Happiness Is...

This man is Gerald Roy. It was his collection of quilts that was exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston last year, and is currently on display at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art until February 2016, and then later in San Diego. He's on the Executive Board of Directors of the National Quilt Museum in Paducah Kentucky. He's an artist, quiltmaker and expert quilt appraiser.

It was in this capacity that I met with him last night as he appraised my quilt, Too Much Chicken.  He loved my quilt.  He said it was fun, but not silly. He loved all the little elements (foxes, the use of fabrics and the word jokes.) He said it was well made and beautifully quilted. (Check that smile on his face!) What a rush. It's one thing to have friends and family like your work. It's another thing when an expert loves it.

I've never been really sure about this quilt. It was fun and happy and somewhat ridiculous. Everybody who sees it smiles, and it was very heartwarming when Gerry turned it over and grinned from ear to ear.

The last time I met with him he asked me if I signed my quilts. When I showed him my discreet signatures on the back of my quilts he said, "Not big enough," so last night showed him the back of the quilt first.

He even loved that.

He said the workmanship and quilting were excellent, noted the quilt was extremely humorous and then valued it about three times what I expected. To say I was thrilled is an understatement of epic proportions.

It THAT wasn't enough...

 He signed my book. :-)

The Surprise

My son knew Rubylocks was "The One", and knew exactly when he would pop the question. For her part however, Rubylocks wanted him to ask her, and expected him to ask her some time but didn't know when it would happen.

Apparently young folks nowadays take "selfies" or self-portraits, with their cell phones. My son planned to hold up the box in one of these "selfies" to surprise Rubylocks.

As you can see, she was surprised.


As she recounted the story to my Mother, she wanted my son to ask her to marry him, and she hoped  he would, but when she saw the little box she was completely blown away. She NEVER expected him to give her a diamond.

She was SO surprised that it took her "a really long time to say yes" according to my son. The way Rubylocks tells it, "I was so shocked I was afraid I was going to faint. And I didn't want to faint."

Finally she put her arms around him and said, "Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes."


My son says she looks at the ring on her finger every other minute, and giggles. "How did you ever manage to get it so it fits perfectly?" 

"Magic."

She looked at him sideways, "Well, okay. I don't want to know more than that."

Because I know the whole story, I know it wasn't magic.

It was Karma.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In other news, I am completely ready for my trip to St Louis. The suitcase is packed, the class is prepared and the speech is written. The house and sewing studio are both clean. I've got a list ready of all the last minute things that need to come with me. That's all good, but you'll have to forgive me because my heart is in California. Which I suppose is a good thing because otherwise I think I'd be getting nervous.