Stars for patchwork altar frontal for Ipsden Church
A rather depleted group of 4 patchworkers met for the fifth session but we hope to get more into the monthly swing of things from now on, now that holidays are over and thoughts are turning to log fires, pots of tea and woolly jumpers. Anyway 4 is better than none and as we assembled at least 2 stars each in about 2 hours, it wasn’t too bad – we are moving forward. I gave out another 10 or so stars to be tacked and pieced as people thought they might be able to do more hand sewing in the lengthening evenings – and with the hope that a few good TV programmes will appear or boxed sets of missed series turn up. Failing being entertained by the television, I can only recommend gently training your husband to read out loud to you. (Start with short stories or P.G.Wodehouse and gradually increase the profundity of the literature until he can go on for an hour or more and “The Divine Comedy” can be placed on his knee and meet no objection. Well, no, we haven’t yet ascended to Dante’s heights but Dickens and Trollope are very good for long winter evenings – if you can cope with Lily Dale and her embodiment of saccharine femininity manacled as it usually was to unthinking patriarchy.) But I digress.
More fabrics for the altar frontal
We have now completed 120 stars in 44 different fabrics. 30 yellow background diamonds have also been finished and some of these have now been joined to the stars – very exciting. There are more fabrics which I haven’t yet cut up and I still keep turning up scraps enough for single stars. Sometimes pieces from different stars fall in a heap together and it’s impossible to resist sewing those together. I like the idea of these random misfits catching your eye in a field of well matched order. A couple of my favourites appear below.
Random misfit star
We are making this frontal for the altar that isn’t an altar. I should explain. The oldest part of our church is a structure rather like a small barn to which a nave and chancel have been added (there are other structural imponderables such as what happened to the south aisle, the arches of which are clearly visible from the outside, but let’s not go there…). Anyway, at the east end of this barn-like space, someone, at sometime has added a table which has been covered in a plain cream brocade cloth and has on it a simple wooden cross and this to all intents and purposes looks like an altar. But it has not been consecrated and is not dedicated to a saint. Typically, this place in a church would be the Lady Chapel but this is not possible here because our church , and hence also the high altar, is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. This got me thinking.
Random misfit star
About 2miles away, and visible from the vicarage, is Berin’s Wood where the C7th holy man St Birinus is said to have built a simple chapel of which there are now no remains. He is reputed to have founded other local churches like St Peter and St Paul in Checkendon (3-4 miles away and the seat of our rector – if rectors have seats) and even one as far away as Reading but he is of course most associated with the abbey at Dorchester-on-Thames whose first bishop he became. When I sew I sit by a window and often look up and out onto Berin’s Hill and I realised that if not the altar, then certainly the altar frontal, has been made with thoughts of St Birinus in mind. The empty space in the church and the altar that isn’t an altar has gradually taken on a new significance as by associating it with St Birinus we are reminded of a part of the area’s early history so often forgotten. Formal consecration is unnecessary and what small church needs 2 altars anyway. But in Ipsden Church, the only building in the village going back as far as the C12th, a little connection has been made back 400 years beyond that as we celebrate the memory of this man who came to our woods from Rome.(For more about the saint visit Dorchester Abbey’s page about him.)
Ipsden Church: north ‘aisle’
9 Comments
These look lovely – the frontal is going to make a huge difference in that corner, and what a ood place to show it off, too. I often work to the accompaniment of iPlayer radio – especially crime drama – or audio books. Very helpful as a kind of counterirritant to concentrate on during repetitive tasks like database population or batch-formatting image files. A recent delight has been Mapp & Lucia, read by Miriam Margolyes. And I love Take the Floor for doing household chores.
Thanks, Anna. I too work to iPlayer, though the site irritates me. I spend a lot of sewing time listening to Melvyn Bragg’s “In Our Time” archive. I’ve enjoyed skimming (too much sewing to catch up with) through your blog and will go back and spend more time reading it. Next week, I want to do a post about the library chairs and will mention your blog then.
Hello. I’ve come to you via Jane Brocket and I am so happy that she mentioned you. I’ve enjoyed reading your blog entries very much. I live nearby and pass the turning to your village most days as I drive home from work, but have never visited. Anyway, I just wanted to say hello and that I’m here lurking in the background!
It is very good to hear that you enjoy the blog and funny to think how we’ve probably driven past each other. Ipsden is not a picture perfect village and is so spread out it’s difficult to tell if it’s a village at all but there is a vibrant and active community who from time to time get together to do marvellous things – like the pantomime (may be a rest year this year), music in the field and the Art and Craft Festival in the church.
I love hearing the history of your village and the missionary work of St. Birinus.
We have a knitting group that meets every Thursday. Most of the time we are all working on our own projects but we recently knit squares for a beautiful afghan which was sold at our church’s silent auction for our church’s mission trip to help rebuild homes in Joplin Missouri. People were very generous!
I found your blog through Jane Brocket as well. Is there a chance that you will continue with this blog in the future? I was hoping to see more 🙂
Goodness, it is a long time since I posted on this. Stars continue to be made and things march on. We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago – all two of us – as everybody seems to have been very busy. I hope to blog about the position so far next week.
At the moment I’m devoting myself to an altar cloth for Balliol College Chapel (http://www.addisonembroideryatthevicarage.co.uk/2013/11/24/whitework-altar-cloth-for-balliol-college-chapel/) and when I’ve finished that I’ll be devoting more time to the altar frontal..
Thank you for your interest – it’s very encouraging.
Keep working ,impressive job! dffedbeackkg
My needle is never still. Thank for commenting.