in some churches). The work centers around Lent and there is usually a Starving Artists' dinner of soup and bread. Each artist describes the piece to be presented, explaining what it meant to them personally and how they proceeded. These are primarily paintings. Later, after the pieces are hung, there is a formal Stations of the Cross service in the Nave and all parishioners are invited. This has been going on for more than 20 years now. Last year, due to Covid, we never took our pieces to church. But we still made them and we shared over zoom.  Our church has been closed for more than a year now. This year, as we see the light at the end of the tunnel, the pieces will be hung in the church, but without the in-person Starving Artists' dinner. There is hope that we will meet inside our church again before too long and can see one another's pieces in person. My piece is for the last station, Jesus is Laid in the Tomb. What follows is my story:

When I try to imagine Israel, I see sharp rocks, layers of sand, and shades of brown, with a bright sky above it all. When I try to imagine Jesus laid in a tomb, I imagine barely visible caves, deep shadows, and dark curves. As I began to create my station of the cross for this year, that is what I tried to create by piecing fabric together, with some curves and some sharp edges.

 It felt chaotic, as I imagined the minutes and hours following Jesus' death on the cross. 

I tried to represent that frightful time with swirls of quilted hand stitch, in shades from bright white to dark brown, nearly black.

And then he is laid in a tomb, wrapped in a shroud, still, quiet, dark. 

As he remains there, something begins to happen. 

His shroud becomes transparent – ethereal, I hope. He begins to transform. I hope you can see his shroud in the lower left-hand corner, made with French knots to maintain the layering of the story. 

As he rises, a wing opens, in the middle. Another wing is forming.

 

In the upper right-hand corner, he takes flight in the form of a dove, still transparent and continuing to change. 

Rise, Jesus, rise.

 

New Year's Amulet

my New Year's Amulet 2021

NOTE - much of the art displayed in this post is NOT MY WORK. I have referenced it where I know the source. If you know sources I've missed, please let me know. The final pictures are of my work.

Fiber Art Fusion is a little group I sort of lead. Each month we have a program, typically taught by a member. Our topics range from weaving to painting to paper arts, though there is a bias to quilting arts. Now that we have to meet over zoom, there is no hands-on piece but it does lend itself to slide shows.

Hindu goddess amulet

Last night I presented a short program on amulets. My interest in this started with an article in Quilting Arts magazine a couple of years ago and so I volunteered to do a little research and present something.

I am unable to distinguish between amulets, talismans, and charms. I found several articles on the subject and came away with more questions than answers. I do think that the common theme is a spiritual exploration using a concrete object to guide the senses. 

One of the bloggers I follow - Che'usa Sienna Wend - posted in late December on her tradition of a New Year's bag. In her family tradition, she wraps a penny in cloth and stitches it together - seed money for the coming year. And then she enjoys having them in her studio where she can pick them up and just enjoy their simple beauty.

Susan Brubaker Knapp has a free downloadable pattern for her amulets. These are worn around the neck and use lots of little scraps of fabric, beads and other embellishments. They look like little bags but do not actually have an opening.

Of course there are many amulet style symbols found in most religions. My church, St Patrick's Episcopal Church, is rich in religious symbolism such as flying Jesus seen below. I have just finished a new priest's stole with related symbols. I'll post about that next.

Children's kimono often had amulets sewn to the back neck to ward off evil spirits. I enjoy adding a little piece of something to the back of my handmade garments though I don't tend to think much about evil spirits. I was probably influenced by my fascination with kimono though.

Naturally I wanted to make at least one sample after doing my research. While binge watching PBS's Grantchester, I made this one entirely by hand. Very satisfying work - I recommend it!

my work

I started with a scrap of natural colored linen and folded it with my fingers to about 6" x 4". Then I pieced three other scraps of fabric together and attached them to the linen surface. I do love linen - so lovely for hand work.

Linen base, silk on the right, kantha scrap upper left, red linen lower left

Next I folded it in half and stitched two sides together with a contrasting thread. I also added a little random sashiko stitching. My finished amulet is 4x3.

I fashioned a lining with a small piece of coral silk, making it just slightly smaller. This time I just used a running stitch to attach two sides, right sides together.

