sew happy

an old love rekindled
when i first named this blog "all my scrap" and even when my little sidebiz was named Simply Scrappy, it was with the view to not only venture into scrapbooking but also into an earlier interest in another sort of scrappy hobby: QUILTING. i have never gotten past the beginner stage and i have tried very few projects in this hobby not because i lack interest but because i also encountered the same problems as i did with scrapbooking-- the lack of tools and materials. No, i don't mean the fabrics because there is an abundance of this in what has also become a scrapbooking destination, Divisoria, but mostly of the cutting tools and of a very important component of any hobby, i think: some friends/support group to bounce ideas off. inspite of this, my desire to quilt refused to die. here are some of my previous attempts at it.

this table runner is my first ever quilted project

picture on top: i am so proud of this full queen-sized quilt despite the fact it is is still unfinished. it is lacks the final touch--the binder (the edging). i started it when i was 7 months pregnant with Reine. i remember being sooo big and heavy while basting this project that i was having a hard time, but i was so excited and determined to finish it! unfortunately, i didn't complete the quilting because i gave birth before i finished.

an opportunity presents
when hubby had to go on a trip to the U.S. last week and since he still owed me my anniversary gift, my first instinct was to ask him to get me a Cricut. however, just before he left, i changed my mind. i wanted a new sewing machine. i am getting a hankering lately to quilt again. i did already have a trusty, old Brother sewing machine where i have sewn my few attempts at piecing quilt tops, and as you may have also noticed, some LOs, but i wanted a machine that can do the actual quilting. For the uninitiated, the creation of quilts have 2 main segments: first is the piecing of the quilt top, and second is the sewing of the quilt "sandwich" (top, batting and bottom). this may be done by hand and the beauty of the handquilted creation may be preferred by some but for someone like me who is perennially time-strapped, doing the quilting with a machine is probably the only way to go.

a few days before hubby left, i suddenly remembered this very nice lady, Johanna, who i met at one of the industrial exhibits my husband and i occasionally attend at the World Trade Center at the CCP complex. Her company sells Janome sewing machines and this is also where i saw the sewing machine i longed and pined for, the Janome 10000 (which later had even better siblings the 10001, and now the 11000). This machine is the sewists' dream! it is a top of the line, computerized embroidery, quilting, sewing mean machine that even comes with a colored touchscreen control! it has over a hundred decorative stitches and embroiders monograms, patches, appliques and even does logos. however, i just couldn't afford it since it costs about P12oK. since we met about 5 years ago, i thought she might have new models already and wanted to ask her if she had the $250 kind i saw on Ebay that i was shooting for hubby to get to me. she didn't but we had a pleasant exchange about all things quilting. it was then that it occurred to me that i did have someone right here who can not only be a quilting buddy but a quilting resource as well. it was then that i encouraged her to set up a quilting yahoogroup for us pinoys. we are hoping other "hidden" enthusiasts will eventually find us.

dreams do come true...sorta...
to make this little story short, i am now the proud owner of my very own sewing, quilting, embroidering mean machine. and i got it for a very, very good price deal. although i am still not able to afford my dream Janome 11000, i was able to acquire (actually more like "extort" from dear hubby) the Janome 9500. i had the brochure of this machine pinned to the side of my computer some years ago because i heard this is good inspiration to achieve your dreams through visualization. heck, i should've pinned up a higher model! i'm not really complaining though because this is also a computerized machine with more features than i can even handle at this time. however, it has less bells and whistles than the 10001 or the 11000. An example is it's touchscreen which is monochrome instead of colored. but, it has all of the features i need to accomplish my quilting goals so i am one happy momma! since it does mean embroidery too, i am inspired to do that now also. you can probably tell by looking at how many thread colors i have suddenly acquired. you can also see here my first attempt at it.

this is why i took no time sequestering another nook in our already congested home as my new sewing area. i finally took out my stash of scraps from out of my tampipi and neatly stacked them so i can easily access it for projects soon to come. hopefully, i can take this hobby to the next level. as a matter of fact, with this machine's capability, i can even make a modest sideline out of doing monograms and personalizations or coporate logo patches. that is, IF i can still find the time for that. (do i really need sleep? :-D) and can you guess already how my LOs will look from here on? and hey, i think i have an good excuse to explore mixed media collage! :-D below are more brag pics of my new baby...

