Celebrating "Higan"

The "higanbana" or spider lily is the harbinger of autumn.

I think it is a good choice, because regardless of the weather we are having, when the equinox arrives, the flowers will be putting on a show.

This one greeted the full moon a few days ago and many can be seen in forested areas around the country. The leaves will not be seen until long after the flowers are finished, so the flowers stand alone in their glory.

At my last home there were pink and white flowers as well but having very little garden space, I only could dig out a few bulbs to bring and those have popped up in three locations but are all red.

Even when you are expecting them, they seem to pop up overnight, an amazing fete since they stand over a foot tall.

This season brings me to another fall "tradition" ... at least, for me. I use that word with tongue-in-cheek because, to me, a "tradition" is most likely an accident that has been allowed to happen more than once.

At the end of summer vacation, our church switches from our summer schedule, back to two services. When that happens, either the last Sunday in August or the first one in September, we hold a "rally day" when all the various activities and ministries set up tables and the congregation can become familiar with... perhaps even becoming involved in ... those team efforts.

The "rally day" team comes up with a logo and a theme, which then gets passed to the Stewardship team to use in the fall stewardship campaign, an effort to encourage pledges of time, talents and money to the work of the church.

Having served as both "elder"and member of that committee for many years, I have experienced all kinds of leaders, those who build a team, and those who take over and do everything by themselves with very little use of the committee other than preparing booklets and posting mail. After one year of seeing a ragged paper poster hanging in the foyer for a year, and having had my husband take over the job of elder, I volunteered to make a quilted hanging or banner to put in the foyer. That happened again the following year, and then last year as well.  But, what that means, is being stuck with a computer generated graphic that is feel-good pretty and has little to do with commitment other than showing up and being a part of the church as a whole.

So, here we go again. Within two weeks, I am expected to turn the graphics into a suitable banner.
So. the time has come to get going and Saturday I cut out some paper to draft a pattern I can work with. I also went to the local "button-ya" (fabric, yarns, sewing supplies in a tiny shop) to buy fabric dye. I'm not sure how this will all go together, but yesterday I tried my hand at dying the fabric to match the graphics.

You can see the results of those efforts along with the graphics (minus the lettering, which says. " Many hands, One body"

(I miss my neighbor's gate and had to substitute the barrier rope surrounding the construction site)

I suppose I will do a reverse applique to add the cross in the center circle ... there is a limit to what tie-dying can do and I think this is it!

When I began drawing those hands onto the paper for making a pattern, the first thing I noticed was that all those hands were right hands. Not a lefty in the bunch!

Maybe I should have gone back to the committee and told them if they wanted all right-handers, they needed to find someone else to make the banner.
Of course, since they were all men, it isn't likely that would work, so I tweaked the drawing to my own liking, and switched out some of those right hands for left.

 So, here is my plan, and I'd better hop to it.

I will put the lettering at the top and bottom and maybe add some kind of a border using whatever fabrics I select for the hands.

With the constant rotation of members, I wonder how many banners I will have to make before we can begin rotating themes.....

Once we rotate ... it just might become a "tradition"!