Reformation Banner 2012

In between stitching on Winter Fairy (I'll post her update at the end of the month), I have been working on a banner for church.  I was inspired by a free cross-stitch pattern by solascripturaneedlework at wordpress to create a Reformation banner.  Reformation Sunday is the last Sunday of October so I wanted to have the banner finished by then.  It's all done in felt, approx 3' x 5'.  The white felt I got for the background wasn't heavy enough so I sewed two layers of it together, then sewed the red (where the pole will go) at the top.  Red is the parament color for Reformation Sunday, so I used it for the accents - I thought a full red background might be too much.  I also sewed the bottom of the fortress.  Everything else is glued.  In case you are not familiar with the words, they are the opening of a hymn written by Luther himself.  I printed the words in as large a font as I could, then blew them up about 300% to get the size I needed.  Cutting out the letters can be a challenge, but I discovered that if I basted each letter onto the felt instead of pinning, it went along pretty quickly.  I had the basic idea and did all the physical work but my hubby and daughter both contributed valuable advice on the design.