Then I dropped the lining in place, folding a hem for the amulet top, as well as the lining top. I stitched the two folded edges together with visible stitching.

In order to attach a cord for wearing, I used the blanket stitch to create a little thread bar on each side of the top of the amulet. 

I shopped the stash for leather cord to slide through the thread bars. I secured the cord with wrapped Pearl cotton thread. I found my hemostat quite handy for this.

I hope to wear it as a necklace. For now it is full of wishes and hopes for 2021. Maybe I'll go somewhere in 2021 and put some mad money in it. Or maybe just a penny.

September Makes

September is gone tomorrow and I do not know where it went.

I see that I have not blogged for a month. One of the main purposes of this blog, for me, is to help me remember how I have spent my creative time. So here is what was made this month:

While I finished the sewing on this 24x30 inch piece last month, I finally mounted it on a canvas in September. And then I submitted it to a local juried show. Fingers crossed. 

The piece is inspired by doing many things I thought I was too old to do during a pilgrimage to Belize in June. The title is *Finally* based on this from the late, great Mary Oliver:

Finally I saw

that worrying had come to nothing,

and gave it up, and took my old body

and went out into the morning

and Sang.

Also this month, I completed two pieces commissioned by my priest at St. Patrick's. Each heart has a signature on it. The goal was to ask parishioners to commit to making efforts on behalf of justice during an 8 week period. Hearts were signed.

The smaller frontal is in the chapel where the 8 AM service takes place. All hearts were fused to the surface, after signatures were collected.

The fabric is cotton sateen from local wonderful fabric store, Gail K. 

I was ever so glad to complete this. Working large is not my forte. The larger one for the nave is about 90 inches by 90 inches, way out of my comfort zone. 

One of the grandson's stuffed animals needed a little repair, so that was also done with love.

He was sooooo brave.

As I pulled garments from my closet for #seweverydayseptember on Instagram, I realized that I needed to fill a few holes. So the following are the only garments I completed.

This is the MixIt top from the Sewing Workshop. I have lost count of how many times I've made it. I finally made a forward-shoulder adjustment to the pattern tissue and now love it even more. 

I used a facing to finish it, rather than the tiny facing included in the pattern. This facing can be turned to the right side or the wrong side. I think of it as a design feature.

The fabric is a dreamy Brooks Brother's cotton shirting, also purchased at Gail K. It was wonderful to sew and is comfortable to wear. I will wear a lot, until I stain it somehow.

I made this MixIt tank from a ponte remnant to go with this jacket. I made the jacket years ago and keep intending to wear it. I think I'll wear it this season, for sure!

I feel like I was pretty unproductive this month. So it's good to make some simple items that meet an actual need I have. This jacket also looks OK with the second MixIt tank I made in September.

I made the gray one from Alabama Chanin organic cotton. It too was pretty easy to sew, although it likes to curl just a little. I made it to go with this jacket:

The jacket is one I love but, like the brown Coco jacket above, I never know what to wear under it. Pulling it out, I realized that I could actually wear it as a top.

The fabric is so gorgeous, I think - a beefy piece of Japanese cotton from Louise Cutting. The jacket is based on the Now and Zen pattern from the Sewing Workshop. It was expensive, so of course, I had too little fabric to make a complete jacket. The accent fabric is a cotton-linen blend from a quilting store. I think the result is better with the accent fabric than it would have been on its own. Now, if only the high temps would please, please drop out of the 90's, I might wear a jacket!

During September I also developed a minor interest in paper making. I've had fun with my wooden deckle. It's easy and fun when you need a little creative pick-me-up.

The imprint from a Japanese maple leaf is my favorite part, I think, and I do love all the textures that are possible.

My granddaughter thinks it's quite fun too, so that makes it a winner!

September leaves me wanting to make something more challenging.

I'm preparing the pattern pieces for my first Brando jacket, a relatively new pattern from the Sewing Workshop. I plan to make it from this medium weight cotton print from deep stash. And I have another deep-stash piece, solid blue-green ponte that needs to become a swing tee dress to go with it.

I hope you're sewing something that brings you joy!