{"id":6386,"date":"2010-04-10T01:08:10","date_gmt":"2010-04-10T05:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=6386"},"modified":"2014-12-28T23:28:39","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T04:28:39","slug":"aunt-rheetas-communion-cloth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/10\/aunt-rheetas-communion-cloth\/","title":{"rendered":"Aunt Rheeta’s Communion Cloth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The linen is white, but the lighting was so poor that I had to edit the picture to show details.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Very few sewing projects have given me as much pleasure and satisfaction as this one. Made 2 years ago, in collaboration with my dear aunt, Rheeta Booth, for her church, this set of liturgical linens includes an altar cloth (cover) and communion veil which covers the elements before communion is served.<\/p>\n

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Aunt Rheeta was so excited about this project. The exquisite Swiss liturgical lace had been purchased several years before, from Farmhouse Fabrics<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 At the time, I had no specific plan but felt certain this exceptional lace it would fill a very special need.<\/p>\n

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Several years ago, when Aunt Rheeta returned from Russia, where she had served as a missionary, she brought with her a lovely hand embroidered cloth. She donated it to her very small church for use as a communion cloth, but through the years, it had become worn.<\/p>\n

During\u00c2\u00a0her visit two years ago, we were plundering in the sewing room when I\u00c2\u00a0happened upon the lace. The light in her eyes told me it had found its purpose.<\/p>\n

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We planned and researched church linens<\/a> on-line and bought the book SewingChurch Linens<\/em> by Elizabeth Morgan.\u00c2\u00a0 The white altar cloth or “fair cloth” was to be embroidered with five crosses, one on each corner and one at the center front.\u00c2\u00a0 These represented the five wounds of Christ.<\/p>\n

The book by Elizabeth Morgan included a chapter with specific\u00c2\u00a0instructions on how to launder and care for the linens.\u00c2\u00a0 It was so interesting to learn all these details.<\/p>\n

While laughing and catching up on family news and more than a little family history, we pulled threads and printed templates and embroidered and hemstitched….. and as was so often printed in society page articles in our tiny hometown newspaper before it folded, “a good time was had by all.”<\/p>\n

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The altar cloth and communion veil pieces were finished the evening before her early morning flight home, so the whole cloth pictures lack good lighting. And somehow, no picture at all was taken of the communion veil. Since then, Aunt Rheeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s granddaughter Leslie Ann Booth came to the rescue and took the close up photos. Thanks Leslie Ann!<\/p>\n

Fine Irish linen and liturgical lace insertion are the foundation for this set. Embellishments include what seemed like miles and miles of hemstitching done on my beloved Brother 4500D and machine embroidery stitched simultaneously on my Brother ULT2003D. The elegant, classic designs are from the Christian Symbols<\/em><\/a> collection from ABC Embroidery.<\/p>\n

The embroidery was done with 100% cotton Mettler 50\/3 Silk Finish\u00c2\u00a0thread and the hemstitching with Madeira Cotona 80\/2.\u00c2\u00a0 The extra weight of the silk Finish thread created embroidery that was beautifully raised and dimensional.<\/p>\n

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The altar cloth has a simple 1″ pinstitched hem.\u00c2\u00a0 The much smaller communion veil is\u00c2\u00a0trimmed with the liturgical lace which has a picot edge.<\/p>\n

After each use, Aunt Rheeta carefully launders the linens, rolls and stores them on a cotton covered tube then \u00c2\u00a0starches and presses them before they are next called into service.<\/p>\n

It has been years since she left the foreign mission field, but\u00c2\u00a0as she\u00c2\u00a0cooks and delivers meals to the sick, visits shut ins, cleans the church when her turn comes up, hosts prayer meetings in her home and serves the church\u00c2\u00a0as an elder, she has never left her life of Christian service.<\/p>\n

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It has been said that our life is a gift from God.\u00c2\u00a0 What we do with that life is our gift to God.\u00c2\u00a0 Aunt Rheeta gives Him great gifts.<\/p>\n

P.S.\u00c2\u00a0 She also lives a very active life.\u00c2\u00a0 Just months before this picture was\u00c2\u00a0 taken at my daughter’s wedding, my sweet brother Jon, standing\u00c2\u00a0just behind Aunt Rheeta {at age 72!!!} had taken her and my 78 year old mother parasailing in the Caribbean!<\/p>\n

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    Very few sewing projects have given me as much pleasure and satisfaction as this one. Made 2 years ago, in collaboration with my dear aunt, Rheeta Booth, for her church, this set of liturgical linens includes an altar … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[74,28,18],"tags":[407,273,277,276,1056],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6386"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6386"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32495,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6386\/revisions\/32495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}