Upcoming Class Offerings

Georgia

Today is the final day to register for the June 26 and 27 classes (Fruit of the Vine and Long May She Wave) at the Stitch Shop in Buford, near Atlanta. To register, call Terrie at 800-598-4614.

Texas

I’m teaching two classes (Fruit of the Vine and Friends in Stitches) in San Antonio on July 16 and 17. There are two openings in each class. If you’re interested, email Beth at bethwalter14@hotmail.com or Nicole at nicole.rutledge@sbcglobal.net for details.

Ohio

I’m looking forward this weekend to teaching Fruit of the Vine and Call of the Sea in Canton, Ohio. This is my fourth time teaching in the area (3 times for Inn Stitches and once for the Western Reserve Sampler Guild). I know I'll see lots of familiar faces. The last time I taught up there, everyone in both classes had taken at least one class with me before. For some, by the end of this weekend they will have had all seven of my class projects. Guess I need to get busy creating a new class project.

If you will be at the retreat this weekend, please bring any WMN designs that you have completed….class projects or other designs. I’d love to see them in person. We’re going to have a great time--Kim has planned lots of fun activities!

You must be present to receive the class kits.

Oh--and some interesting Mother's Day trivia.

Did you know that the first Mother's Day in the US was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia? Previous attempts had been tried in the US to establish an official Mother's Day, but it was Ann Jarvis who finally was successful in 1908. Ann petitioned her church, Andrews Methodist Church, to hold this special day. In 1962, the church was declared the Mother's Day Shrine. (Thank you to my cousin, Linda, for this information. Her mother, my Aunt Nancy, lived in Grafton during her latter years.)

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, the carnation symbolizes maternal love. As a child I remember the women of my church wearing carnations to honor their own mothers. One would wear white carnations if her mother had died, and red or pink if her mother was living. I think this is another custom is not practiced very much. (I only saw one corsage yesterday.) Today it is more common for mothers to be given a carnation to honor them. Yesterday members of our church youth group continued this fairly new tradition and gave red carnations to all the mothers.