TAKE NOTE - Introducing my great, great, great aunt!

A very long time ago, there was a wealthy linen merchant who lived in Ireland. He belonged to the Quaker faith (also called "Friends") which avidly supported excellent education for their children. When he died, he left money for the establishment of a school and in 1774, the “Friends School Lisburn" was founded. It still operates today.

About 50 years after it opened, a little girl named Mary Ann Valentine was attending the Friends’ school. While there, Mary Ann learned how to cross-stitch beautifully and made a delightful "sampler” when she was 12 years old. Samplers showed the needlework skills a person had accomplished and often included the alphabet, detailed patterns, the person's name and the date it was embroidered.

Many years later when Mary Ann was an old woman, she gave this sampler to her young niece named Hannah. Eventually it found its way to Hannah's granddaughter Elaine, who ultimately passed it along to her niece. That very fortunate niece is me! Now hanging on the wall in my Canadian living room is a two-hundred-year-old needlework creation made by my Irish relative.

One day, after I had finished all twenty-six of my alphabet paintings, it occurred to me that Mary Ann had, like me, spent a lot of time making art using the alphabet. What an enchanting feeling to have this lovely artsy, alphabet connection with an ancestor!