Saint Mark 100th Anniversary Quilt

As the 100th anniversary of the congregation of St. Mark approached, the idea of commemorating the event with a quilt was proposed and a committee of interested women met during 1997 to discuss and design a quilt that would represent different facets of the history, membership and program of the congregation.

The first efforts envisioned squares representing the sacraments, the various committees and organizations, the educational program and a panel with the names of all the pastors who had served during the first one hundred years. This quilt would have measured 90 inches by 108 inches. When it became evident that there was no single wall in the building that was large enough to accommodate such a large hanging, the size of the quilt was scaled down.

As with most projects conceived and carried out by a committee of volunteers, the enthusiasm waxed and waned. The 100th anniversary year of 1998 came and went and the quilt was far from finished. Eventually, a new design was drawn up that was more realistic and work began again. The finished quilt measures approximately 66 inches square and contains the following themes:

• A central panel representing one of the church windows: "I am the light of the world."
• Two panels, one on either side of this center panel with "St. Mark" on one and "1898 -1998" on the other. The red velvet used for these panels came from the college hood belonging to The Rev. Paul Warfield and donated by Charlotte Warfield.
• Below the central panel is a list of all the pastors who have served the congregation during the 100 years.
• Around these central panels on two sides and the top are the following squares beginning at the lower left and continuing across the top and around to the lower right:
  

  The hand of God
  Women of the ELCA
  Descending dove
  Baptism
  St. Mark symbol
  Luther rose
  Alpha and omega
  Communion
  Fish (early Christian symbol)
  Tongues of fire (Pentecost)
  Butterfly

Around the perimeter of the quilt are 82 squares that have the signatures of members of the congregation. The material used to make these squares was donated by members and the squares were pieced by several women.

After the top of the quilt had been pieced together, a professional quilter was engaged to put the three layers together and machine quilt it. When this had been completed, the binding was sewn on and a back panel added to identify the quilt. The quilt was now ready to be hung. This point was reached in the Fall of 2003, six years after the start of the project.

The completion of this project was accomplished through the efforts of many dedicated members of the congregation who spent unnumbered hours to make it a reality. The following list includes all who helped in one way or another:

• Suzanne Bux - original chair of the committee and accomplished sewer
• Pamela Hill
• Nancy Hritz
• Jessie Ebischbach
• Mary Jo Pittman
• Liz Older
• Helen Baxley
• Louise Prior
• Barbara Hamran
• Joan Knott
• Eleanor Cook