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Text of the page (random words):
ed the song singing it a zillion times will do that we had also made our book that illustrated all those words but we needed to put everything into one picture for the quilt again children made all the decisions as to what would go where milly was there to watch they colored the big sketch which reinforced the words to the song and reinforced what they wanted it was their statement and they were proud look at milly s big smile children couldn t get enough of picking fabrics and watching everything come to life look carefully at the quilt i didn t notice it at first do you see the large white center that s the united states of america in new york there is the child s statue of liberty there s night and the light from above mountains and prairies and ocean and of course home sweet home i wish you could see this in the flesh the newspaper wanted to do an article and the post office wanted us to hang the quilt for the world to see milly was now quite well known jennie where will the quilt go people were starting to ask the postmaster wanted to know our school s director wanted to know milly hadn t asked me yet and then it came to me the quilt was museum worthy much like the peace quilt but i wrestled with what museum would be best and most appropriate my first thought was the song god bless america and i researched irving berlin and museums where much of his memorabilia is located an interesting fact about the song irving berlin thought the star spangled banner was too difficult he was not a big fan of the song especially as our national anthem that prompted him to write god bless america the museums while wonderful felt limited in the sense that our quilt was about far more than irving berlin it was more about patriotism patriotism i had hit the nail on the head in defining the quilt and where it needed to be my husband immediately said jennie the most patriotic museum is in new york city it s a restored aircraft carrier the uss intrepid why did i not know this i researched the museum perfect fit and immediately contacted the director the top dog to my surprise she got back to me right away boy was she excited so we were off again with families and children in tow milly s family made the trip too the event was far more than i expected and it took a major turn stay tuned for part 6 jennie posted in america art children s books inspiration literacy museums patriotism tagged god bless america god bless america quilt uss intrepid 32 comments happy birthday america now and then posted on july 4 2026 by jennie happy 250th birthday america hubby and i celebrated america s 200th birthday 50 years ago jennie posted in america tagged america celebrating america s 200th happy birthday 39 comments surviving the new england heatwave posted on july 2 2026 by jennie england we are feeling your heatwave pain we re at 100 which is rare and many of us don t have air conditioning like you we have a pool thank goodness but it has been too hot to go outside and take a dip tonight we went in at 8 00 pm two more days of heat to go i hope our fourth of july festivities don t get cancelled many are already delayed until later in the day happy 250th america stay cool jennie posted in uncategorized tagged heatwave 34 comments milly the quilter story part 4 posted on july 2 2026 by jennie in part 3 milly brought in beautiful fabrics and placed them on the sketch of the peace quilt spread out across a big table children came to her like moths to a candle picking out just the right fabrics at last the quilt was completed and it was a work of art we wrote a poetry book and the quilt was big news in town i told the world including the director of the national liberty museum part 4 jennie thank you for telling us about the quilt i m sure it is as stunning as your peace peace portal said the museum director that was so nice she then continued i want to tell you that the museum would like the peace quilt we want it as part of our permanent display i was shocked and here i d just wanted them to know all that had transpired since i saw their peace portal i was thrilled then it sank in a quilt from my classroom was going to be displayed permanently in a national museum i couldn t wait to tell milly we talked laughed and enjoyed the moment milly was pleased as punch and just as taken aback as i was milly you have done so much for us you made this quilt how can i ever thank you milly didn t bat an eye take me to philadelphia she said with gusto road trip children and families were eager to go and be part of presenting their work to a national museum a good sized group made the trip to philadelphia the director had one request please bring gloria too after all the quilt was her idea yes gloria made the trip with us my husband and i picked up milly at the crack of dawn as the car went whispering along the highway in the early morning hours we chatted away milly leaned forward from the back seat putting her arms and elbows up on the back of the front seat she said i m the other woman with a low voice and body language that meant she wanted to really talk about herself what an icebreaker she told us she d long been separated and has a dear soulmate another man she told us that her daughter had died a few years ago from cancer and how she d spent every moment by her bedside quilting her daughter had two young girls and milly was pretty much raising those girls along with their dad milly talked about the quilting shop she had for years and i learned about quilting clubs she reminisced about life in the 1940 s we laughed we cried it was the most delightful six hour drive we became good friends the quilt presentation was exciting and humbling we were treated like kings and queens milly was all smiles gloria never left grant s side in the part 3 photo he and gloria were checking out the quilt progress together the museum made a plaque to place underneath the quilt that reads peace quilt designed by students at the groton community school groton massachusetts their teacher ms jennie fitzkee conceived this project after visiting the national liberty museum two years ago she saw many visions of peace displayed throughout the museum which made her wonder how her young students would interpret this concept with the help of a beloved classroom puppet named gloria ms fitzkee inspired the youngsters to draw their ideas of peace quilter milly cunningham used their illustrations of rainbows happy animals and even trucks to create this beautiful quilt the national liberty museum is grateful to ms fitzkee and her students for this wonderful gift and so we reveled in all the glory on our car ride home we shared stories and wrote thank you notes over the next few weeks we were truly humbled the rest of the school year milly continued to come in to visit and play with the children her bond was a strong one children loved her they wanted to be with her and play i stood back and watched magic happen every time she visited i sing all the time with children often playing the autoharp it s a staple in my classroom on one of milly s visits gloria wanted to sing we learned that milly loves to sing she joined us in a chorus of songs did you know that milly s favorite song is god bless america i did not well the children were thrilled as that is one of their favorite songs too the school year ended and the following year milly was a frequent visitor something different happened that year a group of children loved singing