Banner #3

[meneleth.livejournal.com]

I worked hard Saturday evening and managed to finish banner #3 so it could be hung on Sunday.  Thank goodness for Aleene's craft glue!  It works really well with felt and dries fast!  I must admit, I'm very pleased with this banner.  I wanted to show the reconciliation of God and man through the cross and I think it does that. 

The hands were a challenge, not to cut out but to add the details.  First there was the challenge of what to use for the lines.  I didn't want to use any type of marker because it would bleed in the felt.  I finally decided to cut very thin strips of the dark purple felt. That presented another challenge - the strips kept tearing apart because they were so narrow.  I had to go very carefully.  The final challenge was attaching them.  I didn't have any way to mark where they should go, and I know better than to trust my eye for that.  I looked through my sewing box but didn't have any tracing paper.  Finally, I put the pattern on the felt and stuck pins through from the back to mark all the starting and ending points.  I placed the strips on and then carefully glued a little at a time so I could keep the strip in place.  It took a while but was worth the effort.