Traveling Stash!

I have not often tried for the traveling stash, but when my friend Linda had it on her blog I decided to go for it. (She hasn't many followers. I think there were only 5 names 'in the bucket'. You should go over and give her some bloggy love.)

When the stash arrived, it was in good shape. Lots of fabric, books and notions were inside:

I chose two lotus patterns for myself and then a book for my young sewing student.

The book builds on itself showing different techniques including applique, paper piecing and embroidery.

I am always all about putting in more than I take out so I added four nice quilt books and 2 pieces of bright fabric, one about 1/4 yd and the other about 1 yd.

If you would like to have the traveling stash, please comment below. You must live in the US.

I'll draw on the 31st.

Encouraging!

I received an email yesterday that a whole group of women were working through the Ahhhh's. That was so encouraging! The only problem was that the English Paper Piecing page seemed to have disappeared.

I went to edit it and it showed an empty page (Which scared me I'll tell you!). But then, suddenly it showed up again.

I don't know what is going on or why but the English Paper Piecing page is back up and working again.

Thank you Ladies for the encouraging news that you enjoy them!!

Places of Interest

While I am on my little blog break I want to share some places of interest with you. I have found that while I didn't use to like spending much time on facebook I have stumbled upon their groups and those I just love. They are a quick read, you can ask a question about something and get an immediate answer and it just works for me right now while I am using my computer 'on the fly'. Often through out the day Seth has to use my computer for school so it is nice to just read something real quick in between subjects then hand the computer right back to him.

Here are some groups that I thought might interest you (and some really cute photos down below!):

Celebrate Hand Quilting

For the Love of Paper Piecing--for both English and Foundation paper Piecing

Crafters Finished Items--a place to sell your finished goods; fee free!

Fabric de stash Auction--you can auction off your fabric fee free.

Non fabric auction--same as the fabric group but for all other craft stuff. Lots of yarn, thread, beads, etc end up on this site.

There are many others. I know Marcia is in some groups that I am not in; but these are the ones that interest me the most.

A word about the fabric auction. I also sell buy out fabric on that site and am quite excited about it. This is the reason why I've been completely absent. Before I had time to pop in...but now I am so busy with this fabric. I am hoping that by selling fabric we will finally make enough $$ to make ends meet by the end of the month. When I first ordered fabric in, I just sold it for what I bought it for (I did add in shipping, etc.; but mainly I did it to get a free 1/2 yd end of the bolt) But the ladies talked me into adding some $ to it for my benefit so I finally took their advice and started doing that. I'm offering some pretty good deals and we as a family are working on it together as you can see:

All Aboard the Fabric Train!

I hold all the fabric for my buyers until they fill a flat rate box.

When cutting and dispersing a buy, I line them all up in a row so I can quickly cut and place.

Stephen doesn't like it so much when I put the boxes back up onto the shelves when I'm finished til the next time.

Everytime I take photos Stephen runs over and puts his foot on the fabric. 

I gave up trying to stop him, and now they are used to seeing tiny feet in the photos.

(This is Riley Blake Flannel I was able to offer for $3.70)

Stephen just loves it when a buy comes to our door. 

The fabric is all wrapped in plastic and it becomes stair cases,

castles, tunnels...and in this case...a bed.

Ahhhh-33--Star Pattern

Ahhhh's come out on Thursdays. Sometimes every, sometimes every other. With each passing week they get continually more difficult. If you are just finding my blog, then I suggest starting at the beginning of the Ahhhhs. You can find a listing of all of them up top under the English Paper Piecing button.

For you that are continuing to follow me, thank you. I have made a personal vow to myself. While I am having to back off on blogging for just a season, my sewing has had to take a very back burner for far too long. Do you remember when I first started the Ahhhh's and the joy that I found in them? As I drew this one up for today I was so excited. It is absolutely beautiful. But did I get it finished? I think you all know the answer. So as I type this I am vowing to myself that I am going down to draw the very next one RIGHT NOW. And I am going to sew it up this week. And you know that will make me so incredibly happy!! (ok, who am I kidding. No way I can get it drawn up tonight. I am goal sitting for Saturday :))

I am also still hoping to figure out how to draw these in EQ someday. I would really like to publish them all drawn out already. I fear if I wait too long then my idea will be taken and I'll miss the boat. When one knows nothing about the computer this is a big hurdle to jump!

