First Flags: Vivika Hansen DeNegre

I thought it would be nice to post a few pictures of the first prayer flags I made several years ago.  They were not fancy, or specially stitched.  They were not planned, organized, or fretted over.  They were not works of art.



They WERE, however, very difficult to make and hard to send to their recipient.

My dear friend Suzanne, who was like a sister to me in so many ways, was entering the last phase of her life and dieing of breast cancer.  We had hiked the hills around the Golden Gate Bridge together, ridden horses, laughed over burnt dinners and spilled milk, and shared babysitters.

We loved the same books, cared for the same causes, and enjoyed similar activities.  We were good friends who were parting ways for the last time, and I wanted her to know that she was loved and prayed for on that final journey.

When her husband learned about this project, he snapped these photos of the flags which still hang above their bed, although she has been gone for more than a year.  The little paper tags have colored shells glued to one side, and simple words like "faith", "hope" and "peace" glued to the other.

Ileen Miller: Three More Flags

Three more flags have been made by fiber artist Ileen Miller, adding to her flag for fathers a few weeks ago.  Ileen is making a flag a week and posting to our flickr group when they are complete- as she said in an email earlier this week, "I, too, believe in the power of prayer and putting things out into the universe".

Pray on, Ileen-

 

Sharen Chatterton

How lovely to find an inbox filled with many different prayer flags after a much needed vacation with my family...  This week we'll be featuring a sampling of those submitted over the past ten days.  Please keep them coming!  They are all so beautiful, and their messages are now blowing in the wind with so many others.  Today's flags are from Sharen Chatterton.

I stumbled across the Prayer Flag Project as I was reading Jane LaFazio’sblog site. I was inspired to create two artist prayer flags that are now hanging in my side yard. The one with the sunflowers on it is a prayer for my family, as all families have, we have issues from time to time and this is a prayer to Trust in God and he will guide us to work though those issues in his own time. 

The crow flag is a prayer to live a simpler life according to God’s plan, not my own; not always an easy thing to do. I love that I see my prayer flags every time I go in my side yard (with three dogs, that is many times a day, to take them out to potty). What a wonderful reminder to send up a little prayer each time I see them. I am not a fiber artist, by any stretch of the imagination, but I have enjoyed adding fabric to my mix of creative outlets

Jane LaFazio: 10 flags so far

Jane LaFazio here. 10 Prayer Flags so far. My goal is to make 30.

#8. For Peace.



#9: for Grace. To act with grace. Live with grace.



#10: Learn & Grow. grow and learn. Learn so more, grow some more...

For everything thing there is a season

Jane LaFazio here. Prayer flag # 7: For everything there is a season.

I created a tutorial for this flag, showing how I drew on the fabric then cut it out and free-motion stitched. See my tutorial here.



 
I created a sheet of labels on fabric too, so now I can iron them on the back of each flag, filling in the info.

Jane LaFazio ~ 3 more flags

Jane LaFazio here. Prayer flag # 4
An early morning walk is a blessing for the entire day." Thoreau
   
"

Prayer flag #5. For my friends, too many of them, battling breast cancer.

    


Prayer Flag # 6. "If not now, when?"
  


I'm making my flags from my leftover bits of my monoprints on cloth. Just grabbing some fabric, tearing it to the right size and stitching on it.
See more flags on our Prayer Flag flickr group, and join in!

Jane LaFazio...For Christine

Jane LaFazio here. This flag, my third in my series, is for the late Christine Taylor. She was a friend of mine from yoga class, and she died last year of breast cancer. She was 45 years old. At her memorial service, her brother described her as having "boundless warmth, humility and curiousity." That description soooo resonated with me, that I knew that I wanted to have my life guided by those qualities. 

Vivika Hansen DeNegre: 30 Flags

30 Flags Completed and hanging in the garden

When I started this project last month, I had no idea the amount of time, effort, or energy it would take.  Although I vowed that each flag would be made in an hour or less, I did not count on the time to photograph the pieces, write blog posts, respond to inquiries, and manage so much information.  An hour a day?  HA!

