Everyone in town knows our building as "the pink church." I was told that the wife of a past rector had planted pink roses next to the church and insisted that it be painted to match. It's been pink for many years; nobody has any intention of changing it now. So I took a bunch of pinkish fabrics over to the church and found a hand-dye that perfectly matches the pink painted stucco. Traced the outline onto the cloth, ironed fusible to the back, and let it sit until I felt brave enough to begin. Found a nice grassy print in my stash, and a piece of cloth that I'd dyed with madder to make the reddish roof. Added wildflowers, indigo-dyed sky. Printed the label onto cloth, then painted it and made it into Eagle Lake. I worked much of yesterday and today on it, and will probably finish tomorrow.
This is the drawing I used. I darkened the outlines with magic marker so I'd be able to trace them.
I'm pretty happy with how the church came out. Tomorrow I'll stitch the cross onto the tower and put a backing on the piece. I used felt instead of batting because it stays very firm when layers are fused onto it.
I'm going to stitch a lot of leaves and flowers into the grassy print also.
And this is the label. It's so nice to be able to print lettering onto cloth and not have to mess with applique or painting precise text. Plus, people always ask whether there's really a lake in Eagle Lake. There is, a pretty big one. It's a bend in the Colorado River that got cut off by a natural dam long ago; now it's used as an irrigation reservoir, and there are a lot of fancy houses around it. Also a healthy population of alligators and geese.
The church holds its Pentecost service on the lakeshore each year--I thought it was important to get the lake onto the banner.
So--one more promise kept. A relief, as it was nagging at me; now I can go make dinner with a clear conscience.