Looking Forward to Memorial Day~Part 3

The following is an excerpt taken from usmemorialday.org:

"In 1915 inspired by the poem "In Flanders Field" by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae M.D., Moina Michael replied with her own poem.

We cherish too, the Poppy red

That grows on fields where valor led,

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies.

She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial Day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Later a Madame Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms. Michael and when she returned to France, made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1921, the Franco-American Children's League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The league disbanded a year later and Madame Guerin approached the VFW for help. Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans' organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their "Buddy" Poppy Program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the U.S. Post Office honored Ms. Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it."

If you go to marthastewart.com you can find a video tutorial showing how to make these pretty paper poppies. They're kind of huge so I think when I make them I'm going to shrink the pattern to 75 or 50 percent.

Image: Red Poppy & Purple Sage (Красно-фиолетово)

Originally uploaded by Kate Yasnaya