my new sewing nook...
i'm betting this wouldn't be as neat once i start some serious sewing!

the top of the machine opens to reveal the bobbin winding and threading area. just look at the many decorative stitches this baby has: it has 98 decorative stitches and 90 built-in embroidery designs plus 3 monogram fonts! however, more embroidery designs and fonts may be added via the computer. my inner geek finds that waaay cool!

the top also hides the additional machine feet--this baby comes with 10 feet in the package already

no knobs! it's touchscreen to pick out decorative stitches or shift to embroidery mode


i love this auto-threading feature. a pull of the lever and voila! no more fiddling and saliva-wetting of thread ends...hehehe...great for bad eyes like mine.

the tool essentials are also incorporated for easy access. yet this detaches so i have a free-arm for sewing and embroidering tight spots like sleeves.

Johanna even threw in some Janome Digest magazines for project inspirations. i'm in sewist's heaven!

Marj's scrap-bukingan RAK

yes friends, buking nga that i am not an organized person! unfortunately, organizing only occurs to me out of necessity--i only find the need for it when i can't find things already. bestfriend Nita on the other hand lives to organize. i even suspect she got into scrapbooking for the many little things one has to find a home for. i'm sure you'll love her organized scrap space when she gets to post it at her blog.

i finally found a few moments to take some pics of my stuff but not to tidy things up before i shot them so you see everything with accompanying dust {wide grin}. neither am i in the mood to get picture pretty shots because hubby took my Nikon with him on his trip. somehow, my borrowed point and shoot doesn't put me in the mood to get good shots. so what you see here are "raw"--it's how my space really looks on a daily basis--one big mess. i had half a mind to give up on taking pics for shame but one more glance at the prizes at stake made me abandon even that. so here it goes, Marj...bahala na...

long time...

i know...it's been a while since i've blogged! i'll be making entries very soon but in the meantime, i just wanna share with you slide.com 's cool new feature...well ok, it may have been there for quite a while but i discovered it just days ago. it now has songs from hot new artists and it even comes with a You Tube link so you can watch a little clip, if you like, as you are bloghopping. i also like the fact that now that it is linked, the song completes (as opposed to segments only) and that it does not loop (which gives me LSS-last song syndrome-you know, like when the song also loops in your head all day).

so i changed old my song to this one by Daughtry (whose songs i really like) and especially this one "Over You" because i am also a Smallville fan. not to mention that Tom Welling who plays Clark Kent is among my list of hot cuties! {insert kilig squeal here}. so i suggest you also click on the video link if you like either. enjoy!

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and speaking of You Tube, i would also like to share this hot, HOT new product by another of my favorites in the scrapbooking world, Tim Holtz...GRUNGEBOARD!

i don't know about you but this one has me drooling. can't wait till it gets to here!

little tip on watching and listening: since you cannot watch the video and listen to the music at the same time, you need to either let the song finish first before playing the Tim Holtz youtube video or you can pause the song first by clicking at the slide's youtube section (bottom right) and hit the little PAUSE button that appears when the song's video enlarges. then you can click the Tim Holtz window to start it.
another tip on watching You Tube videos: if your connection is slow and makes the video irritatingly choppy, click on the PLAY button then as it starts, press the PAUSE button. this will make the video load first. notice the gray progress bar moving along. when that is fully loaded, restart the video. it would then play smoothly.

taking 'clear page' photos

i made this layout as an entry to the Visual Creations Hambly challenge. i thought it would be cool to join it since i've been hooked on making clear pages right after the SMIdol Scrapfest contest made me get over my fear of using them. after making this page though, i found it equally challenging to take pictures of them! i stuck the transparent LO on black fabric which i hung on our room divider. but being all glossy, it was hard to get a good angle that eliminates the glare. i almost always take LO photos near the window because the natural light makes the color come up better and the glitters or bling also show up better. however, where there are lots of light, there are also lots of glare. here was my first shot of it.

so i called my trusty assistant to stand on a chair and hold up a white sheet by the window. that did the trick! no more glare because it diffused the light and removed the reflection of the grills from the window. however, i was still not too happy with the result because i thought it just made the LO look like it was made with black graph printed PPS when i wanted to show the transparency as you can see on this photo here.

