Lenten Banner #1

You may (or may not) have wondered why my cross-stitching has slowed so much. Here is a major reason. I've gotten together with another woman from my church to create four banners to hang along the sides of the sanctuary during Lent. When I proposed this, I thought, oh what fun! A few of us will get together for a couple of weekends and make banners. You know, the classic "sewing circle". It didn't quite turn out that way (I really should know better). There are just two of us, with occasional help from our daughters when they're available. She & I both work, so the only time we can get together is for a little while on Saturday afternoons. We cut out the banners, headers and crosses - all four banners will be identical that way. The girls got about half of the letters cut out to spell "Lent" at the top of each banner. Now in order to complete these before Lent is over, I've neglected cross-stitch and all but basic housework to spend my free time on the rest. Last night I completed the first one, just in time to hang for the first Sunday in Lent. I have some work done on the second and I hope it will go a little more quickly. My cohort is working on an idea for the third banner and we agreed on the pattern for the fourth. Meanwhile, here is a picture of the first banner. I want to mention that my oh-so-handy hubby cut the poles (I stained them) and added the chains for hanging.