Jana Hawley (JH): No, Okay. Okay, this is Jana Hawley and I’m interviewing Ted Storm-van Weeden, Wegeln. [10:40 a.m.]
Ted Storm-van Weelden (TSW): Weelden.
JH: Weelden. And would you spell that for me, please?
TSW: W-E-E-L-D-E-N, and that’s my maiden name. When you marry in Holland, ‘Storm’ is my husband’s name.
JH: So, pronounce your whole name for me please.
TSW: Ted Storm-van Weelden.
JH: Okay.
TSW: Pronounced in an American way.
JH: And now say it in Dutch, say it in Dutch.
TSW: Ted Storm van Weelden.
JH: Okay, very good. Thank you very much. We are here at the International Quilt Festival in Houston Texas on November 2, 2001. I’m Jana Hawley. The scribe is JoAnn Pospisil and we are excited to interview Ted. Can you tell us about the quilt that we are looking at today? Give us some design details. It’s origin.
TSW: Well, yes, the quilt is made in a period of 4 years. I started it in September in 1997 and by that time I was not fit. I had a problem with my hands and doctors couldn’t find what the problem was and as I was teaching stress was the diagnose. So I was very upset that I wasn’t able to do anything, almost anything, but teaching, sitting and talking to students, but no stitches. And then I–well a design in my head showed I had to make something in black. And as I live in Holland very close to Delft I went to that company and I found some black Delft. Black Delft is the least known Delft tradition. The blue Delft is more known. And then I also heard that because it is less known it’s not sold a lot and yet it’s one of their oldest designs. They want to end that line of black Delft. [loud talking in the background.] It used to be called the wonder of Delft, because it’s exclusively made by that particular company, that black, like lacquer ware from the East was produced in ceramics so its influence from the East is visible in the design.
JH: Asia East?
TSW: Asia East.
JH: Thank you.
TSW: Yes, is visible in the design. And yet it’s very, very Dutch.
JH: So which particular fabric are you talking about?
TSW: It’s not the fabric, it’s the design.
JH: It’s the design, okay. Thank you.
TSW: Yes. So I went up to them and I had several opportunities of drawing and designing and they were very accommodating. So I could do anything with designs. And that way I create a new design with their influence in it.
JH: Oh, I see.
TSW: So the design is Dutch based. And the–well, not fit at all I worked over a period of 4 years and finally I was diagnosed having a neck hernia. It was taken care of and then I healed. So when I started I was depressed, I was sick, I wasn’t fit. It was black and the mirrors represent the tears. So while I had surgery done and I healed, I realized how lucky I was, because the surgery went fine. I could do stitches again and the colors I chose and everything in the quilt you see it’s vivid and it’s alive and the mirrors for me no longer are tears now, but sparkles of joy.
JH: So can you explain, we can see the quilt, but for the tape recorder can you just describe the quilt?
TSW: Okay. Yes. I’ll try. You see two birds on top of it. And the birds are a bit like, well representing my husband. My husband is the one in the middle center. He is always home-based, doesn’t like to travel. And I’m the one that’s on the go almost ready to leave. The flowers around it are very similar to Delft, typical Delft flowers. It’s just a fantasy. There is not a real flower you can compare to. It’s a decorative piece. And you will see lots of feather-shape and dots and sprinkled mirrors all over.
JH: Ok and the borders?
TSW: The border. Well the center-piece is an asymmetrical piece. It’s a bit–well, it has a–it’s obvious that it has an Asia Eastern influence. Then there is a border, the next border coming to it is a dupioni silk with padded trapunto border. Then there is a two inch border with a print fabric in gray and blacks, and then there is an outer border with–I think, how many? Is it 5 inch?
JH: That’s about 5 inch.
TSW: About 5 inch wide, with a grid half an inch away from each other, cross-hatch. And then you will see the outer border with a line of mirrors, a feather-shape with green feathers and a sort of repetition of the design from the inside, but a decorative motive at the end.
JH: So except for the dupioni is everything else cotton?
TSW: Well, some silks are in there–
JH: Silk and cotton?
TSW: Yes and beads, a lot of beads.
JH: And is it all done by hand?
TSW: Yes.
JH: And how did you do the mirrors?
