NatCroMo 2015, March 26: Tammy Hildebrand, CGOA

Blog tour posts may contain affiliate links.

National Crochet Month:

Welcome to Crochetville’s third annual Designer Blog Tour, taking place all throughout March 2015 in celebration of National Crochet Month (NatCroMo). Each day on our blog, you will find 1) in-depth profile posts for two crochet designers, with a link to their blogs so you can see what specials (free patterns, discount coupon codes, tutorials, etc.) they may be offering for NatCroMo, 2) a daily giveaway post with entries open from 8:00 AM CST to 8:00 AM CST the following day, and 3) during the last week of the month, daily posts from a Crochet Guild of America board member. Join us each day for a new surprise!

Today’s Posts: Jocelyn Sass, Cute Crochet | Rebecca Velasquez, RV Designs | Tammy Hildebrand, CGOA Vice President | Daily Giveaway | Halos of Hope Hat Collection | Complete Designer Schedule

.

Tammy Hildebrand, CGOA Vice President

Crochetville is very proud to have Tammy Hildebrand, Vice President of the Crochet Guild of America with us today, March 26, as one of the featured designers on our 2015 Designer Blog Tour in honor of National Crochet Month (NatCroMo).

 

About Tammy:

Tammy has been a professional crochet designer for many years. Even if you don’t recognize her by name or by face, you are sure to recognize a number of her designs. She’s been published in all the leading crochet magazines, had her designs included in a number of books edited and written by others, and has recently had her own books published.

[one_half]

Crochet Wraps Every Which Way[/one_half]

[one_half_last]

Crochet for Baby All Year[/one_half_last]

 

Why She’s a Member of CGOA:

Tammy says, “The Crochet Guild is my fiber family. I love that we work together to promote crochet keeping it alive and introducing it to new people.”

CGOA Conference Story:

Tammy has asked to me share a very funny conference story that involves both of us. At least, we think it’s hysterically funny. After reading about it, you may feel it’s just one of those “you had to be there” experiences. Feel free to roll your eyes at both of us.

It’s Saturday afternoon at the 2013 conference. We’ve both been running around like crazy since we arrived on Tuesday. We are both on the board of directors, and we are both also working full-time in the Crochetville/Red Heart booth on the show floor. We’ve been going non-stop the entire time with very little sleep at night. So we are not quite thinking clearly. At least, that’s our excuse for what happens next.

We leave the booth in the very capable hands of Donna Hulka of Crochetville and the Red Heart crew so that we can begin getting ready for that evening’s main event: CGOA Fun Night. A number of designers and businesses had donated items for goody bags that each attendee would receive that night. We head up to my hotel room to retrieve all the boxes, some of which were quite large. So large, in fact, we can barely get our arms around them.

Tammy decides that we should each do our impressions of the She-Hulk and load up ALL THE BOXES in our arms so we can get everything down to the event room in just one trip. All I can say is, BIG MISTAKE! But, not thinking clearly, we pile box upon box upon box, and manage to pick everything up and get out the hotel room door.

Luckily, my hotel room is quite near the elevator which is practically right by the event room. We get to the elevator, and wonder of wonders, people are just getting off and we get right on without needing to push the call button. It’s just the two of us and our million and one boxes in the elevator.

By this point, our arms are incredibly tired from holding and carrying these boxes. She-Hulk, we are not! So we walk straight to the back of the elevator and rest our piles on the handrail. Then we suddenly realize, “Uh-oh. We need to push the button to get to the right floor.”

So we twist around and look at the front of the elevator. Of course. There’s only one panel of elevator buttons, and it’s on MY side. Yes, I’m the shorter one, with shorter arms. I know if I put my boxes down, I’ll never get them picked back up again. There’s nobody else on our floor, and for some strange reason, nobody is calling an elevator right then on any other floor. So what’s a girl to do?

