“It is good!”
A Baptist minister and a massage therapist (sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, right?), teamed up this summer to create something beautiful for BWIM NC.
BWIM NC launched a new program this year that gives women the opportunity to go and hear a woman preach, called “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Ministers.” Yes, the name was inspired by the book, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”
At some point this spring, I had the idea that we should create a stole that all the women can wear when they preach, much like how the jeans in the book were worn by each of the friends. I mentioned the idea to my friend Susan Linn (the massage therapist in this story), and she immediately got excited and offered to help. Susan is also a quilter and fiber artist. I thought for a second that she might just offer to make it herself, but as it turns out, she much prefers teaching others to create things with fabric over making custom pieces.
The stole is inspired by the Sisterhood of the Traveling Ministers logo. The first step was to find some fabric. Susan suggested a store that carries beautiful batiks, located in Wytheville, VA. I stopped by there in May on the way home from a trip to Ohio. With the logo in hand and about 30 minutes to shop before they closed, I quickly picked out fabric.
Susan and I set aside a day in August to get together and make the stole. As it turned out, we needed five days altogether. Our first step was to create the design of the stole by coloring it out on thin tissue/pattern paper. Then, we cut out the fabric pieces to fill in the design.
We used a backing with adhesive on each piece, which had to be ironed into place. At this point, we were getting excited about how it was turning out!
The last steps were to topstitch all the pieces in place, sew the front and back of the stole together, and add the fringe (which we found in an Etsy shop in Greece).
I am so glad Susan insisted on teaching me, rather than doing it for me. I understand now God’s response to each day of creation by standing back and declaring, “It is good!” That is how I feel each time I look at the stole. I can’t wait to see all the ministers wear it. I hope you will get to see it too! Sign up for Sisterhood of the Traveling Ministers in Durham HERE. Registration for other SOTTP sites will take place closer to event date.