TSW: Oh, that’s a funny story. I had a lot of–I had a lot of trouble how to control the mirrors and thanks to students I got hold of mirrors sent to me by one–friends, from a friend, from a student that way. So by the time I finally got the mirrors I had a problem how to hold them because when you glue them on top of the fabric, the glue affects the mirror’s paint over time. So I tried to figure what was easier for me to control, and then I cut a dot of fusible material, Ultra-hold from Heat ‘N Bond, and I cut a cut a small, an eighth of an inch square and I put that on a particular spot where I wanted my mirror. Then I added the mirror on top of it and I had soldering iron to heat up the glass mirror and thus activating the Heat ‘N Bond so it holds in its spot. And then I could add embroidery lines and my buttonhole stitches around it. [Jana chuckles ‘Okay.’] So this is shi sha mirror.
JH: And do you know how many there are on this quilt?
TSW: I know exactly. [both laugh.]
JH: I bet you do. [laughing.]
TSW: Three hundred and eighty five–
JH: Mirrors.
TSW: Yes.
JH: Okay. That’s amazing.
TSW: I traced all my hours because I knew by previous quilts that people always come up to me, ‘How many hours did it take you to create a quilt?’
JH: So how many hours did it take to do this one?
TSW: Okay. [both laugh.] I took two thousand and five hundred and ninety six hours to make this quilt.
JH: Oh, my goodness. Does that count your research time too?
TSW: A little bit of drawing time, but not exact.
JH: Oh.
TSW: Just the actual time. I had the stopwatch on hand so even when the phone rang I stopped my stopwatch. [Jana: ‘Oh’.] So it’s really hands-on time.
JH: So you did the whole thing, you timed it with a stop-watch.
TSW: Yes.
JH: Oh, my goodness. [laughs.]
TSW: I had a record.
JH: Oh, that’s absolutely gorgeous. And then it is embellished with embroidery as well.
TSW: Yes. It’s embroidered in stem stitches and I used a cotton perle in three different sizes depending on the area where I was.
JH: Yes. And then some bead work.
TSW: Yes and the beading is done in gradations of size so increasing to bigger and then coming down to smaller sizes.
JH: Absolutely beautiful.
TSW: Oh thank you.
JH: It’s really well hand stitched and the crosshatching, everything, the quilting stitches are beautifully done. Okay. What special meaning does this quilt have for you?
TSW: Well, it’s for me. This quilt marks off a period, a dark period, yet rich [Jana: uh huh, uh huh.’] So for me it’s, it’s kind of a rebirth. [chuckles. Jana: uh huh.] And I owe a lot to America. I think everything I have so far done in quilting I owe to America. But also I owe to Karey [Bresenhan.] and Nancy [O’Bryant.], the IQA [International Quilt Association.] Quilt Festival and the Expo because that’s where my quilting career started.
JH: Was it the IQA?
TSW: It was Karey, Karey, IQA, I think by the time and Nancy. They started in ’88, Salzburg Austria, the Quilt Expo. And it was there that in the audience there was a quilter from Bucyrus Ohio. Her name was Lois Ide. She was there because she was a finalist in that first competition ever held in Europe. Because she was there sitting in the audience and she was passing out pieces of fabric. And I was a young quilter, I had hardly finished one patchwork quilt and I wanted to know more. I was eager for more techniques. So I tried to get hold of her piece of fabric. And she wants the piece of fabric from Holland, but I wasn’t aware that it would be nice to change, exchange pieces of fabric. So I talked a few words to her and promised to send her Dutch fabric. And well obviously she picked up my hunger for appliqué. I asked, there was one shop at that time in Holland, a quilt shop, and I went up to the lady of the shop and I said, ‘Well I made a patchwork quilt but I would love to make appliqué.’ I had seen Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine so I knew there was appliqué done and the words of the lady, I will never forget were, ‘Appliqué is no quilt.’ So I thought well then I had try and go to Salzburg because there I know American ladies are there. They know all about appliqué so when I met this lady in the audience I didn’t know her at all, but she picked up my hunger for more and she invited me to come to the States. So without–I had never been in a plane before, and never left my husband and my kid without being together. I took the plane completely trusting a quilter and I was accepted in her house, adopted like, and she taught everything she could tell me. She shared techniques from her mother and she knew I was a textile teacher. She knew that when she eventually would pass away, her techniques from her mother will continue through me. And that’s what’s happening. So when I went to the United States I had American patterns in my head, everything was America, America but by the time I knew so many techniques, when I was in the plane on my way back you can never thank an American quilter with an American pattern. So I thought, ‘Well I had better, I had better look for something typical Dutch.’ And she obviously liked Delftware so that’s how I got to– I live around the corner in Delft but by that time Delftware is from your grandmothers. You know it’s old-fashioned. [JH: Uh huh.] So I didn’t like it. So we, so I went up to Delft and explained that I wanted to make something in a quilt. And I made her a quilt and the name is “Holland’s Glory” to thank her for every technique that she taught me in my way. And then that quilt was entered in competition in 1992 in The Hague, at the Expo in The Hague. By that time I’d only made that particular one patchwork quilt and two, well kitchen-cloth sized tryouts to try trapunto and to try out some appliqué and then I make this “Holland’s Glory” quilt and that one won Best Overall Workmanship and Viewer’s Choice so then my life changed completely. I quit my job at school as a textile teacher. I could travel. I was invited to come to the US to teach and well I’m a full-time quilting teacher now.
