The book of Judges describes the turbulent times when the Israelites began to establish themselves in Canaan. Joshua had died without naming a successor and "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25). God therefore gave them judges (which has a different meaning than the word means today). They were suppose to rule and provide protection as well as to administer justice.
The verse I have to deal with is about one of these judges named Ehud. His name means 'united' and we know about him that he was left handed.
He ruled in a time where the children of Israel were under bondage under Eglon the king of Moab. The Israelites cried unto the LORD, and "the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud....(judges 3:15)
Verse 16 now....
But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.
With this dagger he killed Eglon and therefore delivered the Israelites from the enemies, the Moabites.
This is the first time I haven't made any sketches. I just saw the picture of a dagger in my mind. And decided to go for a simple representation. I first thought about using strong colours. Like red and yellow to represent anger and blood.
I decide to dye my own fabrics, they turned out alright, but I thought them too bright. Because it wasn't so much out of anger or revenge that he killed the king. It was because this king was an enemy of God. So I thought more about the colour of the dagger and came up with more subdued silver and gold tones. Some red has to be in there though...
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| I drew a dagger on freezer paper and tried to make a mirror image |
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| Just a picture before quilting, because I might ruin it.....Planning to quilt a 'target' on top and that might be tricky... |
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The lettering went slightly wrong. I used Transfer Artist Paper, and printed the verse in both normal and mirror version using my deskjet printer and then ironed it on as per instructions. It wouldn't transfer though....I had the iron on the hottest setting and pressed and pressed...anyway I gave up and just used a pencil and wrote the words on it where they hadn't transferred properly. After some research people commented that the TAP paper has a limited shelve life. OK...mine has been sitting in my cupboard for about a year. Wish I had known.
Planning to use my red hand-dyed fabric for a small border. But first...quilting time. I am planning on a target, which might be hard sewing perfect circles and the fabric might pucker and...I am going to try it!
