This spring, Community United Methodist Church in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, engaged the UMCJ Eastertide worship series, “New Life Is Breaking Forth.” As part of their worship, CUMC member Suzanne Zabriskie, a gifted quilter, designed quilted and embroidered pulpit pieces to accompany the series. CUMC pastor Rev. Amanda Nicol recently interviewed Suzanne on her process.
Amanda: Where did you draw inspiration for the pulpit pieces?
Suzanne: I thought about what you were going to preach on and it popped into my head that I could use my applique quilt shoulder and my embroidery machine to help people connect better to your sermon. I branched out in my applique skills and thought why can’t I do this from a black line picture and started looking online for black line pictures to pull inspiration from. Then I used my skills with color, which came from oil and water color and a year in college as an art major, to create these pieces.
Amanda: Which piece is your favorite and why?
Suzanne: By far the pulpit favorite is the Salmon (for Earth Sunday/Native American Ministries Sunday). I loved how the fabric I used for the water brought the whole applique to life. Plus, the salmon
colors were done to represent Native American Salmon Art, which I also found online. This piece was also the one that many people told me totally caught their attention that Sunday.
Amanda: How do you think art (creating art, studying art) can help Christians think about our responsibility to care for God’s creation?
Suzanne: If you look around us, it’s God’s art we see every day. When we try to use the art created around us to create art, we can see better what we might need to care for. Art brings the viewer into the bigger picture and can inspire people to do things they may have never done. Many do not feel comfortable making art but love to look at it and study it. My pieces I did were to show the creation of God and reflect your sermons. In this way I helped people study God’s creations.
Article by:
Rev. Amanda Nicol
Community United Methodist Church
Coeur d’Alene, ID
office@cdaumc.org