10 Questions - Elsa Brooks

If you don't know Elsa then you haven't been to many meetings. Elsa is knows for 2 things. She's on the board of the Virginia Quilt Museum and keeps up up to date on everything going on at the museum. She's also known for her miniature quilts. She makes tiny quilts with even tinier pieces. This month we get to know more about Elsa.

1. If you live in Hanover (or the area), how many generations of your family have lived here and how did they come to settle here? If you moved here, where are you from and what brought you here?

I lived in the South Norfolk section of Chesapeake until I graduated from VCU in 1969. After graduations I got married and started my working career at Blue Cross.

One of Elsa's miniature quilts

2. When you were young what did you plan to be when you grew up and what happened with those plans?

I thought I would be a teacher, decided in high school to take the general classes.  No biology or physics classes for me.  I decided to major in accounting when I failed shorthand and made an “A” in bookkeeping.

3. What are your favorite things to do in the area?

When I can, I enjoy visiting various quilt shops in the area.  Now the shops tend to specialize in a specific area such as reproductions, batik or bright large print fabrics.  We are so fortunate to have several shops in the area.

4. What hobbies or activities do you do other than quilting? Where do you do them? How did you get involved with them?

I don’t have any other hobbies other than quilting.  Before I started quilting, I did counted cross stitch.  I made several things for family members.  Below are three pillows I made for my mother which she used on their boat. 

5. What's your favorite vacation spot? Where do you want to go next?

As a child, I always enjoyed going to my grandmother’s on the Eastern shore of Maryland.  We would travel in the summer by boat up the Chesapeake Bay for two weeks of fun with my cousins.  Later, I would work at my aunt’s fishing party business, cleaning rooms and serving dinner.  Always enjoyed getting some extra spending money.

I’m looking forward to going on a Danube River cruise in May with a friend from work.

6. What saying best describes how you like to live your life?

It is best to give than receive.  I like to help others.  Randall and I have been fortunate to have good working careers and we are able to help other individuals and organizations.

Elsa also makes cool handbags.

7. Show us a photo (or photos) of where you create.

I would need at least a year to get my quilting room looking halfway decent.  I usually know where things are, but sometimes I have lost things.

8. Show us a photo of the quilt that’s on your bed right now.

Currently, we still have my Christmas quilt on our bed.  I need to wash the other quilts that I use, but don’t have an area in the basement to spread out the quilt to dry as Randall has a tent hanging from the rafters on my side of the basement.

9. What quilt is your least favorite quilt. Not necessarily the ugliest but the one that you liked the least or struggled with the most or just plain hated making. Why did you choose this one? Do you have a photo of it?

I don’t have a quilt that is my least favorite.

10. What is your all time favorite quilt and why? Do you have a photo of it?

My favorite quilt is the one my aunt gave me for Christmas a few years before she died.  She chose the fabrics for the colors.  It’s not a 100% cotton quilt, but a poly blend.