Anyway, this week's Ahhhh has a bit of a plain name..."The Star Pattern". It was published in "Weldon's Practical Patchwork" around 1890. It is anything but plain...it is beautiful. I cannot wait to finish mine in bright fussy cuts!! 

Obviously not my work; and very obviously very bad camera work too!

I've already cut mine out but I think I am going to only piece the inner stars and applique it onto the outer hexagon. Those divided outer sections are a bit tricky and would be much easier as applique. 

I will try to replace that photo of the block before the day is over...I just could not get to it at the time of publishing this.

It's time to say goodbye....

I have tried my friends; I've tried to read blogs. It doesn't happen. I try to blog. It happens on the fly at best.
I can't even do an Ahhhh anymore. I've not picked up a needle and thread for two weeks.

You that know me best know that blogging is something that is very very enjoyable to me. But I cannot be a
'proper' blogger by not following blogs, nor commenting on blogs.

I want so much to do projects and share them with you. I love you guys and you all know that basically you and my online Christian women's group ARE my social life.

But life is so demanding it is overwhelming. Too much so.

So I am letting this go for a season. I don't know how long that season will be. After all, I just started this week starting my young son on a school career for the next 18 yrs.

But the school, and the blog and the sewing and the housework...it just doesn't work for me.

My time will come when my kids grow up. I'll be 65 then. Surely by then I can catch some ME time (ya and probably before that, I know...he's not the first kid I've raised! And you all know I love him to pieces. He gets my ME time for now.)

I am all about commitments. The Ahhhh's will continue. I cannot promise regularity. I can only do what I can do. And the very next minute that I can sit down to draw one up, I will. I might just draw them and not sew them from here out. At least that way you can at least receive them.

I will re-evaluate my life after Christmas. But until then, I am going to have to say good bye to blogland with the exception of Ahhhh's.

Oh, and one other post but I'll explain that when the time comes. It involves a giveaway so don't stop following me yet. Thanks.

Always missing you, Hillbilly T.

Inspiration

Well, I only got through 1/3 of the blogs last night. Today we had a crazy day and didn't even get school completely done. Thank goodness that we can just do as Stephen would say "do another one day".

My husband emailed me an inspiring video this morning. I don't think he even knew how much I appreciated it because you all know how down I get about not getting time to quilt and trying to get a little business off the ground to help my family--I feel like it is NEVER EVER going to happen.

So...anyway, all that to say, this was very inspirational:

NO, not that!! Wrong thing...try this:

Guess what?

Its only 10:15. My work is done. (well not the housework. Who counts that??) Other school/computer work.

And I FINALLY get to read blogs. I am so excited about it!!

I just had to share. ME time, right now!!

Hand Quilting: I want to know!

 It is certainly no secret that I've been a bit behind on my Ahhhhs. It is not because of a lack of love for them, but rather I am attempting to teach myself hand quilting...and lets just say that it is a good thing primitive quilting is in!

I have some of my favorite ahhhhs almost ready for a quilt, but I am thinking that I really, REALLY want to hand quilt it. So for practice I've been hand quilting my Convergence 2. (It is almost done, I'll show you next week.) I don't have the normal hand quilting supplies. No thimble, no hoop.

Yikes! Right? Well, not if you watch Sharon Schamber. But then I am far from having any sort of her ability! So anyway, I've tried hoopless, thimbleless. And it just does not look good. At all.

Guess what should be coming in the mail today? Yep. A small hoop and a thimble. They are pretty inexpensive but not available around here.Colonial Needle was just a click away.

At this point you are probably wondering, what are my questions? Before I ask, let me remind you that I post this up top for future reference for all quilters that stumble upon my blog. Hopefully you will not only answer my questions, but others as well!

Here goes, answer any or all that you have knowledge about, thank you!!

1) To hoop or not to hoop? Why is it necessary when you can just squish it all up and rock the fabric back and forth with your fingers? (never mind that I have ALOT of missed stitches on the back.)

2) Does one really HAVE to have a thimble? Why? I mean if I am willing to endure the pain...

