LENTEN TWELVES
Lenten Twelves: a creative practice
FASTING during Lent
During the Christian season of Lent, many people choose to give something up, fasting from chocolate or TV or social media. The 40-day fast is intended to mirror Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness, where he stepped away from society to commune with his Heavenly Father. Jesus set aside friends, family, and food with the intent to create more time to spend in prayer. He didn’t fast for fasting’s sake, but fasted so that he could have more time for something important to him.
In my family, I was always encouraged to consider what activity or food I would allow to fill the vacuum of time or hunger left behind by my fast. In other words: in this time of fasting, on what are you going to feast?
FEASTING INTO CREATIVITY
In 2015, my Mom and I decided to turn the practice on its head. Instead of focusing on what we would be fasting from (and possibly allowing the vacuum to be filled without thought), we would focus on the feasting. We decided to challenge each other to feast into creativity each week of Lent, creating an experimental 12” x 12” art quilt. And thus began Lenten Twelves.
Lenten Twelves 2021
2019 was the first year I worked full time in a job post grad school and 2020 was, as we know, incredibly turned upside down with the COVID19 pandemic hitting a few weeks into Lent. With that in mind, I return to Lenten Twelves in 2021 with grace for myself for the two-year gap in this practice.
In 2021, I am exploring variations on a theme with an Irish chain quilt as the starting point for my creative explorations. My color palette draws inspiration from my large Black and White Twelves quilt, using black, white, and a variety of creams to explore pattern, focal points, and layering. You can follow along these series on Instagram through the hashtag #LentenTwelves2021 or by clicking through the links and photos below:
Lenten Twelves 2018
Stations of the Cross
During Lent in 2018, I began a series that I deeply hope one day to finish. The series is centered around double wedding ring quilt blocks and the Stations of the Cross. The double wedding ring block carried double meaning for me. For one, it had significance as I planned my wedding (June 2018) and prepared for marriage. However, it also felt like an apt block to explore during Lent as we contemplate Jesus coming to the world to take the church as his bride. The “Stations of the Cross” is a 14-step meditative practice, based in Catholic tradition. The 14 devotions, or stations, are intended to be meditations that center around the day of Jesus crucifixion, following the story from when he is condemned to die to when he is placed in his tomb. For such a somber meditation, I chose a monochromatic palette of blacks, greys, and whites.
I only ever finished the first in the series, and this quilt, titled “Prayers in Gethsemane” actually comes chronologically before the Stations of the Cross begin in the Easter story.
Lenten Twelves 2017
In 2017, I returned to mini quilt sketches again and the 12-inch format for my creative explorations. However, rather than each quilt being 12” x 12”, instead each quilt varied in size and was screen printed with a 12" x 12" grid. This series was fun and playful in color and definitely got my creative juices flowing. Although with my grad school schedule I was only able to finish a printed quilt top every week rather than an entire quilt, it allowed my creative Lenten practice to spill into the 40 days of Easter feasting as I quilted and finished the quilts in this series. I started experimenting with cutting up the quilts once I had finished printing and quilting them, a style I termed “deconstructed quilts.” These deconstructed quilts became fun explorations in modern installation art, exploring how I could continue to rearrange a quilt and create new compositions by reorienting pieces and selecting new layouts. You can follow this series by clicking through the following blog posts or by clicking on a quilt below:
LENTEN TWELVES 2016
The second installment of Lenten Twelves grew larger than 12” x 12”. My mom’s Lenten Twelves scaled up to 15” x 15” quilts, and mine scaled up to full-blown baby quilts! I decided to use the Modern Courthouse Baby quilt has my starting point and explore composition and color placement each week. Each quilt centered around a hand-printed fabric panel of mine, and experimented with foreground vs. background, juxtaposing prints with common colors to create interesting transitions, and adding strong, visual elements such as stripes. You can follow this series by clicking through the following blog posts or by clicking on a quilt below:
Lenten Twelves 2015
This first year of Lenten Twelves, I experimented each week with a new technique. From curved piecing to printing on quilts to art quilt finishing techniques, I used each quilt to grow my practice and stretch my skills in a new direction, writing about my Lenten practice along the way. You can follow this series by clicking through the following blog posts or by clicking on a quilt below:
