My 7-year-old daughter Jodie made her first communion in April, 2001. At our parish, each family makes a small (14" x 24" or so) banner that is used to decorate the church during their special Mass. We got her banner finished early, in February. I even learned how to make some fancy-ish tassels for the finishing touch.

The photo at left will show the entire banner, hanging on the wall. The entire banner wouldn't fit on the scanner bed, so I needed to take a photo and scan it.

Our banner is made of felt and gold ribbon. We glued the felt in place, then I hand-stitched a blanket stitch around each felt piece with matching DMC floss, and stitched the ribbon (on the cross) down with an overcast stitch using some Japan Gold fiber. The photo detail highlights the buttonhole stitching.

The bottom of the banner is fringed (just the gold felt/tablecloth). The top has a wooden dowel in a sleeve; the dowel has some wooden finials on each end. The cording and tassels were made from yarn that I inherited from my mom.

This was actually a family project. Jodie told my DH what design she wanted. Dale drew it. Jodie decided on the colors and brought the design to me. We picked the felt, cut it out, and glued it in place together. Then I did the hand stitching. We're pretty happy with how it came out.

Pattern name:	Communtion Banner
Designers:	Jodie, Dale and Margaret M. Davaz
Fabric:	Felt
Floss:	DMC cotton
Copyright year:	2001

Back to Cameo's Corner: 2001
On to next project: Striped Stocking Ornament