Liebster Award! What??

OMGoodness! I am so honored to have been given the Liebster Award by Heidi at Red Letter Quilts. I had seen this on other crafty blogs, but never dreamed that anyone would ever nominate me.  I never win anything, and I mean anything.  So let me share with you the bases of this award.

The Liebster Award, otherwise known as the Love Blog Award, is given by a blogger to a new blogger to promote appreciation and recognition in the blog-o-sphere. The blog must have less that 200 followers or be less than 6 months old.  The nominated blogger must write a post with the following:

11 Random things about themselves
Answer 11 questions posed to them by the blogger that nominated them
Choose 11  blogs to pass on the award to
Post 11 question for nominated bloggers to answer

I would like to follow in Heidi's footsteps by first listing my 11 nominees:

1. Wasn't Quilt In A Day
2. Berlin Quilter
3. Way Up North Sweden
4. Sew Simple Life
5. Miss Marker's Quilts
6. Late To Create
7. Joy For Grace
8. Down The Avenue
9. Walking Life's Path Again
10. My Quilts And Other Stories
11. Pretty Lady Baby

Now to answer Heidi's questions:

Q.  Cats or Dogs?
A.  DOGS.  I am so allergic to cats that I can hardly be around them at all.

Q.  AM or PM person?
A.  PM if I don't have to work the next day, but right now I'm working 6 days a week between two jobs while waiting for my dear hubby's disability case to go through our wonderfully slow court system.

Q.  Sand or Snow?
A.  Sand for sure.  I live 20 minutes from the beach and I love it that way. I do wish it was Hawaii instead of Galveston. : )

Q.  Floral or Plaid?
A.  Floral.  I love anything shabby chic.  You can't go wrong gifting me anything pink and floral.

Q.  Warm or Cool colors?
A.  Warm colors for my clothing, I am a ginger.  Cool for home decor.

Q. Favorite Flower?
A.  Star Lily for my table, and Daffodils for the garden.  My dad always had a daffodil garden when I was growing up.  He even chased down a young man one time because he had cut and taken some from his flower bed.  Yes he did take them back and put them in a vase for my mom on the kitchen table. Love.

Q. Who would you like to have lunch with if you could?
A.  My mom.  I miss her so much.  She passed away of breast cancer when I was 13.  Did I say how much I miss her?

Q.  Hotel or tent?
A.  Hotel or no-tel.  That is all I have to say about that.

Q. Your first quilt pattern?
A.  Rag quilt was my first quilt, but my first actual pattern was Royal Squares Quilt by Emily

Q.  How many UFO's do you have stashed?
A.  Two, only because I finished one today.  If you count the ones I have bought fabric for, but not started on then 5.

Q.  What is missing in your fabric stash?
A.  Solids and modern prints.  Most of my stash, 90%, is older prints given to me by my MIL.

11 Random things about me:

1.  I love to bake, but hate to clean up the kitchen.
2.  I have 2 beautiful grand-kids  but am dying for my daughter to finish college, get married, and have me a whole batch of grand-babies   LOL.  I know, I know, don't rush her.
3.  I had my daughter 1 month after turning 17. I am determined that my daughter and son will not have children before they are finished with college and hopefully happily married.  But college is a must hands down.
4.  I am learning to play Chess with my son as I write this.  He is awesome.  And so handsome.  And so smart.  And I love him so much.  (I love my baby girl, 21, also so much)
5.  I am a breast cancer survivor of 2 1/2 years now.  I found one out of three lumps when a coworker turned around and caught me on the breast with a fingertip while she was flailing her arms around.  Thank God for down time and messing around on the clock at work! Two were stage 0 and the other was stage 1.
6.  My husband was my boss when I first met him.  I know, I'm so naughty.
7.  I am an only child and always wished I had siblings.  Being an only child can be very lonely at times.
8.  I love the show Sons of Anarchy and secretly, or not so secretly, am IN LOVE WITH Jacs.  SWOON
9.  I want to go see Bruno Mars at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo so bad.  That is one sexy little Hawaiian.  Or maybe it's just his songs.  Hmm
10.  I am married to the biggest Adele addict on the planet.
11.  This is the first time I have actually stuck with blogging for any length of time.

11 Questions for my nominees: 

1.  What is your favorite meal to make at home?
2.  What is your favorite color?
3.  Mountains or Ocean?
4.  What would be the first thing you would buy if you won the lottery?
5.  What is the name of your favorite teach in school and what made them special?
6.  If your house was threatened by a wild fire, what would be the first thing you would pack in your car besides your family and pets?
7. Rock or Country?
8. What is your biggest accomplishment?
9. What is your favorite song from the 1980's?
10.  What was the name of your first pet?
11.  Bungie jumping or Sky diving?

And now on to my finish for this week. I went in to work today and was sent home within 6 minutes due to the lab only having 1 stress test scheduled.  Yay! An unexpected day to play with my sewing machine.  So I decided to pull out one of my UFO's and make something with it.

My first disappearing 9 patch squares and pieces had been sitting in a drawer since before I started this blog.  I originally pulled it out today thinking I would make a table runner with it.  But then as I was quilting it, I kept seeing it as a bag.  And that is exactly what it became.  I didn't have a pattern, so I just winged it using ideas that I had seen in different tutorials around the web.  I incorporated zigzag quilting I had seen done by AmandaJean at Crazy Mom Quilts.  My machines zigzag doesn't stretch out like hers does so I did a zigzag over the seams of the disappearing 9 patch blocks. Second, I added binding to the inside of the top edge of the bag. Next, I used the quilt as you go method to close up the side seam of the bag so as not to have an unfinished seam inside the bag.  I then seamed the bottom of the bag and added 45 degree corners. I finished the binding and added some quilted straps.  I made sure the straps were wide enough and attached firmly to the bag so that it won't fall apart while carrying something heavy.  It's not perfect, but I made it and I am very proud of it.  Please leave me a comment letting me know what you think.

I also finished my block for the February Simply Solids Modern Bee.  Dorrylu from Be Crafted had us make an improv log cabin.  I was not crazy about this block at first, but as I started working on it I fell in love.  It is based on a painting she loves. 

Isn't it beautiful? I think it is just luscious.

Thanks for stopping by my blog, come back soon.  Better yet follow me! : )