A month or so ago Ken (our minister) had this great idea! “Let’s make a tablecloth for the Communion Table for Pentecost that the congregation contributes to. Can you take on that project Betty?” I rolled my eyes and smiled and said: “Sure!”
Instructions were written for our Pentecost Communion Tablecloth (PCT) and the colours of fire were settled. About 50 squares of fabric were cut and distributed to all who were willing. I put on my best teacher voice and said: “This is compulsory.” I received back about 45 squares - not bad! I had some very willing helpers in Kathryn, Graham and Caroline, Ken and Sue in that part of the project and as far as I am aware only one square was lost in the gathering process. This in itself was amazing considering the chaotic state of the building at the moment with all sorts of electricians, sound system people and organ builders working all week and other people using our church as their venue for events. Then there was another Covid19 loose lockdown so, unable to sing, I was not around for two weeks and others were delegated to collect and deliver.
Last weekend Kathryn, Sue, Glenda and I had such fun with the great unpacking of blocks to see what had arrived. We spent the morning crawling around the floor, reconstructing blocks that were damaged, and sorting an order that worked visually. None were rejected (although one was lost and was reborn). By lunch time (delicious food was supplied by the PCT Team) we had trimmed and arranged all the blocks of our ‘fire wall’ with lots of laughs and some frustration (with sewing machines not working and block pieces falling off).
Part way through the process of joining all the pieces we decided to check the measurements and, oops, I had trimmed them all to the wrong size, so more maths and fabric engineering later we had changed our layout and design to accommodate my faux pas!
We were even worried enough about our measurements that we needed to phone Ken to re-measure the Communion Table only to find his measurements matched ours exactly.
By evening the PCT was complete except for the back which needed to be added the next day. We decided it was far too late to think about how to do that so we agreed it was ‘wine time’ and dinner time (leftovers from lunch - delicious again). By the end of the Sunday (when I decided that my ‘service’ was to sew as I was not allowed to sing due to Covid19) the PTC was ready to be transported to the church. Thank you Ken and Sue for providing the transport.
The Tablecloth has a choir end - with lots of blocks from the music team plus others, a front that includes some fantastic blocks from most of our regular congregation members including our children, a royal end with more blocks, and the back on which there is a label and space for more blocks. So it is a "But wait, there’s [room for] more!” project.
I made three blocks. The verses about Pentecost found in Acts - the flames were donated by Stephanie and I even found a ‘flame-like’ fancy stitch on my sewing machine.
The choir - I did the drawing when I was about 16 for my church newsletter (All Saints Woollahra). I was given the background ‘choir’ fabric by a friend who sings with me in another choir and I had the music fabric in my stash.
The patchwork - those who know my style of patchwork will understand this one which includes my ‘leaders and enders’ that always come in handy.
So what did I learn from this project?
When Ken says he has an idea you have two choices - run the other way crying out “No! No! No!” or just see where it leads!
God loves everyone and their efforts, and so must I, even if those efforts are awkward to work with.
Sometimes things get difficult but with time, prayer, patience, a few sleepless nights, and many willing workers magic things can happen - friends were made, creative talents were discovered and opportunities arose to tell the Pentecost story to those unfamiliar with it.
Always read the instructions over and over again and then check them again.
The terms ‘fabric engineering’ and ‘wine time’ were new to me.
Not everything is perfect so our cloth is “imperfectly perfect”.
So thank you to anyone who contributed to create our “imperfectly perfect” Pentecost Communion Tablecloth and for the extra organisation and hands needed to bring it together.