god bless america and often begged for the song jennie can you play it on your autoharp so we can sing i did yet i always played and sang many other songs as well this was becoming big and i respond to big when it comes from children that means i had to do something do more i did and it turned into a pathway i d never expected thank goodness milly was there stay tuned for part 5 jennie posted in art community expressing words and feelings heart imagination inspiration museums peace quilting tagged milly the quilter national liberty museum peace quilt singing god bless america 35 comments milly the quilter story part 3 posted on june 29 2026 by jennie in part 2 milly came onto the scene meeting the children and gloria she accepted the challenge as she called it of quilting a mural which would become a peace quilt gloria started the ball rolling with her own blankie actually her personal peace quilt part 3 as i collected photos for this story look what i found in my archives the original sketch when the sketch was finished and children had decided that the quilt would be just so they spent time coloring their design this solidified their images of peace and reinforced how they wanted the quilt to look it was coming to life milly came to school every week with fabrics they were gorgeous i asked her if she had purchased them at joanne fabrics her silence was deafening i compare this faux pas to asking a lady wearing an original oscar de la renta if she got her dress at k mart milly was kind she understood each visit we spread out the sketch on a big table children came to find a favorite part of the sketch and pick what they felt was the perfect fabric for that part lizzie was especially interested in the horse and wanted blue fabric i smiled a big smile here s why this was lizzie s second year in my classroom children often spend two years with me as it is a full day multiage class lizzie rides horses on her farm she adores horses more importantly the year before when we prepared for our annual art show lizzie was struck with the painting large blue horses by franz marc she worked at her masterpiece over and over five times to be exact by the time she finished the paint was so thick and heavy i was worried it would fall off the wall at the art show can you now imagine the thrill that lizzie felt when she picked out just the right blue fabric i did and i told milly about the art piece while we watched lizzie each child had a similar story or a reason milly was the provider of the feast and children came to the table to find their favorite foods it was that simple milly got it as the quilt progressed each week gloria would pop in and check things out when milly finished the quilt she asked me about the writing and lettering how i wanted to say peace i hadn t thought about that i was so consumed with each part of the quilt milly was way ahead of me she was looking at the forest while i had been looking at the trees i said milly you decide and she did she arrived at my house held up the finished front of the quilt and i burst into tears i never cry but my tears came out like a flood when i saw this magnificent work of art did you know that milly only sews by hand she never uses a sewing machine that means when she began to quilt this fabric she did so stitch by stitch many weeks went by as she came to school and let the children watch her sew they were mesmerized it seemed as though watching each stitch connect their special ideas made the quilt all the more important our next step while milly quilted was to make a book a peace poetry book we took all of the children s ideas and put them into a rhyme a dog and a cat a heart on a tree autumn leaves falling into the sea stars and a rainbow triangles of white chicks and flowers peeping and bright puppies and kittens a cow and a moon a big bright star a truck that goes vroom a horse and duckies a heart that is red the color of yellow peaceful thoughts in my head when the quilt was finished there was a big todo in town the newspaper came to do an interview and get photos the library wanted to hang the quilt for a while this was big does the quilt look familiar to you i hope so it is my blog photo when the dust settled i told the world of this remarkable quilt including sending an email to the national liberty museum i thought they might enjoy knowing all that had transpired since we recreated their peace portal their reply was not at all what i expected and completely changed the course of events frankly it was a shock just when i thought this was finished that our quilting adventure was at an end i was so wrong little did i know what was about to happen was the beginning stay tuned for part 4 jennie posted in art community gloria imagination inspiration peace poetry quilting teaching young children the arts tagged gloria milly the quilter quilting with children the peace quilt 52 comments milly the quilter story part 2 posted on june 25 2026 by jennie in part 1 i discovered a peace portal at a museum and recreated it in my classroom peace became a big deal and very real to children when i saw quilts that were murals i knew i had to make a peace quilt with children the only problem was finding a quilter at last i met milly it was an unexpected meeting part 2 milly is the best quilter not just in town but everywhere said the director of the senior center great when can i stop by and meet her she ll be here on wednesday with her quilting group wednesday couldn t come fast enough for me as soon as school was over i was there i walked over to milly and introduced myself she smiled sort of and i bounced around telling her all about the haitian quilts i had seen at the bennington museum i was so excited i showed her photos of the quilts spewing story after story of each one and their art i noticed that the other quilters were looking down at their work sewing like mad as if making eye contact with me would bring a plague upon the group the more i talked the faster they sewed and the lower their heads dropped all six of them hmm milly hadn t said a word not one word it occurred to me that perhaps i was behaving like a child who had been let loose in an amusement park but this was such a terrific idea and those quilts were stunning each one told a story here are but a few i finally stopped not sure what else to say clearly i had overwhelmed if not alienated milly and her fellow quilters i put the brakes on and told milly all about the peace portal and how making a peace quilt would be the culmination of all we had done in the classroom i held my breath i asked so what do you think milly quietly put down her sewing i ll never forget what she said to me her very first words i am a traditional quilter i quilt blocks squares i have never seen or done any quilting like that this would be completely new and different a challenge and i d like that challenge yes i will do this and so a peace quilt was about to be created first the children had to design the quilt what does peace look like how does peace make you feel how was i going to link that concept of peace to a quilt how would i start what would i say to children after all the peace portal was last year and many of the children were new and then it came to me i knew right away of course gloria yes gloria has a blanket we always called it her blankie what if she wanted to call it her quilt her peace quilt because it makes her feel so good peaceful brilliant gloria milly came to meet the chil...
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