3) What type of thread should I be using? I am currently using Connecting Threads thread. Is that ok?

4) Needles. I know. 10 betweens. Anyone go against the 'norm' on this?

5) Batting: a big question mark here for me. What type of batting is easier to slide the needle through? I am using warm and natural on my Convergence quilt.

6) That stupid little quilters knot. I twirl and twirl and twirl it around the needle and pull...and I never get a knot. What am I doing wrong? Seems like spit and rolling it off the fingers works for this Hillbilly, but that knot is too big to 'bury'.

7) Basting: I tend to like to pin baste large quilts and spray baste small ones. Is the spray basting harder to move your needle through?

A perfect date

I have been working on a random post inside my brain and I have a 'need to know' post ready for tomorrow, but I just could not wait to share this with you.

I don't always let you know when my son writes a blog post. I figure if you are interested you can go follow there. And this one is not extra special in a big huge adventure like he's done in the past.

But it is special to me; because we took an evening and did something very special to him. It was not something I particularly would have chosen to do, but you know what? I had a great time. And tonight I just wanted to share that while my life is always a bit crazy, and I do alot of things...that I do know what is most important.

I love my little man. I hope you will enjoy my date with him as much as I did:

VISIT RIGHT HERE

Ahhhh 32:The Modernistic Star

I love the name of that...lol. I bet back when this star was published in 1931 in "Prize Winning Designs" they had no idea that almost 100 years in the future it would be shown around  the world in a matter of minutes!

I, of course am behind on mine. Do you expect anything differently of me? So I did NOT piece the example. Mine is neatly cut out and basted. Same as the last Ahhhh. Only this one is MUCH easier. Are you breathing a sigh of relief at that? Ya, me too!

Hillbilly wants to go hooker

Seth's school is scheduled! That's a very big deal to me. I finished about 2 a.m. last night. Stephen's I'll probably just work on monthly. You should see my living room though. Jerry's ex wife homeschooled, but nothing like I do. The kids had a 'video teacher'. So he was a bit surprised when I wanted to hang an alphabet train across the living room wall. Ha, that's just the beginning husband! Wait til the bugs go up the night before Stephen's 'first day of school'. Besides, how does one teach the alphabet without an alphabet hanging across the room anyway??!!  (We've only had 4 visitors in the 2.5 years that we've lived here. I don't think that is a problem either.)

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I need to know: You all did a great job answering starch questions. I am going to edit the post because one person gave us some links to recipes, then I will put add the post to the "need to know" page for future reference. I look forward to tomorrow's "I need to know"

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Does anyone do rug hooking? I drug my husband into a shop last Saturday but we ended up staying for quite some time. I really think it is something that I would enjoy someday in the future. Anyone know of good rug hooking blogs? Look at this fun rug I found at CindiGayRugHooking.com. See they can be modern too! The lady at the shop suggested that I could make match sets. Quilts with rugs to match. Oh mercy that excited me! Of course it is much more expensive than quilting...so I need to find that money tree...

Oh my goodness...I just had to edit...I could call myself the Hillbilly Hooker. LOL!!!!

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I closed my etsy shop. I just don't think I am up to working that hard to make a few bucks. I looked at other shops before I did close it...paying careful attention to how long they'd been open and how many sales they had since that time. No thanks. Too much work involved for hardly a penny profited. Not that I will make a buck anyway. LOL, as I have said before I've tried to get this 'business' of mine going for twenty years...and these kids just keep getting in the way! I am not NOT one of these moms that will put the business before my children, and their schooling, and their nurturing. I'd rather wear used clothes, eat beans, and not go on vacations. Kids/family first--even before money.

Rather I am considering opening a Made By Hillbilly blog. I might even put some of my fabric destash on there. And fabric magazine destash. Anyone interested in that?

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You all know by now that I am a big fan of Jan Krentz. And also a big fan of Ricky Tims. So....this past week Jan was featured on The Quilt Show. I am not a member...but I think I'll get to watch it next week because I follow her blog/newsletter. Do any of you subscribe to the Quilt Show? I would..but I figure blogs are free, you know?

HERE IS A LINK to the trailer for Jan's episode if you are interested.

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