Class Embroiders for the First Time 

Mellen Moors-Dressing's Women Authors' class at Roger Bacon struggled with the hoops and threading the needle, but eventually got the hang of embroidery. This iPod generation had never embroidered before.

The class is reading Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and one passage mentions Angelou having "trunkfuls of colorful dishtowels, pillowcases, runners, and handkerchiefs" which she had embroidered. The project helps transport the students, showing them what Angelou had to do as a girl in the 1930's South.

Moors-Dressing was surprised how much the students enjoyed learning this craft. "I was very proud of them," she says. "Once they started most could troubleshoot themselves out of tangled threads and knots. They were very picky about how to make the designs look good."

At the end of class, several took the stitching with them and some wanted floss to work at home. Moors-Dressing says, "Perhaps the art of embroidery will not be lost after all!"