04May18

After agonizing over it a while, The Engineer and I opt to go to lunch together, and sure enough what we feared would happen, did. We get back to the exhibit to find a note in our journal from a woman that I would love to have met. Fortunately (1) we eat fast and (2) she comes back, and now you get to meet her, too. Yvonne promises to galvanize the Netherlands and get them into The 70273 Project in a big way. And one detail I’m not sure she mentions in the video: though they’re not Jewish, she and her husband live in a Jewish cemetery. Every year on Memorial Day, school children come in to help clean the graves, put out flowers, and hear stories from Holocaust survivors.

two women stand beside a multi-colored quilt

At the end of the day as we are leaving, we take the circuitous route (we do every day when entering and leaving) so we can view more of the amazing quilts on display, I hear my name and look around to see Yvonne beckoning me over. She’s won a Teacher’s Award ribbon, and oh my goodness is it an award ever well-earned.

a closeup of small quilts sewn together to make a large quilt

 

a closeup of the border of a quilt

I couldn’t get a photo of the entire quilt because there were so many people standing around admiring it, but I’ll get one today before the crowds arrive and add it here. It is 225 mini quilts stitched together and surrounded by a spectacular border . . . and it’s all hand pieced and quilted. Yes, really.

You know how you meet someone and feel an instant connection and desire to spend more time with them? Well, Yvonne is on that list with so many other people we’ve met along the way. I sense (well, hope) a visit to the Netherlands in my future, and maybe Yvonne and her husband would like to come spend some time atop a mountain beside a waterfall.

I have so many more stories and photos to tell y’all, but when I sit down at the computer at night, I go to sleep! They’ll come. I promise.

I am, however, able to upload a few short videos if you’re interested.

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