The Glove and Trowel Garden Club met on January 10, 2018, at 3:30 p.m. at the home of Dawn Arnette, with 14 members present.
After refreshments, the meeting was called to order by our President, Molly Pittman, who thanked Dawn for being our Hostess, recognized members with January Birthdays: Linda Dutton, January 2, Fay Sloan, January 16; and Julia McLaurin, January 26 and led in the reading of our Garden Club Collect.
Julie LeChette, Treasurer gave a financial report, and distributed update copies of our membership to include the names and addresses of our two new members. Committee reports were given. Fay Sloan and Sally Harrison reported that the Publicity Press Book” was mailed to the GCSC Chairman, Yvonne Jordan in Charleston. Molly thanked our club for her Christmas gifts, and for our club’s help in decorating the dining room at the Dillon House for Christmas. Molly also mentioned that the GCSC Coastal District meeting will be held March 14th in North Myrtle Beach.
A Garden Club Of South Carolina Life Member presentation was given to Ellen Jordan and Molly Pittman. The membership fees fund the Babs Barnett Scholarship and the Memorial Garden Permanent Endowment Funds. Two SAR (South-Atlantic Regional) Life Memberships were also presented to Jamie Sue Stephens and Julie LeChette. The fees for these memberships support the Corrie Whitlock Scholarship which is bestowed on a college sophomore or junior for their senior year as they study Horticulture, Floriculture, Landscape Design and other related areas.
A scholarship to Camp Wildwood, a camp for conservation-minded students, was bestowed on Ian Bethea for the 2018 camping season.
A thank you note was read from Mary Reaves, Chairman of the GCSC President’s Project “Feed the Birds” thanking us for our generous donation. The commitment of Clubs such as ours will bring the dream of innovative education and conservation of native birds into reality. The new viewing station at the SC Botanical Garden in Clemson and the Children’s Garden Interactive Equipment at Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia will be the recipients of these funds.
Jamie Sue Stephens, Program Chairman, announced that our speaker for our program on “The Art of Growing Orchids” was not able to come today, so our member, Linda Dutton, presented a wonderful program on ” The History of Needlework.”
Needlework is the art that tells the truth about the real life of people in their time and place. American needlework is a blending of different types of needlework from women of different countries. The Irish brought their beautiful lace which was transformed into a whole new crocheted lace. Italians and Russians brought cross-stitch, the Danes brought cutwork, the Scots brought woven plaid and Scandinavians brought hooked coverlets which transformed into hooked rugs. The only wholly American needlework is the pieced patchwork. The most famous of which was pieced by Mistress Betsy Ross in her upholstery shop in Philadelphia, the American Flag.
Because wool could not be spared by the early Americans, resourceful women planted a row or two of flax along with their indigo in their gardens. The flax was spun and then woven into linen while the indigo was used for dyeing the wool for crewel. The Indians then taught that walnut husks gave brown color, pokeberries gave purple, yellow saffron mixed with indigo gave green and onions boiled in copper pots gave one shade and onions boiled in iron pots gave another.
In the 1700’s and 1800’s properly brought up girls were required to stitch daily. Practicing taught self-discipline, how to use a needle and even to learn the alphabet. With paper scarce, cloth was used to practice interesting patters or stitches.
These were called ‘samplers of their work’.
Linda brought several of her own examples of her own needlework which was admired by everyone. Linda was presented a beautiful purple hyacinth by Jamie Sue in appreciation of her program.
The Glove and Trowel Garden Club was organized in January 1953 and is a member of the National Garden Clubs, Inc. the South-Atlantic Region, The Garden Club of South Carolina, Inc and the Coastal District of the GCSC.
