Starting with a sketch, as usual,
for a larger figure of Jesus

Working on the fabric layout
with filler for shape

My improvisational fabric wall hanging will be installed again this year in St. Thomas Aquinas Church on Holy Saturday (April 8, 2023), after a bit of a refresh! It shows scenes in the Easter story, starting at the bottom (where St. Thomas Aquinas is presenting the story) and working our way to the top (with Jesus’s resurrection).

After the wall hanging was installed for last year’s Easter season, I was concerned that Jesus looked small and two-dimensional. Remembering some scriptures about the strong women who just kept going following Jesus, as shown in the fabric scenes, I decided to keep working and make His figure more prominent. I remembered my flat pattern class at ISU and sculpture class to help show Jesus as three-dimensional, animated and full of life. It was excellent timing for Lent.

Previously:

• Fabric wall hanging to celebrate St. Thomas Aquinas 75th
• Fabric wall hanging on display
• Scenes in the Easter drama

Skilled assistants secure some loose parts of the fabric while I sew a new book-holding hand on St. Thomas Aquinas (detail-oriented viewers had pointed out that his fabric version had only four fingers!)

My assistants sewed the new figure on
with me helping. The wall hanging now
more strongly emphasizes the risen Jesus.
   

Detail of the original top section (at left) and the same section
revised (at right) shows the difference in scale of the figure of Jesus.