JH: And do you teach at home?
TSW: Yes. I teach at home, not in my house but in The Hague, there is a classroom where I teach and I’m on a free-lance basis. I am asked to teach whatever.
JH: So you don’t have a shop, where you teach in a shop?
TSW: I used to have a quilting school [Jana: Uh huh.] for several years. [screeching noise. Ted giggles.]
JH: Sorry.
TSW: I started a quilting school and by the end I had 12 other teachers. We had a complete program. We had a set of classes in a way a school is done. You are not allowed in an advanced class until you had your previous basics done and checked. And that worked very well, but I was, you know, sitting behind a computer. And I would like to work with quilters and open eyes for design and color and techniques.
JH: So when you say you were a textile teacher–
TSW: Yes.
JH: How?
TSW: In a high school.
JH: Okay.
TSW: It’s on a high school.
JH: Like home economics. Okay.
TSW: Yes, but totally fine hand work only, so no cooking.
JH: Is that still taught that way in Holland?
TSW: Well not as much as it was, because the government changed the rules and exclusively textile is no longer done because it’s too feminine and it should be more with all–
JH: Gender neutral.
TSW: Yes. [chuckles.] Yah.
JH: What year was is that you came to America the first time to learn–
TSW: From Lois?
JH: Oh.
TSW: Yes, it was in April ’89. It was a couple of months after–no it was almost a year later, after we first met at the Expo.
JH: Now do you specialize in Delft-style patterns?
TSW: Well ever since then I appreciate Delft more and more. So after I made the blue one I made a tableau de bleu that was made with an exclusive design from them, a limited edition tile in mind. And I wanted, I was kind of depressed because of the blues [JH: Uh huh.], and I wanted to make a colorful piece. So then I made a colorful piece, an abundance of flowers. By that time I had so many students and it was, well it was a hectic life, but colorful and diversity and everything. I enjoyed life very much.
JH: Good. Good.
TSW: So. So ya. So it’s sort of that I like Delft and I would like to make a series to represent Delft.
JH: Ah, well that would be, that would be–
TSW: So you don’t know. [Jana laughs.] I don’t know what the next one will be.
JH: Oh. Now tell me what award you have been recognized with this quilt.
TSW: With this quilt I have won Best Overall, no, how it’s called, Best of Show it’s called.
JH: Best of Show.
TSW: Best ya, sometimes it’s hard to recognize a word. Best of Show award, yes.
JH: Okay, and then do you have other plans or what are your next plans with this quilt?
TSW: I have no other plans except that I will share with my students for teaching purposes. I won’t sell. I think a quilt, my quilt in this type of work and intricacy, I think it should stay in Holland or in Europe [Jana agrees.]. And for me it’s important to share because I can point out where I struggled and they can gain from that.
JH: So what do you see as a difference between Dutch and their Dutch woman and their interest in quilts compared to American. [talking and laughing in the background.]
TSW: Well I think Dutch quilters most of the time are very–the general public of quilters are interested in traditional pieces though we do have an Art Quilt group coming up very, very much now. We do have very good art quilters as well but the average quilter likes tradition.
JH: And it is a lot of American tradition?
TSW: Yes, yes.
JH: So, how many hours a week do you quilt now?
TSW: Well, depends a lot, when I’m teaching I’m teaching most of the time, I can’t do things half. So when I’m teaching, I’m teaching. You know I’m preparing material. I’m developing classes and I do not one stitch for a few months. And then, well it’s mostly during the winter that I hardly do any stitches. Then March, April I will end my classes. I’m fed up with any quilter [both laugh.], my students and that’s my time that I balance my need for stitches and then I work 30, 40 hours a week.
