5 banners in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation
Have you ever felt called to do something, regardless of the fact that you had little or almost no free time? And when the nagging feeling would not go away, you just rolled up your sleeves and got to it? There is a whole backstory to this endeavor at the end of the post. That story is not about sewing, but about the need to sew.
That’s what pulled me from my busy-ness to make these five banners. Five hundred years ago on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenburg Castle Church in Germany. This launched the Reformation, the essence of which is expressed by the five “Solas” which are illustrated in the five banners.
One side of our sanctuary has 4 stained glass windows, in shades of blue and gold.
wall opposite the new banners
But the opposite wall is common to the Fellowship Hall so no windows could be installed. It was just blank, except for two lights and some electrical devices.
So what called me? Firstly, the blank wall which begged for some visible inspiration. Secondly, a gut feeling that I had to sew more for my church. We are commanded to share our talents, but I can’t sing so the choir was not an option. Sewing is my best gift and I had done some other sewing for the church. So sewing is what I needed to do.
As I rolled up my sleeves, our dynamic young pastor suggested that a banner for each of the 5 Solas would perfectly match his plan to preach one Sola on each of the 5 Sundays in October.
Okay, now I had a plan.
The Celtic “S” in Sola is from Martha Pullen’s Celtic Alphabet from the 2014 Internet Embroidery Club. The Bible is a design from Embroidery Library and the text, ” Thy word is truth.” is curved and abbreviated. The original cross was removed and replaced with a smaller one from my design library. The original design has 80.093 stitches! So I converted the Bible into an applique’ with ultrasuede. That reduced the stitch count to 60,000 which is still a lot of stitches. Those roses are very dense. The gold corners are from Urban Threads.
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