Stations Journal Journey #35

Dec 6, 2025 

Station #14 has begun! This is truly a significant moment worthy of noticing. Hard to fathom is the place I was in a year ago, stepping out in both faith and trust into the unknown. It hasn’t gone by in a flash, but rather feels like a long row of similar days, a marathon, when I dedicated an entire year to repeating a pattern: trust, prepare, begin… trace pieces, cut them out, choose fabrics, iron the pieces on to the fabrics, cut them out again, adhere them together in their intended design, sew. Pause and reflect (but not for long!). Repeat.

Let me tell you a bit about #14. Already we are finding it to be quite a technical challenge. Of course it is! Why should we go out any differently than we came in? To depict Jesus in the tomb, I intended to use silk organza to provide the foremost layers of the tomb space like a scrim over much of the panel. The pattern’s lines criss-cross each other and make us cross-eyed! That’s the confusing part; seeing both the lines of the background pieces and the foreground pieces at the same time. 

The palette is almost entirely black, grey and white. I don’t have many black fabrics, since I generally make art for church liturgical use - strong in vibrant jewel tones. I think I can make it work, however, since it is 1.5 hours to the nearest fabric store and December in the mountains. I should be able to use my large black cones of thread for much of it. Last month, while in Canmore, I found the perfect grey silk organza, so it’s ready and waiting.

I am infusing much meaning into this piece - not that the others weren’t! The folks at my church have given me permission to use a retired Fair Linen from the altar, in the shroud of Jesus. It feels amazing to know that it is already infused with traces of the body and blood of Christ, worship, prayer, the care of the altar guild, and sacred ritual. But also that this panel will carry into the future pieces from my small church currently at the brink of existence. 

So much of this project is coming together in convergence at this stage. A light-hearted example is that though my studio assistant and I have been predicting how many pieces it would take to create each banner, this is the first time I have ever been spot-on the nose! And at 102 pieces, it is delightfully less than most others!

Each step of this marathon encompassing over 15 years has been a process in trusting the next step ahead - just that ONE. Many days, including today, I tell myself when I think of an upcoming challenge: ‘that is tomorrow’s problem, not today’s’. And thus, one day at a time, one piece at a time, one challenge at a time, we have been trusting that God is with us, God is blessing this project, and through it, us.

That is what I trust for today.