JH: So you are a full-time quilter in some sense?
TSW: Yes, yes so devoted to quilting teaching and quilting myself.
JH: What’s your very first memory of a quilt?
TSW: My very first memory of a quilt. Oh, yes I was at a guild, I was at a guild patchwork show and I didn’t particularly like to teach quilting at school. We don’t, we don’t teach quilting. I had to do patchwork the English method over paper [Jana agree.] that was, you had to do that in school, in a high school. And I didn’t like it all because it was too big to cut off material and sew it together. I really hate that, but I did it because the government required I should do it. And then one of my suppliers pointed out to me that, ‘You should go to that so-and-so patchwork exhibition. It’s close to where you live because I’m sure you’ll like it.’ I’ve always been interested in making wallhangings for buildings, nursery homes, so you know as a textile teacher you’re an artist as well. So I make those. But I wasn’t keen to go to that exhibition and I struggled once to make a wall hanging, oh, about 90 inches square. I live, in Holland we have many small houses, so it’ didn’t fit my room and I had to cut it in sections. And then I sewed it together. But then the carpenter had to come to mount the thing. And that’s a thing I don’t’ like. I want to have it completely by myself, made by myself. So one year I finished that huge wall hanging and that lady came up to me twice, stated, ‘You should go to that exhibition.’ And I thought well I’d better go there because the third time she would ask me how it was so I went [Jana laughs.] to that guild. I just went on purpose for that. I went to this guild exhibition and then I was hit, because instantly I recognized this technique solved my problem. I could work in blocks. I could store it. I could wash it. I could sleep under it and it was everything that really make this is it. So ever since then I had a book on my lap and I taught myself how to do any quilt stitch. I was not introduced to it in my education as a textile teacher in any of the quilting techniques.
JH: So where did you, when did you first learn to sew. I mean what got your interest [tape makes a noise.] Okay, after that little technology error now we’re going to get started again. Where did you learn to sew?
TSW: I really learned to sew; it’s not done in the family. We were a family where fine pen work was much more admired rather that sewing clothes. There was a seamstress who did the sewing for the family. So my grandmother was a lady and I was with her, watching her when she was doing her tatting, very elegant and my mother could not knit at all, but also did some tatting and some embroidery. So when I was a kid I played with threads and techniques and not sewing. I didn’t like dolls. I liked to be outside. I liked to play soccer. I was not a real girl [both chuckle.]
But I admired handwork. When I was in my high school I had a very good textile teacher and she let us be creative with fabrics and threads and had creative elements in her class. I picked it up and I did not do a lot of my other homework but I did more on my textile homework. So some day she said to me, ‘You should go to that education in textiles’. I finished my–she was twenty three by that time, when she had just finished her education, was a brand new textile teacher but picked my out, obviously. And I went to that education and finished my school, of course first and then I was, one year before I did my final graduation at the high school and then she died in a car accident. [Jana: awe.] And then I thought, ‘Well it’s her that pointed out you should be a textile teacher and I really owe her everything in my textile career.’ So I finished my education in a very short period of time. I was already teaching when I was half-way during my education in a high school and I have been on that high school for 22 years.
JH: So do you do university? Do you have to go to university to be a teacher?
TSW: Yes, sort of, ya. It’s not quite a university, but you can compare in years, yes.
JH: Okay.
TSW: And agree to.
JH: Okay. Now we don’t have our quilt in front of us any more, because of the technology problem that we had, but can you describe for us the back of your quilt and then the design principles that you feel make a good quilt?
TSW: About the contrast?
JH: Yes.
TSW: Or we could [inaudible.]
JH: Well I don’t think so. I think you need to talk about–I think [both talk at the same time.]
Before what we were talking about —
TSW: About the contrast. To point out [both are talking at the same time.] Your question about what makes a good quilt a good quilt, is that a good quilt shows a long list of contrasts. You need to have contrast in color but also contrast in shape, contrast in line- for instance straight lines, curved lines. You need to have small elements and bigger elements. You need to have sparkles. And you need to have plain texture differences. So some areas are [inaudible.], some areas are not. So high and low contrast. And once you are a student and you–I add contrasts year after year in your head then you are–you will recognize and pick out a good quilt because the list like it’s a car-check, you know. So when you know your line of contrast, your long list and you can mark off that it’s there. You know you are doing a good job.
