Thursday, June 19, 2008

Day 77 - of 100 Days of Quilts
Quilt for Volker Damm - from the House & Home CD by EQ


It has been a VERY LONG time since we have posted quilts for our '1oo days of quilts', but things are falling into a new routine around here, and we are back on track. Our kids have their last week of school this week, and they can hardly wait. (I've never told them that the American schools have been finished for a few weeks already.) So in honour of another scholastic season coming to an end, I decided to show you the one and only quilt that I have ever made for a teacher.
When I was in grade 9, I had an English teacher who left a large impression on me. Volker Damm was actually an English professor from Germany, who was in Canada for one year on a teacher exchange program. You might think that he was my favorite teacher because he was caring and charming. Well, your wrong. Mr. Damm and I tended to have very loud, vocal debates throughout class. We yelled at each other, we pushed (not literally) each other, and we argued about everything from politics to the true depth of Shakespeare. He's the only teacher who ever pushed to me. When his year was finished, he returned to Germany, and I didn't think I would ever hear from him again. To my surprise, he returned to be the commencement speaker at our graduation from High School. I know that he has always kept tabs on me throughout my life. I would receive post cards from him when he traveled. His letters tracked me down at college, and no matter where I move, his kind words find me, and encourage me to not hide in my shadow.
So several years ago, Cori and I produced a CD for the EQ company (http://www.electricquilt.com/) and it was a collection of houses and buildings. It is a great CD, full of ideas that you have never seen anywhere else before. It is still selling strong, and that encourages us to keep designing.
When we came up with this quilt, I knew that I wanted to make it for someone. I suddenly knew that I wanted to make it for Volker Damm, because after all the grief that I have given him, he deserved a little bit of comfort from me.
See you tomorrow.
-myra
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5 comments:

Jo Anne said...

Such a great story about this quilt. And what a great teacher. Thanks for sharing the story with us, very gratifying.

dutchcomfort said...

What a wonderful story! My English teacher was my favourite too. I still benefit from his wonderful classes, talking about Shakespeare and listening to The Beatles songs.

Marcy said...

Love all the quilting on it!

Jean said...

O.K. so you brought a tear to my eye... (alright it was lots more than one!) Thinking of some of my teachers and the hard work that they had to do to help me out! Way to go, I am sure that it brought a tear to his eye too! It's always nice to know that we are well thought of! I think that sometimes in our fast paced society we forget to take the time to let people know how we feel.
Well Done!
Jean C.

Jean said...

Oops.... beautiful quilt by the way! I really like the colors! Jean C.