Nauvoo Temple Panels for the Pageant

Here is an article about the sewing of the panels that are raised up to make the Nauvoo Temple during the pageant.


This is what they look like:

This is one of the most powerful scenes in the pageant. Most everyone I talked to after the pageant mentioned this scene, so it makes the learning about the sacrifices and efforts those sisters made to make the panels even more meaningful. I hope someday they can see the pageant, too.

"The Nauvoo Temple: One Stitch at a Time"
Ensign, Mar 2006, 51-53 by Karol Jean Kasteler Miller

Late in April 2005, I received a phone call from a friend at Church headquarters, asking if I would like to do a big project: design and sew a 25-by-40-foot fabric representation of the front of the original Nauvoo Temple. It would be used in a new Nauvoo pageant. It was an exciting challenge for which I would use an architectural drawing of the temple as my guide. The deadline to finish the project was in six weeks.

Using the blessing of e-mail, I gathered help from women in my family, lifelong friends, and various stake and ward members. They included local Chinese, Laotian, and Thai sisters. My family garage served as our workshop.  

Eighty women helped sew, embroider, crochet, and cross-stitch the panels over 30 days and nights. Ten women sewed the temple tower over the next 10 days and nights. Many supportive family members also helped at home.  

Sometimes sisters would clutch their sewing bags and say, "I just don't want to go. Can I come back tomorrow?" The sisters felt an urgency to complete the sewing so our temple would be built by the deadline. We had one goal in mind-completing the temple in time.

We felt a connection with the building of the original Nauvoo Temple and the early sisters in Nauvoo. As we sewed, we reflected on their tremendous sacrifices. We sensed that we understood in some small way the feelings of those pioneer sisters as they labored hard to assist in completing their temple. We pushed harder.

We felt creative blessings multiply as the project progressed. I was blessed with good health and amazing strength, despite getting very limited sleep during those six weeks. Countless sweet and powerful prayers were offered. We met our goals with grateful hearts. I believe all of us who participated understand more now about consecrating time and talents to the building of the kingdom here on earth, and so much more of the magnitude of the Prophet Joseph Smith's vision.

Temple Panels - Additional Details
by Wendi Fredrickson - 2005 Yellow Cast member of the New Nauvoo Pageant
Presented at a Relief Society Enrichment Meeting in Provo Utah in March 2006
From interview of Kathryn Hayes of Salt Lake City, UT who worked on the Temple Panels
Used by permission from the author
● The pageant committee wanted this to be a group project just like the early sisters working on the first Nauvoo Temple. The sisters that sewed on the panels were careful to put intricate details in the panels to inspire the cast members. Most of the 80 women who worked on the panels never saw the pageant.
● Karol Jean Miller's garage was brand-new and Br. Miller was excited to use it and put his cars in it (which he didn't get to do for a long time). He wasn't too excited about the garage being used as a sewing workshop. Then he was called away on a business trip for 3 weeks and Karol Jean took advantage of him being gone and used the garage anyway. She put sheets on the floor to protect the temple fabric from dust. In the garage was a loft. In the loft Karol Jean put big pieces of butcher paper on the floor. When the first Temple panel was finished, she laid it out on the paper and traced everything. They used this pattern for each of the other 4 panels. They had 4 sewing machines in the garage.
● When the sisters met together for the first time, they came fasting and praying. They had never made scenery before and didn't know how to do it. Everyday they would pray that they would make no mistakes because they didn't have time to pick out their mistakes. The sisters were inspired everyday with how they were to do each of their tasks. They made very few mistakes and almost never had to pick out stitching. Often, one sister would start on one side of a panel and another sister would start on the other. Miraculously, they would meet in the middle perfectly. They were able to finish in the time given them. "Please let us sew smart," they would pray.
● The month they started working on the panels, it was raining almost everyday. They needed to lay the panels out and see how they would fit together, but the only place big enough to do this was in the yard. The sisters prayed that the rain would stop so they could finish their work. The rain stopped for the 10 days they sewed and pieced the panels together. They lay the panels on the dry lawn and this was the first, and only time for many of them, to see the panels together. After they were finished and had put the panels away, the rain started up again.
● Some of the sisters that came were Laotian, Thai, and Chinese. Many of these sisters spoke very little English and couldn't possibly understand the instructions. However, the Spirit spoke to their hearts and they did beautiful needlework and were able to do everything they needed to do with wonderful results.
● 80 sisters worked on the panel. Most of the sisters could only come to work for 1, 2, or 3 hours at a time. This meant that sometimes several sisters would work on the same piece. Most times there was no overlapping of work on the same spots, but each of these sisters was able to pick up where the other left off, even if no instruction was given, as if they had been working on the piece the entire time.
● Karol Jean worked hard for 6 weeks on this project and knew that it needed to be done on time. She had very little sleep each night; and sometimes she would stay up all night working on the project. When she did allow herself to be sent to bed by the other sisters, Karol Jean would pray that if she could just get 4 hours of sleep, she would be sustained and able to continue working. She was able to continue as if she had a full night's sleep. Other sisters would ask her how she was able to hold up so long with so little sleep and Karol Jean attributed it to blessings from Heavenly Father.

● While they were working on the panels the sisters felt a connection with the early sisters in Nauvoo. They pondered on the many trials these women faced while helping to build the first Nauvoo Temple. This connection continued with the cast members who felt the love and tears of the sisters who sewed the panels. As we held and looked at the panels and saw the names of the sisters sewed on them we were amazed at it. When each of the sisters on stage held hands and the Temple panels were passed over them, we felt that we too had a part in completing what these sisters started. Then as the Temple was finished and the final piece was in place the audience felt the connection and cheered for all the hard work everyone did both during the play and in Nauvoo's past. Real tears were shed as we left the stage and "Our Temple".

Extra Credit:
For those of you who actually read the whole thing, here is the quote by President Hinckley that is played in the final scene of the pageant:

Today, facing west, on the high bluff overlooking the city of Nauvoo, thence across the Mississippi, and over the plains of Iowa, there stands Joseph’s temple, a magnificent house of God. Here in the Salt Lake Valley, facing east to that beautiful temple in Nauvoo, stands Brigham’s temple, the Salt Lake Temple. They look toward one another as bookends between which there are volumes that speak of the suffering, the sorrow, the sacrifice, even the deaths of thousands who made the long journey from the Mississippi River to the valley of the Great Salt Lake.
President Hinckely, "Oh That I Were An Angel, and Could Have The Wish of Mine Heart," Ensign, Nov. 2002