Banner details

Here are more detailed pictures of the individual sections of the banner with descriptions. I am starting in the upper right and proceeding clockwise around the banner. The first three are in this post, the next four will be in tomorrow's post.

Family. This section includes pictures of Perry and different family members along with charms that spell out the word "love" and jewelry from different family members. The coral and gold pin is very old and came from my Great Grandmother, Grammy Baugh. the piece of Zuni inlay and the cat pin belonged to Perry's Grandmother Berman. The Celtic tree and the silver and citrine piece are mine. The ceramic mask was made by one of my father's friends.

Church. North Shore Unitarian Church is represented by the sanctuary windows, two pictures of Perry’s Affirmation Class (one at the beginning of the year and one in Boston), and a picture of Perry delivering the clothing she collected during her service project. The word "faith" spelled out in charms and some pieces of jewelry that belonged to her affirmation mentor finish out this section.

Sports. Perry is quite the athlete. She tried gymnastics and ice skating before discovering karate. She was a cheerleader for several years and has played soccer since she was 5. She also plays basketball. This year, she ran cross country for her middle school. The tiger is her middle school mascot.

Banner finished and presented

I have neglected this blog for a couple of months. It has been lost in the normal, and sometimes unusual events associated with a family of active teenagers and adults who work and travel. I have not been neglecting my needlework. I recently completed a banner for my daughter, Perry.

The 8th graders, and a few older 7th graders who like my daughter slip through the system, participate in a coming of age program at our church. The young people are paired with an adult mentor for the year, participate in a number of activities, complete a service project, and go on a trip to Boston. In the spring, they are honored by the men and women as well as their families and have a chance to speak in Church on Sunday morning.

The girl's receive a banner or gift of some kind from their mothers and mentors. I have made or helped make banners for other girls and over the years Perry has told me what she liked and did not like. Here is her banner:

The basic design on the banner is a stylized chalice, the symbol of Unitarian Universalism. The chalice is surrounded by 7 areas containing things that are important to Perry: family, our church, sports, pets and animals, travel, popular culture, and friends. I designed the quilt using EQ6 software. It is machine pieced, hand and machine appliqued, and machine quilted. The pictures were printed using an ink jet printer on satin and sheer fabric. The beading and embroidery were done by hand. I bought some of the beads for her banner; others came from old pieces of jewelry. The tin letters that form her name were purchased on a trip to New Orleans in 2004. I will post more about the individual areas over the next couple of days.

Butterflies and Dragonflies

I continue to work on my UFO (unfinished object) list. Now that my Lizzie Kate ornaments are done, I have been working on Chatelaine's Elizabethan Sweet Bag. I finished all of the over one dragonflies and butterflies. I need to finish the bees and leaves and then add all of the beads. I have not decided what to do about the back. I have enough threads to stitch the back, either with a complete or partial repeat of the front. I could also use the threads to make a tassel to close the bag. I will have to see how it looks when I am done.

I have also been knitting and have worked on my koigu socks. I am using the same toe up sock pattern that I used for the Kaffe Fassett self striping socks. This time, I read the needle size before knitting a sock and a half. They fit snugly and have more pooling than I thought they would but when they are on my feet, they look pretty cool.

Lizzie Kate Christmas Ornaments

I started stitching this group of 12 Christmas ornaments in 2006. I finished 6 of them, misplaced 4 and then put them away in a basket of works in progress. This year, I found the 4 I had misplaced and finished the other 6 including the tree topper start.

I am very happy to have them done and plan on finishing them to hang on the feather tree this Christmas.