Reformation banner brings group closer
The creation of a Reformation banner commemorating 500 years since the founding of the Lutheran Church isn't the only product of six months of work by parishioners.
The women tapped by First English Lutheran Church, 241 N. Main St., enjoyed the experience so much they might set up a permanent sewing/quilting group.
Majorie Rogner of Butler said, “The Reformation Committee appointed me to produce a banner. I looked around the congregation for women who had the gifts I needed.”
Those women included Marilyn Shoup and Jeanette Cunningham of Butler and Debbie Gallagher of Saxonburg.
In January, the group parceled out their assignments.
Rogner said, “We assigned tasks, we knew what the tasks were and we went ahead and did it.”
The first thing the group did was hand out the assignment of creating the nine panels representing Lutheran symbols that made up the banner.
Shoup said, “Jeanette and I picked out the fiber and donated it to the project.”
The group worked on the individual panels starting in January. Cunningham created two panels, Rogner, three and Gallagher did three.
Shoup said she outsourced her panel, the center one illustrating Luther's Rose, to Concordia Haven I resident Alberta Osborne.
Shoup said, “Alberta is a professional. She has given classes on quilting for many, many years.”
The group worked on the individual panels starting in January.
Rogner said, “We finished it about two weeks ago. The pastor wanted it dedicated on Pentecost Sunday (June 4).
“Debbie Gallagher had a one-arm quilting machine that we did the cloth on,” said Rogner. “The bottom (of the banner) has roots and up on the borders are embroidered leaves that represent the Tree of Life.”
“It (the banner) started out being 86-by-103, but when we trimmed it, it turned out a little smaller,” said Rogner.
“It's about the size of a queen-sized quilt,” said Cunningham.
Fortunately, because of the cotton fiber it was made of, the banner wasn't much heavier than a quilt which helped when the banner was attached to a banner brace and brackets made by Jerry Shanor and hung by Shanor, Dan Morrow and Ted Giese.
“We were pleasantly surprised and we were all proud” of how the banner turned out,” said Shoup.
While the celebration of the Reformation is a yearlong affair, its makers said the banner “will stay up there forever. We put too much work into it,” according to Rogner.
Rogner said none of the women really knew each other at the beginning of the project, but that changed as the months passed and the banner begin to take shape.
They all formed friendships and honed skills that are too important to let lapse now that the banner is done, said Cunningham.
The women are talking about forming a sewing/quilting group that could include members outside the First English congregation.
