Small things can make a Big difference.

I was recently requested by a Priest to make a new Monstrance cover for the Church he's just become Parish Priest for. He said the old one had a burn in it...(and it had been like that for years!!)

Not only that, but it might just have been one of the ugliest looking covers I've seen in my life - (even without the burn!) He wanted a more classic shape, and also requested a matching Pyx cover with a Eucharistic motif on it.

I digitised the motif, and it was machine-embroidered in gold thread.

 Both were lined in lovely deep red silk.

I think they turned out well, even if pretty much anything would have been better than the original!!

Father was very pleased with the result, and sent me a photo of it in action, as it were! I'm sure the Parish will be richly blessed with a Priest who cares about the small details.

Liturgical Splendour, Finally Done!

At last I have finished the altar frontal, superfrontal and tabernacle veils I started during Lent this year. It is for St Birinus Church in Oxfordshire, one of the loveliest little churches I've ever seen. I did get everything rigged up in time for Passiontide, but there were a few tweaks needed, and I've managed to find time to do some tweaking now the First Communion dresses are coming to a close (still one to finish off for August, though!)

 Although it's a lovely church, it is very difficult to get a good photo with my camera, these are the best shots I could manage.

It was a major effort of pattern-matching, since two different types of fabric were sent as being suitable to match - unfortunately one, being partly made with metallic threads, turned out to be much more closely woven, so ultimately smaller (shorter in length) than the other. Being a determined sort of person, I did as much stretching as I could in order to get the patterns to match up across the panels, and in the end it didn't turn out too badly, although there was a fear that the stretched one would either split with all the stretching, or surviving that, would shrink back and cause some rippling along the join,  It doesn't seem to have done that to any great degree so far!

Resurrexit! Sicut Dixit

What do you do when a Priest asks, on the Tuesday of Holy Week, whether you could find time to make up an altar frontal for his Chapel in time for Easter? You get cracking, of course! Although I couldn't do it on the Wednesday, fortunately I had Maundy Thursday fairly free, so I was able to complete it before Good Friday.

   There was just enough fabric left over to make a lectern fall, but no time to do more than edge stitch it to stop it fraying! It will be properly backed and finished in due course.

I thought it would be easier to make up than the previous one I was asked to make - for Advent and Lent, all those wobbly bits of gold trim - so hard to get in a straight line!!

But pattern matching the edge pieces needed to extend the width is not so easy when they are on full view with no gold trim to hide the joins, so it took almost as long.

However, I think it turned out splendidly to make a fitting frontal for the Feast of the Resurrection. 

Happy Easter.

Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

How about having a pillow case made to celebrate the victory of Don Juan of Austria over the Moslems at the Battle of Lepanto!

White founts falling in the courts of the sun,

And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;

There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,

It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,

It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,

For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.

...

Our Lady of the Rosary, ora pro nobis.

(Actually, this pillow case was made as a gift for someone's God daughter!)

Sacred Heart Restoration Project

A friend of mine asked me if I could do anything with this old statue she'd found at the back of her elderly Mum's wardrobe. She had someone in mind to give it to, so I said I'd have "a go" at it.

It was pretty much the worse for wear, and had a few burn marks and splodges of glue where the head had been stuck back on in the past.

I had hoped that with some of my cleaning solvents I could have given it a good clean, but nothing could improve the discolouration of the paint and gilding, so I realised it would need a thorough re-painting.

Here are a few more before and after photos.

I'm sure with the next owner the statue will regain a patina from much loving prayers being said before it.