Chinook Winds Stoles

Colleen and I were commissioned to make these stoles for the Chinook Winds Region of The United Church of Canada.    The one on the left represents prairies to mountains and back to ocean, while the one on the right is prairies, mountains and mountain lakes.  The backs are Red, for those times when Red is the appropriate color, the stoles can be reversed.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the backing--you'll have to trust that it is a lovely red Batik, with imprints of leaves and other flora.   

 Colleen did a phenomenal job of piecing, and then I got to have the fun of quilting. 

 These stoles have many similarities, and yet are still different to one another, a pair, but not matched. 

 

I'd like to take a moment and admire Colleen's artistry here--see how the mountains line up--and it doesn't matter who stands on which side?   Brilliant!  All I had to do was add some texture.  

Covenanting Stoles and Labyrinth

We had a covenanting at our church this fall, which is a formal event when a there is a new minister.  So, I made this labyrinth wall hanging, and the back is signed like a guest book for the event.

 The piecing was a little wonky, so I basted the whole thing to try and get it as straight as possible. 

The quilt should have been blocked before it was hung, but, it was on a deadline. 


And we also made stoles for the existing and new minister--these new stoles match the Covenants wallhangings we had made, and are beautiful rainbows. 

 The quilting is same but different. 

I am so thrilled with how these turned out.  Colleen did such a great job choosing the color changes and piecing them....and they look so good on our Ministers

The Rose Window wallhanging in the back of this photo was the 'guest book' from the previous Covenanting in 2012.

Stoles

 Colleen and I made these two stoles--she pieces, and I quilt.  We're both happy.

 This red one is the 7th of a series we were commissioned to do, and will be the last made with these fabrics.  Previous stoles can be seen here and here

 And this 'everyday' stole is one we made for the new minister at our church.  Colleen used many fabrics that are in the wall hangings and from compassionate quilts we have made for congregation members and from the stole of our other Minister, so this really has ties to his new congregation.

 We tried a new construction method this time--I quilted with just the top and the batting, and put the backing on afterwards--that allowed me to quilt right to the edges and use rulers on the red one, so I am happy with this method.  The red stoles are backed with a batik, and it sat nicely.  This one was backed with a silkier fabric and so Colleen put some tacking stitches in to keep it lying nicely.

Stoles

A few years ago Colleen and I took a commission to make stoles for newly ordained ministers, and this year we completed the second half of that commission.  Colleen pieced the stoles, and then it was my turn to play.  I started by adding 2 main elements to each stole-

The elements are all lined up in these photos, but when worn, they'd be at different heights on each stole.

and then I started adding texture to the rest of the stoles.

  Red is the color of Pentecost, so the imagery is flames, flora, fauna (which I'm not good at quilting)....This first one got fern feathers, and flames above the trinity symbol.

The next stole was pieced with some checkerboard piecing, so thats where the quilting inspiration came from--some geometric shapes, and some flames.

 I think these geometric shapes will look quite neat from the pews.

And the third stole was angles and got a bit more of a modern quilting treatment, with some flames, and some 'hills' to represent the earth.

I did get a photo back of two of the stoles being worn, they looked pretty good.