Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail names Quilter of Year

The Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail announces the selection of Verla Warther as the 2013 Oconee County Quilter of the Year. This award recognizes a local quilter who provides leadership and community service through their quilting. Warther grew up and went to school in San Jose, California. She became a teacher of children with special needs and met her husband, William, there.  They spent 31 years in California, raised a son and then moved to Silverton, Oregon. She taught math for 27 years there. In 1998, upon retiring from teaching, they moved to Tamassee. Between Verla and William, they have four children, nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren living in Ohio and Oregon.  A neighbor invited Verla to join the Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild in Seneca and that is where she learned her quilting techniques. Her interest in the history of quilting has led her to doing presentations in local schools and at Guild meetings. She has served on the Guild’s Comfort Quilt Committee and their Program Committee, as well as taught classes for the Guild at their annual Retreat. Verla has made many contributions to Oconee County through her volunteer efforts with Keep Oconee Beautiful School Program; Tamassee DAR School special programs; Lake and Mountain Quilters Guild making charity quilts for donation through the Guild programs and the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail production team and school program. The public is invited to a reception for Verla to be held at the Historic Ballenger House, 212 E.S. 3rd Street in Seneca, on April 14 from 2 – 4pm.