Detail - Yes, I do love every "fibre"

I also was not prepared for the response, mostly from people whom I don't know personally, but have befriended through the internet.  I did not know that my hopes, dreams, or prayers would touch others, and that connection has been worth every computer glitch, poorly lit photo shoot, and pinched nerve from sewing at midnight.

My initial 30 days of posts are now completed, and I am moving into the next phase of the project which includes the entire fiber community who wishes to participate.  

I hope you join your prayers to mine on this blog, and continue to spread good will, kindness, hope, compassion, and understanding through this project.

Vivika

For the Dogs: Andrea Hawkes

Andrea is an animal lover, and her prayer flag is for Mobey, who like so many others, needs a forever home.

Don't we all have special places in our hearts for pets?  In keeping with this post, I wanted to add a comment received on Jane LaFazio's blog a few days ago from a dog who loved her prayer flags...  Yes, you read that correctly!

The clever pooch writes, "Wow, prayer flags. We dogs have a similar thing - Wish Sticks. It's pretty much the same story as the flags. Or at least they serve a similar function. 

We find sticks we like, chew them for a bit while we think about our wish. Then we leave the stick to release the good thoughts into the world. The stick might be picked up by another dog and have another wish added to it. This helps the first wish grow stronger and so on. The more wishes a stick has, the more likely the wishes will come true. I'll go find a stick right now and chew a wish for your friend Melly.
Tchao-wow from Portugal".


I wish my dog were that eloquent.  He's now snoring on the floor at my feet, probably dreaming of some wish stick he left behind...


Thank you, Andrea, for sharing your flag.  Thank you Jane for sharing the comment, and thank you Tchao-wow for adding a smile to this post!

Jane Davies: Spreading Blessings On The Wind

Jane Davies is a fiber artist from Vermont who heard about The Prayer Flag Project from Jane LaFazio's blog post a few weeks ago.  She quickly joined the blog and has just submitted her first two flags, and they are beauties.

In her own words,

"I love the idea of prayer flags as a format for artistic expression, as well as their original purpose - to spread blessings on the wind.

I used acrylic paint on muslin, and employed the "resist and water" techniques demonstrated on my blog.  I collaged on the fabric with painted/textured deli paper, and used some scribble painted papers.  I also did some simple machine stitching and hand beading".

Prayer For A Cure: Ruth Anne Olson

Ruth Anne Olson has made a beautiful flag using her own hand dyed fabrics, which is hung with a deeply felt prayer for her grandchildren and others who have Cystic Fibrosis.  As Ruth Anne explains:

My prayer is for a cure. While I pray for a cure for all my friends and family who have or had cancer, lupus, PLS, AIDS, and other diseases, this prayer is specifically for a cure for cystic fibrosis. Two of my grandchildren were born with it. Advances in medicine, rigorous daily treatments, and lots of drugs have increased life expectancy. However, it remains a fatal disease.

The term "65 Roses" comes from the mispronunciation of cystic fibrosis by a child who suffered from the disease, and the rose has since become a representative symbol for the disease.







And so, Anna and Aidan, Holly, Tiffany, Morgan, and all the others who suffer now or who have not survived, I send up this prayer for you.

The hand-painted fabrics are my own, while the others are a commercial rose print and a rose-motif lace.for a cure. 

Mixed Media Prayers by Jane LaFazio: Melly and Hope

 My cyber friend, Jane Lafazio, was quick to jump on the Prayer Flag Project bandwagon, and has generously posted the information about joining the project and making the flags on her popular blog, Janeville.


Jane's work is beautiful:  I will let her explain it in her own words...




Jane writes,  "My first flag is for my dear friend, Melanie Testa.
      
Melly is battling breast cancer. She's had chemo and she's going in for surgery on June 21. My first flag flutters in the wind in my backyard, spreading wishes of love and healing to Melly".


Jane's second flag is called "Hope".  I wonder if that one is for Melly, too, since she loves birds so much, and the poem fits so well with her spirit.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me
~ Emily Dickinson