so i tried again. this time, i propped the flexible Hambly transparency background on a clear 12 by 12 acrylic sheet so it would be stiff enough to stand. i could have used a plate stand to prop the LO up but i didn't have one so i stacked throw pillows up and covered them all up with a white fabric sheet. the pillows weren't high enough so our blue sofa was peeking through but perhaps that added to the effect of showing the transparency better. the slight setback is that colors are a little less saturated because i had to move away from the better window light and had to make do with the florescent lighting. but i guess the overall effect is probably better.

although i have used Hambly Prints but twice yet, i actually like them a lot. i think they are also a natural complement to my clear acrylic sheet products, too. i have several sheets of Hamblys but have hardly used whole sheets of it yet on one layout. so when the challenge rule was to use 2 Hambly products, i found it totally difficult! well, ok... it was probably due to the fact that i did not want to use one all up on a single LO kasi sayang, e. after all, they are quite pricey... at least for kuripots like me. but i keep getting stuck so i finally gave in. i used 2 whole sheets here, one Hambly paper print (Big Vintage Circle) and a transparency print (Mini Graph) as the base. despite it, i kinda liked the way it turned out. it looks different from what i usually do and i got to try something new (this is the first time i tried printing the focal photo on transparency). i probably never would have thought to do it this way so i say hurray for difficult challenges :-D

my kaya 6 back to basic entry: wacky girl

this one was totally difficult. especially for the spoiled-for-choice-of-embellisments-and-tools scrapbookers like me, going back to basics with just cardstock and pens/watercolors scrapbooking was suprisingly, totally NOT easy! but again, being the puzzle-lover that i am, i was torn between kissing Donna for giving me something to boggle my mind with or strangling her for...well... the same reason.

again, after all's been said and done, it was actually cool doing this one. for one thing, it makes me appreciate my accumulation of CS and makes me happy that i used mostly my scraps here.

thanks again Wonder Donna for cooking up that extra challenging Kaya blog call and for making up that funny intro story. will kiss you now when we meet again soon... :-D

naka-TAG-oo...

been remiss answering my tags with all the goings-on so since it's a holiday today, i will get up to speed on them right now.

This tag i got from Cookie, Roxannee and Helga:

Instructions: Each player starts with 7 random habits/facts about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

7 random facts about me:
1. i love gardening but i hardly do any since i went crazy for scrapbooking
2. i am a chocoholic.
3. i keep wishing i have more time to read and do all the crafting i want
4. i would like to be more organized but mess just seems to follow me
5. i aim to go to the gym everyday but i haven't been there for months
6. i dream of a new computerized sewing machine: the Janome 11000 and i want to quilt again
7. did i mention i love chocolate? :-D

A - Age: 41
B - Band Listening To Right Now: Maroon 5
C - Career: entrepreneur
D - Drink or Smoke: i've quit smoking 6 years ago and i now drink coffee, milo, or lemonade
E - Easiest Friends To Talk To: my friends since highschool, Nita and Tess
G - Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms: Gummy bears
H - Have a Boyfriend: yes, my hubby of 20 years
I - In love: of course!
J- Junk Food You Like: PIZZA!
K- kids: 5
L - Longest Ride Ever: ride? to Baguio lang yata!
N - Names For Your Future Kids: ayoko na!!!
O - One Wish You Have Now: win the lottery
P - Phobias: roaches
Q - Favorite Quote: dream as if you'll live forever. live as if you'll die today. - james dean
R - Reasons To Smile: my baby Raj's funny antics and new scrap stuff
S - Sleeping Hours: iba-iba but often after 12 am
T - Time You Woke Up: today, 8 am
U - Unknown Fact About You: i'm really shy...(maniwala na kayo pls)
V - Vegetable You Hate: ampalaya
W - Worst Habit: can't save money
X - X-rays You’ve Had: chest
Y - Yummy Foods: sus madami ito: pasta, salads, steak, cake, green tea, sushi...
Z - Zodiac Sign: aries

and i got this fabulous tag from the FaAaaBULOUS Donna:

and this SMiLE tag from Idol Cabbie:

thanks sistah, you make me smile too (and go ooooh and wow, too!) whenever i visit you blog and see you on Fridays...:-D

i hope i have not forgotten any other tags...if i have, please remind me ha... and to YOU reading this, consider yourself tagged with any of the above.