banner redux :)

So I'm pretty happy about this. I made this banner over 15 years ago (maybe 20!) and was never ever happy with how it turned out. I was shooting for the names of the Trinity in a cross shape. But in typical *me* fashion, and owing to the fact that math is definitely not my favorite thing, and that I usually fly at things without a complete plan.....about half way through it all I realized that I was going to run out of room before I hit the end of my fabric. Hindsight tells me I could have left off a few names and probably made it work, but I was on a roll, so I just started bunching them all together. ( and now I realize there are a few more names I would have liked to have included. sigh.)

About 5 years ago I decided to take it down ( it filled a rather large space in the back entryway at church) and redo it. And promptly put it in the back closet and forget about it for a few years. eek. 

Fast forward to this summer and some hot-weather-hibernation......I dug it out and got to work. The names were originally painted on tablecloth canvas, using an over head projector to trace out the computer generated words. I simply cut them all out, leaving a small 'halo' - re-positioned them on a larger background ( using 108" wide quilt backing fabric, doubled. The fabric I chose has a nice mottling to it and really added to the overall look, I think :) )  and glued it all back together using fabric glue.

So here's the finished project:

which is MUCH more like my original vision. Of course, it looks a little more like a sword than a cross, but I can live with that. The fun part of the whole thing is that there is a puzzle included- if you start at the top and look for the dark letters within some of the words, then make your way south, you'll find one more name !