Communion Antependium

With so many families away for the summer, I believe the dedication of the final antependium won't take place until the fall. However, it has been delivered and shown to many so I decided to blog it now just to finish up.  This is the last of the 16 commissioned antependiums.  I chose to go with white and gold to complement an existing table cloth used in this church for Communion.  Previously, I showed you the grapes here and spoke of the quilting in this post.  Here are a few "in between" parts.  First, is laying out the elements of the design on the background.  I just do a few rough sketches with black Sharpie on freezer paper, and place it underneath the silk.

 It is dark enough to show through the white silk.

Embroidery with gold metallic thread is added free motion.  In the beginning this looks like a big mess and you have this awful feeling that it's ruined and you (and by "you" I mean me!) will need to start over from the beginning...but eventually the details start to emerge, and you (I) can breathe again.

It's amazing how the thread builds into something that looks like hand embroidery.

Around and around and around and around and around and around and around the grapes...and then on to the next one.  It's such fun to whip out and add a tendril here and there.

A border of gold is stitched along the outside edges using my Bernina's built in decorative stitches.

The elements are outline and echo quilted free motion.

In addition to echoing the grapes and wheat, a 1" grid is quilted in the background.

The worst part was hand sewing on the satin binding.  I would think twice before using satin again on the outer edge.

I took a quick snap when it was delivered to make sure it fit.  It looks lovely in this beautiful sanctuary.