a mini quilt and a commission

On Saturday Oct. 11 our quilt guild presented a show in a local senior residence called Maplewood. It was the 10th anniversary of this show and my 2nd year exhibiting work of my own. This year we also held a silent auction of mini quilts, each donated by members of the guild, to raise funds for our treasury. 35 quilts were donated in all.
I donated a mini quilt made of 4 log cabin blocks and three outside borders embellished with raw edge appliquéd leaves on front and back.

Jerome fell in love with the colors and decided he wanted it for our own. When we arrived at the auction table an hour before the close of the auction Jerome was surprised to see that there were several bids on "his" quilt. What we discovered, much to my dismay, was that the director of Maplewood was determined to have the last bid on my quilt and was willing to stand at the table until the close of the sale to do so. Each time he added his name, she added hers below it! Before the close of bidding Jerome had left the building to attend the harvest parade in town with Anne and Matthias, instructing me to be sure to get the quilt for him. What was I to do??
Two of my quilting buddies came to my rescue. Mary quietly took the director aside and explained the situation, suggesting she inquire if I would make another one just for her. Verda took me aside and suggested I offer to make the director one of her own. And that's what we planned.
Jerome bought the original quilt, that shown above, and we took it home. I immediately went through my stash and realized I had almost all of the original fabrics, but not quite. Well, I went right to work on the second quilt and as I sewed and quilted it discovered I liked the new one better than the first. Since we planned to keep this one we felt I could make some changes, and so left the front unembellished.

In the end, Jerome got the new quilt and I sold the original to the director. I brought it to her at Maplewood yesterday and she was like a little girl on Christmas morning. And then she handed me a check. Amazing.