The Morning Star

This is one of my favourite quilts, which I have made twice, for friends of mine. One of them wanted an artwork to go opposite their bed to help them feel positive when they woke up in the mornings. It is one of my Seven Gifts or Revelation series, mentioned in my earlier blogpost about Angels. Seven gifts are offered to the Christians in the seven churches mentioned in the first few chapters of the Book or Revelation, as a reward for remaining faithful right to the end. Also, at the end of the book, in Chapter 22 verse 16, Jesus says “I am the bright and morning star.”

The bright star breaks through the darkness of the night, which is already getting to the pale grey of early dawn. It could also depict the Resurrection, which also happened in the early hours. Not being an early morning person myself, I fear sometimes I may end up missing the whole thing! The only times I see the dawn is if I havent got to bed yet, or am still trying to get off to sleep, so not usually feeling at my best….. Hope I have captured the light and the moment OK, despite that.

Rainbows

Well, I had a few encouraging comments etc., for my new blog site and first ever blog, (on angels). One commenter even said my artwork was breathtaking! So I am feeling encouraged to have a go at another blog.

Today I was so excitied to be starting a new quilt. I’ve done the design, worked out the shapes and sizes on squared paper, chosen the fabrics, but today I actually cut the pieces. I feel very excited when I get to cut the peices, then the work is really on the go, no turning back…. This new quilt is the fourth in a new series I am working on using modern rainbow designs. I seem to be obsessed with rainbows at the moment; my new flat is done up in a rainbow colour scheme, I even dream about them. So I thought I would work rainbows out of my system, artistically speaking, by doing a whole series of them.

Rainbows are beautiful, joyful and enticing, and not just for children. I once drove miles down the M5 into a complete double rainbow. A rainbow is the sign of the promise given by God to Noah after the great flood, in the first book of Bible, and it comes in again in the last book of the Bible, – the fulfillment of the promise, where Jesus is described as having a rainbow around his throne.

Countries and movements use the rainbow in their flags, to show the hope, joy and diversity inherent in the rainbow symbol. I am happy to share the optimism of the rainbow in my series of art quilts. I hope I do it justice!

So, off to work more on this new quilt. Photos of this new series in progress soon I hope. Watch this space!

Angels

The above artwork is titled “All the Angels”. It is part of a series I did for an exhibition in a church, on the theme of the seven gifts God gives to the seven churches, in the first few chapters of the Book or Revelation. These gifts are offered to those who persevere right to the end. The particular gift referred to in this wall hanging is “I will acknowledge you before the Father and all the angels”. One might find that rather intimidating! But one has to realise that they already know us and are our friends. I think angels follow us in our lives, much as I hope eventually people will follow this blog!

I am finding it much harder than I thought to set up this blog satisfactorily, I definitely need to practise perseverance….. If you are reading this, please be patient while I hopefully get the hang of things.