Revelation Quilt-Finished

 Earlier in the week I shared in process posts for this quilt, and I'm back today to share the final thing.  This one took me quite a long time, I started it last December, and just finished this week for a total of about ten months.  In a rare case for me, I also worked on a couple of other quilts during the same time; I usually like to work on just one major project at a time, but this quilt really did not travel well so I wasn't able to work on it on some of my sewing trips.  In any case, I'm very pleased with how it turned out and so glad to be finished.  

Revelation, c. 2026, Shannon Conley, 51x73

This quilt is for section of our service when we have communion;  Eucharist is one of the main sacraments of our church.  The top banner says "The Gifts of God for the People of God" and are the words said to invite all God's people to come forward for communion.  The words in the yellow border are the words said when taking communion, "The body of Christ, the bread of heaven." and "The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation."

The Eucharistic symbolism continues in the borders.  I included the alpha and the omega along with four trinity knots to remindness of the wholeness of God in creation and in the Eucharist.  And the central image on the bottom is the consecrated communion host featuring the Christogram "IHS".

To complete the communion symbolism, the left and right border feature tesselating communion chalices.  The tesselating shapes make me very happy from a design perspective.

The central imagery and text are from the book of Revelation 22:1-2.  "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.  On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."

I love that text and the imagery.  Fruit trees have always been part of what I think of as "home" both growing up where we had apple and cherry and peach trees, and here now where my beloved crabapple tree.  I also love tree of life imagery, and this seemed to be a wonderful time to incorporate it.  I thought the text was especially suitable for a communion quilt as well.  "The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations" reminds us that we are called to go out into our communities and our world, healing and loving and serving others.  I'm reminded of another text from our communion prayer; "Deliver me from the presumption of coming to this table for solace only and not for strength, for pardon only, and not for renewal."  Communion as a sacrament, is for comfort and forgiveness but also for strength to carry forward out mission in the world as we strive to follow God's will for us.

Since I'm a mountain girl not a city girl, the origin of the waters of life is the mountains.  My home mountains in New Mexico.  Interestingly, this is the third time these mountains have shown up in my liturgical quilts;  I think of them as the source, and the place where God's creation resonates most with me personally.

And you won't be surprised to note that the trees of life with their twelve different fruits are all trees of either my family home in New Mexico or my home here and now.

On the left side of the river (from left to right) are a juniper, red delicious apple, crabapple, pistachio, sweet cherry, and redbud.

And the tree on the right side of the river starts with pie cherries, then aspen (yes I know it doesn't technically have fruit, but it's there anyway), peach, yellow delicious apple, piñon pine, and scrub oak.

Revelation is a book filled with so much beautiful (and scary) imagery and symbolism, I love filling in those symbols with things that resonate with me.

Revelation, c. 2026, Shannon Conley, 51x73.

This is the penultimate quilt in the original liturgical series,  I hope to finish the final one by Palm Sunday 2027.