I place my left hand (the dominant one) against the side of the largest box on the bottom of my pile. Then I slowly start inching toward the elevator buttons, with my right arm extended out as far as possible. I s-t-r-e-t-c-h toward the elevator buttons, trying desperately to maintain my balance and NOT LET GO of the pressure I was placing on the box pile to keep it firmly atop the handrail.

Then I make the mistake of catching Tammy’s eye. We start laughing. And laughing. I finally manage to stretch myself as far as I possibly can, press the button for the right floor, and scurry back over so I can lean my whole weight against the pile of boxes. We look at each other again, and break into completely hysterical laughter. We are laughing so hard our eyes are running.

But that’s not all. It gets WORSE. We’re still laughing hysterically, when we get to the right floor and the elevator doors open. Could we be lucky enough that this floor is as empty as my room floor was? Oh, no! Classes have just gotten out, and the entire elevator vestibule is full of people, staring at us in disbelief.

We can’t stop laughing. We’re laughing so hard there’s no way we can pick up these massive stacks of boxes without spilling them all in the floor. We can’t get out and nobody is crazy enough to get in with us. So the elevator doors close.

Somebody on the outside pushes the elevator call button, so the doors open again. We’re still laughing. People are still staring at us, eyes and mouths wide open in shock. Lather, rinse, repeat. This time, somebody tentatively asks, “Is everything all right?” We try to compose ourselves before the doors close yet again. We fail miserably. The doors finally close.

This time, we stare at each other, and one of us manages to say sternly, “We WILL get ourselves under control. We WILL stop laughing. We WILL pick up these boxes NOW and walk off this elevator as soon as the doors open again.”

Somehow, we managed to do it. By the time the doors open again, we have the boxes firmly in hand and we walk as fast we can (which isn’t very fast) off the elevator. We scurry into the event room, drop the boxes as quickly as we can (luckily they contained nothing breakable), look at each other, and fall on the floor in hysterical laughter again.

Tammy and I are both big Disney World fans. The way the elevator doors kept opening and closing, opening and closing, yet we never went anywhere at all, reminded us both of the Tower of Terror ride, which was making all of us this even funnier, in our sleep- and rest-deprived minds.

Poor Margaret Hubert had the vast misfortune to be standing right in front of our elevator. I think we scarred her for life. I’m not sure she’ll ever be able to look at the two of us in the same way again. I’m not sure we’ll ever be the same again. To this day, Tammy and I can’t be in the same room or talking on the phone without breaking into semi-hysterical laughter whenever this story is told.

Even if you don’t think the tale is as funny as we do, we both hope you enjoyed the retelling! Now don’t you want to make sure you come to a CGOA conference, so you can see what crazy thing the two of us might get up to next? We’ll be rooming together this year, so I can pretty much assure you SOMETHING FUNNY is going to happen.

I think I ought to record an audio version of this  story and upload it here. Or maybe make a video of Tammy and me retelling the story when we’re at this year’s conference. (No, we are NOT going to reenact it.) What do you think?

…

Why She’s Serving on the Board of Directors:

After receiving so much value from my CGOA membership, I really wanted to give back. I have made so many friends, gained networking opportunities, and learned so much through all the educational opportunities, that I wanted to serve on the board and help to continue that for new members.

 

Visit CGOA Now!—The CGOA Blog:

Please pay a visit to CGOA Now!, the Crochet Guild of America’s blog. For each of the next seven days, one of the seven board members will write a very special post about the organization and/or crochet. We hope you’ll get to know more about the organization and that you’ll consider becoming a member.

Members get fabulous discounts at the annual conference, which will be held this year from July 22-25 in the beautiful San Diego, California at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center. Click here to learn more about the crochet classes and other special events coming up at this year’s conference.

Donna and I will both be at the conference. We’d love to see you there!

   

Find CGOA Online:

CGOA Website: http://crochet.org

CGOA Blog: http://cgoanow.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrochetGuildOfAmerica

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CGOABoard

 

 

Additional Blog Tour Information: