Prepare Ye, An Advent Stole
Fiber (cottons, silks, hand dyed fabrics, antique fabrics)

Susan Tilt

This stole was made for The Reverend Melody Shobe with some of her favorite passages from Isaiah and Luke, rich and beautiful, used as inspiration. Visual references are made to crocus that shall blossom abundantly in the desert with streams of water, and burning sand that shall become like a pool, and “... a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way”…all from Isaiah 35. From Isaiah 40 comes the image of withering grass “…but the word of our God will stand forever.” Isaiah 64:8 speaks of God as the potter, and we, the clay, and led to the image of a hand on the back shoulder of this vestment….”…we are all the work of your hand.”

Planets and orbs cascade down the stole in reference to Isaiah 65:17 and 22…”For I am about to create hew heavens and a new earth” and an olive tree shades a lion “for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be…” “They shall build houses and inhabit them”, Isaiah 65:21, and from verse 25, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together”.

All of the elements of the stole speak to preparing a way for the Lord as John the Baptist quoted from Isaiah in Luke 3. There is darkness, deep blue mountains, glimpses of a desert sunset, and the Sun of Righteousness. And there is Mary, with her cousin Elizabeth, both waiting, and preparing, for birth.

Susan Tilt is a fiber artist living in Springfield, Virginia, and focuses primarily on liturgical fiber art, especially vestments. She is a graduate of Mary Washington College with a degree in studio art and a background in photography and painting. She is the Junior Warden at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Springfield and is a member of Q & A-a fiber art group, and Arlington Quilters Unlimited. Her work was featured in Prelude 2006.

Susan Tilt

Email: susantilt@mac.com
Parish: St. Christopher's Episcopal Church, Springfield, Virginia

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