JH: So it’s something that can be taught. It’s not an innate–
TSW: Absolutely, absolutely. I think I strongly believe I hear so many times, ‘I’m not creative.’ And I reply then, ‘The only thing what you need, it’s a good teacher that helps you pointing out with yourself the elements of design.’ And that’s all you need, a good teacher. And one who you trust and you accept criticism, not criticism downwards but point out what you did wonderful and could be done better so that’s how I teach. And I must say I’m very proud because two of my students have–from the Netherlands, both have–were judged in.
JH: In this event?
TSW: In this exhibition. And you will not recognize my hand in it. They’re–
JH: Quite different– [inaudible, both are talking.]
TSW: Oh yes, but they are there so I’m pleased.
JH: That’s wonderful. What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum?
TSW: When you see a quilt and it hits your heart, I would say, that would be for me a museum piece whether it’s a solid quilt, but a wonderful design, the contrast that may hit your eye. Whether it’s white-on-white, but contrast in techniques, but what touches your heart I would say.
JH: Do you have a proclivity towards, from hand to machine quilting? What’s your feeling about, about the two differences?
TSW: Well, I’m a, I’m a teacher that teaches everything. So I can work by machine though it’s not my favorite. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t teach how to do it by machine and quilt by machine. I think every quilter who likes to do the job, she likes to do that way, I appreciate. And I will help her along her favorite path. But I strongly believe as a quilting teacher that you should have a basis like a tree, having its roots spread out so it’s firm, so when you have design and color and quilting techniques, whether you like to do it by hand or by machine, have them both trained. Appliqué, how many different kinds of appliqué there are, try them all. And eventually when your roots are there in any direction, you have developed your personal direction. And then it’s just opening a drawer and whatever, and you create your technique and your direction. And that’s what I encourage. I’m not one that is teaching on the top, on the outside edges of the tree. I prefer to teach the roots so general.
JH: We–when you asked to be interviewed today–
TSW: Yes.
JH: You could choose whichever quilt you wanted. It did not need to be that quilt.
TSW: Okay.
JH: Is there another quilt that you would have liked to have also been interviewed about?
TSW: One of my quilts?
JH: Yes.
TSW: Well I don’t–well, I’ve made three or four–[laughs.] a few quilts.
JH: Really? Really?
TSW: Yes, because it’s so much work and I teach a lot. [Jana: uhuh.] But my first quilt that “Holland’s Glory” quilt is my–my–it marks my period that I start in the quilting world and that quilting took out of my life.
JH: Oh. And is it a full-sized quilt?
TSW: It’s about 60 by 60, I think. I don’t because –
JH: So it’s not a bed quilt.
TSW: It’s a wall quilt. It fits a Dutch house. [Jana laughs.] This one doesn’t fit my walls. [Jana laughs.] I can’t hang it anywhere. [both laugh.]
JH: So why or what is it about quilting that It’s been important in your life?
TSW: The people, the students and the friendship. If it only would be a plain job, so from ‘A’ to ‘B’ I would not quit my job because then I would have stayed at school. But here you have friendship, you have sharing. And it’s the sharing that is the red line throughout my quilting and teaching.
JH: It’s a very interesting culture, isn’t it? The quilting culture.
TSW: Absolutely. It’s rewarding. It’s the appreciation and it’s the moment in a hectic period of life that you can sit and relax and be a bit selfish, just do your own stitches, whatever technique.
JH: My question is what you think about the importance of quilts in American life. Now if you can see that from an outsiders perspective and then maybe also talk about it from a Dutch woman’s life.
TSW: Well seen from a Dutch woman’s life to America I see you have much more production. You [both talk, inaudible.] Many quilters I met don’t want to spend a lot of time on a quilt. They want to have it done now. And in Holland there is the opposite. We don’t make big quilts, we have small houses, so we tend to make smaller wall hangings and we focus more on fine techniques. But that’s general. But here you have, you have a tradition in quilting. When I speak to someone in the Netherlands and who is not a quilter, we have no word for quilting. Well the word grew from the southern areas of Italy, France, England. From my country we have no word so there is some history, but not a lot. So it was brought from Europe to America and then since the seventies it was brought back. England has a history, but that’s away from us. That’s a different country
JH: Oh, right.
TSW: So I think you’re so lucky, you can talk to anyone who knows the word ‘quilt’ and know what a quilt is. We have in the dictionary no word about ‘quilt.’
