Christian Quilts for Every Season, Part 3: Pentecost

​Hands down, this is my favorite.

Of all the hangings I've made for my church (5 so far, with another in progress), the Pentecost banner is my clear favorite. 

The Pentecost story has captured my imagination since I was quite young, and why not? It has all the elements of a blockbuster movie: sound effects (the sound of a rushing wind so loud it drew a crowd); visual effects (tongues of fire!); and transformative human drama. 

If that wasn't enough inspiration, I kept thinking of these lines from the dazzling poem, "God's Grandeur," by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

      The world is charged with the grandeur of God. 
            It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

​Seriously, "shining from shook foil"? Just close your eyes and picture that.

Then the poem ends with this:

            Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs — 
      Because the Holy Ghost over the bent 
            World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
      
I wanted to pull all those elements into my design.  The flaming brilliance.  The rushing wind -- if not the sound of it at least the sense of powerful movement. The image of the Holy Spirit descending as a dove.

​For the flaming effect, it helped that the traditional liturgical color for Pentecost is red. And what would be more natural than a Bargello piecing pattern, since this quilt- piecing technique is adapted from "flame stitch" needlepoint?   I chose 11 tonal prints in a range of red hues, from almost-orange to almost-violet.

The color variations in the Bargello pattern create a sort of undulating movement, but I wanted something more directional and forceful, to bring in the drama of that rushing wind.  I used golden rays, fanning out from the top center of the banner.  Borne on these rays of light, the dove of the Holy Spirit plunges downward.  The rays, 7 in number, also represent the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

For all the appliqué elements of this piece, I used the needle-turn technique, and I'm honestly not so thrilled with the results.  If I had it to do over,  I'd use fused appliqué with machine-overcast edges. Or maybe not. My needle-turn skills have improved enormously ​since I made this.​​
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Sometime after my Pentecost banner was finished, I discovered the gorgeous stained glass in the photo at left. It was designed around 1600 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, a genius of Italian Baroque art and architecture. 
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I'm glad I didn't find it sooner, or I might have tried to duplicate it. As it is, I think my hanging incorporates two or three of the same design elements. 

Like the Advent and Easter banners, the pattern for this one will be available for instant download in my Craftsy shop.