The Liebster Award

Most days, I find I learn something new. Sometimes it’s a cool technique, sometimes it’s mundane, sometimes it’s just downright blush-worthy. On Monday, I found out I had been nominated for the Liebster Award. Thank you, Stacey of The Tilted Quilt! It’s thrilling to know that someone out in the ether thinks you deserve more than a passing look. I am privileged to be nominated and will happily accept the undertaking.

For the uninitiated, the Liebster Award is a bit like a fun chain letter for quilters who blog. It’s an opportunity to get to know other bloggers. For me, it was also a good springboard for something to post about. It did take me longer than I anticipated to write this post so I still have much to learn about dedicating time to blogging.

In order to be eligible, a blog must be less than six months old or have fewer than 200 followers.  To participate, you

1) Provide 11 random pieces of information about themselves;

2) Answer 11 questions posed by the person that nominated them; and

3) Nominate 11 other blogs and pose their own questions.

So let’s jump right in..

Random pieces of Info – Random should be my middle name as the conversation tangents I take are often out in left field.  I am a Gemini and if I believed in astrology, I would say that my astro twin explains the split personality I seem to have sometimes. My children have the same number of syllables in their names as their birth order. I am a Kitchen Nazi but only with my spices. And the utensil drawer. I’ll drink champagne anytime but it has to be GOOD champagne as I am also a bit of a champers snob. My name was supposed to be Melita (yes, like the coffee filter) but Mum said my initials wouldn’t match my dad’s so they dropped the M. As “Elita” is a Latin derivative of “elite”, I tell people my parents couldn’t legally call me Princess. I studied psychology at university and would love to audit a forensics pathology course. Perhaps not surprising, my favourite TV shows are CSI & Law & Order. I wish I could play the piano like my daughter. Growing up, spending summers on my grandparents’ farm, I could ride horses before I could walk and I still love to go horseback riding.

Now please just answer the questions Ma’am…

1)What is the last quilt you completed – show a picture?

Umm, completed as in put the binding on it?That would be this wallhanging, finished early December. It was a panel that I found in my PhD (Projects half Done) box that I bought years ago, started & got distracted by who knows what. It was good for doing some hand quilting. I found some little brass jingle bells that were a perfect addition to the collars on the reindeers.

Along with some flimsies, I also quilt for others. These are the latest three:

2) Are you in any quilting bees? Yes. I’m presently participating in

This great bee was started by Stacey of The Tilted Quilt and a THIRD “Hive” has formed because of the interest. Click on the image for details and to sign up. I’m also participating in a QAL (Stitchery Dickory Dock’s Sugar Block Club) and have signed up to do a Mug Rug Blog Hop in April (Sew WE Quilt’s April Showers). These are all new ventures for me in my quest to broaden my experience and make new friends. It feels like baby steps while I’m learning to balance my passion, my online batting store &  and my 80% day job.

3) When did you start quilting/crafting? I have always been around fabric as my mother has sewn since well before I was born and all of the women in my family do some type of needlework. Little wonder I would pick it up too. I started cross-stitching & embroidery when I was about 8 or 9, doing that for nearly 15 years. Then I moved to Geneva and discovered a passion (ok, yes, some people say it’s an obsession but I don’t listen to them :-)).

4) Tell me about your family. I have three beautiful children (Miss F, Master D & Master C) whom I adore and am very proud of. They are charming young people with lovely creative minds and I can’t wait to see where Life takes them. Mr P is the boyfriend who does the commute from the US to Geneva every few months, a status which we are hoping will change soon to permanent residency here. In the meantime, he does wonderful things like build me shelves for Christmas. And there’s Kiki, our new fluff ball.

5) What’s your favorite color? Just about any shade of blue. I have two shelves of blue fabrics and they are closely followed in quantity by the purples.

6) What new piecing/quilting technique do you want to learn? I’d love to learn the porthole technique by Lu Summers. Maybe she’ll be at the Fat Quarterly Retreat in July and I can ask her. 🙂 Here’s her quilt:

7) Where were you born and raised? Do you still live nearby? I was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the US. We moved around Spartanburg county a lot and I was a bit of a nomad in my 20s, living in Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New York before finally settling in Geneva, Switzerland, almost 18 years ago.

8) Have you ever entered a quilt in a quilt show? No, but I have been tempted to more recently. I need to decide on one with a deadline I can cope with.

9) What are your quilty goals for 2013? I host a quilt retreat in the nearby French Alps twice a year (April & October). I’d like to see them at full capacity (12 people). My PhD’s (Projects half Done) number in the double digits (I must say I’m afraid to count the exact number of flimsies & others) but I’ve put a new system in place so hopefully seeing them more easily will motivate me to get them finished. Having multiple projects ongoing is not bad for me as they are usually at different stages. I’d like to get to the point where I have no more than 5 projects at any one time.

10)Why did you decide to start your blog? In part because I wanted to connect with more people and in part because I love to share tips & tricks to make quilting more enjoyable to others.

11) What’s the largest/smallest project you’ve ever completed? The largest was probably this dresden plate quilt for my queen size bed. I do a lot more quilting for others than I complete for myself so the largest quilt I’ve quilted on the longarm was this lovely triple Irish chain by a friend & client, Jean. It was about 2.5 metres square, to fit a king sized bed. The smallest were these little quilts on a sleepover quilt I did for Miss F’s 2nd birthday. The mini quilts measure 4″, with the hexagons on the grandmother’s flower garden at 1/4″. Could explain why I didn’t try that again until now. 😀

Finally, my list of  nominations isn’t the full 11 but I’ve chosen these lovely ladies:

Books_Bound (aka Very Funny PhD Student) @ My Life in Binding

Gertie @ Quilting for England

Kristen @ Kristen’s Quilts and Stuff…

Jennie @ Jennie’s Threads

Lauren @ L.White Ltd

Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Shena @ Apple Pie Patchwork

Sonia @Fabrics & Flowers

And my questions to learn more about them are (post pictures where appropriate!):

1. What would we be surprised to find in your closet?
2. Do you have a favourite beverage while quilting?
3. What is the one item you would never part with? (quilty or otherwise)
4. Do you have a favourite brand of thread?
5. Do you have a morning and/or evening routine?
6. What is your best quilty memory?
7. What is your favourite music to listen to while quilting?
8. What is your next project going to be?
9. What is the farthest you have ever travelled for a quilting event?
10. Are you a hands-on or lecture-style learner?
11. If you could do anything, have any occupation, what would it be?

I’m looking forward to hearing more about you all.  Happy quilting!