JH: Oh, really.
TSW: No.
JH: Bed covering?
TSW: Yes, but that’s different– [both talk at the same time, inaudible.]
JH: So what will have quilts played in the women’s lives?
TSW: So far in women’s life, in America, you mean or both?
JH: Both if you think you can, if you want to speak about–
TSW: Well I know some about the history how to survive having quilts in America, and that’s what I share with students. But you have so many different kinds of women’s lives and I think speaking for my mentor, my quilting mother, she could not live without doing any stitches. Quilting is part of your life. When you’re a real quilter you are a quilter and you are, well, it’s a no-cure disease [both laugh.].
JH: Would you pronounce and spell her name for us?
TSW: Yes, her name is Lois –
JH: Ok.
TSW: And then initial ‘K’
JH: Ok.
TSW: Ide. I-D-E. That’s her husband’s name.
JH: Okay.
TSW: And she, she is from Bucyrus. Bucyrus. B-U-C-Y-R-U-S, Ohio.
[Jana and scribe confer.]
TSW: Well, about this woman’s life. [laughs.]
JH: Oh.
TSW: I think in Holland we do it as a hobby and some of them do more and being an artist or like me being a teacher. But there are not many who live full-time or work full-time as a quilter, whatever.
JH: When you look at the demographics here at the quilt show though–
TSW: Yes.
JH: It’s ninety percent female probably.
TSW: Yes.
JH: What role is it playing in their lives do you think?
TSW: I think it’s the possibility when you have to stay home it’s the only way to express yourself. And it’s a way to be busy and yet to be, it’s hard for me to explain that in English
JH: That’s okay, that’s okay.
TSW: But it’s not just being busy, but you’re busy in a good way because you make something you can use.
JH: Productive.
TSW: Productive. So, and, well, I have male students. [laughs.]
JH: Do you?
TSW: Oh, yes.
JH: Oh.
TSW: I had a few but for them it’s as important as for a woman to work. But it’s hard for me to say how important a quilt is in a life. I think most of the quilters do it as a relaxing hobby, I would say.
JH: How should a quilt be used?
TSW: I make quilts that can be washed in the washing machine, put in the dryer and in the spin dryer. My “Holland’s Glory” quilt, when I got it back from a show it was greasy all over, everyone seemed to have touched the trapunto. And I didn’t want–you know it was like a sheet. Grease. So I put it in the washing machine, in the dryer, in the spin dryer. It came out fine. And I would do the same with this quilt. And it’s the way I do the techniques are very, very, strong. You can hardly take anything away from anything. So when I want to take a nap I take the quilt when it’s there and I will snuggle up so even if it’s a nice piece, whatever. I think a quilt is a quilt to be used.
JH: [Jana confers something inaudible with someone.] Okay. How do you think quilts should be preserved for the future?
TSW: In America I would say, try to find the best quilts from the shows, because they are obviously, they attract people and ask the quilters to part with them or donate or whatever, and store them for future. However my quilt, I think my quilt will stay in Europe. [Jana laughs.] We have no history. [both talk. Inaudible.]
JH: Ok, actually that completes our questions for today–
TSW: Ok.
JH: But I want to know if there is anyting else that you’d like to say that you feel like you have not had a chance to say yet?
TSW: Well the thing is that my life changed completely, thanks to an exchange of just a four inch square of fabric. And it’s the stitching the world together.
JH: That’s very well done.
TSW: Yes, and my quilting parents, you know, they both accepted me in their house.
JH: How long did you–was that exchange? How long were you here? When you came to visit Lois?
TSW: It was ’89, so over, it’s almost 12 years now, that we are friends.
JH: But that initial visit, how long did you stay?
TSW: Oh, just a week because it was Easter break from school.
JH: Oh, Yes.
TSW: But it’s 12 years now and they are in their eighties, and she is almost falling apart, you know, her mind is crispy but she’s you know, getting older and I owe everything to them, and also to her husband, because it’s–I think it’s a big risk he took, for bringing in–for her bringing in a n unknown Dutch girl. And for me a risk to stay with people I really don’t know but she was a quilter so that’s good.
JH: You [inaudible.] that way, don’t you?
TSW: Oh yes. I had never any doubt.
JH: There’s a lot of metaphors in the quilt. Thank you and that concludes our interview with Ted Storm.
TSW and JH talk together: Storm van Weelden. [both laugh.]
JH: Thank you.
TSW: Okay.