1st Day of Inacraft 2012: A Lovely Surprise :)

Yesterday was Inacraft 2012 first day, the most anticipated event by Indonesian crafters.
Too bad, I can't come and accompany my best friend, bu Pia of Idys wait our booth, because there are commissioned orders that I have to do and supervised myself.

Femina Magazine as one of the leading women's magazine in Indonesia, also participated in the event.
They will choose 23 products to receive their award, Femina Award, as the most unique, recommended products.

The Inacraft 2012 Femina award

I, of course, got interested. The booths which will received the award will be mentioned in their Inacraft shopping map, therefore hopefully will boost the sales. Then I submitted my newest product,Calyx Batik baby Bloomer Set to be nominated. They said, they will review it first.

The Calyx Batik Baby Bloomer Set

In the afternoon, bu Pia text me that the Femina Magazine people took one of the bloomer set to be nominated. I jumped for joy, to be nominated was already good enough for me .

In the evening, bu Pia send me this picture:

At first, I just saw at the two persons in the picture and wondering why bu Pia send me this picture, for I don't know who the lady standing next to her was. I looked again at the picture and it suddenly came to me, when I saw the thing held by by bu Pia. It was the award !!

Alhamdulillah, we won the award! Whoaa, a lovely surprise! I didn't really expect it because there are many candidates who have great products at the Inacraft. I feel so excited...after all this time, through many obstacles, finally I feel paid off !

Thank you to Femina Magazine, bu Pia of Idys, my cute baby model Bitha and all of my friends, for your support & du'a, huugs!

My friend, a talented crafter & craft books writer, Ira Dhyani Indira, stopped by our booth

The 23 products chosen by Femina Magazine. My bloomer is in the bottom row, third one from the left (or right...it's in the middle )

Inacraft will be held until April 29, you are welcome to visit our booth at the Inacraft, no. 43, Plenary Hall .

Ribbon Flowers on a Ready Made Clutch

Since I showed my clutch collection here, some friends gave me questions. Like, "Did you make the ribbon embroidery (re) on a ready made clutch?" My answer was, no, I made it on a piece of fabric and sent it to a clutch maker.
Another question was, "But is it possible to make it on a ready made clutch?" The answer was, yes, it's possible, but I haven't try it yet.
So to satisfy me & my friend's curiosity, below was my first attempt to make a ribbon embroidery on a ready made clutch.

1. I bought a ready made clutch.

2. I prepared a ribbon flower with the gathering technique. I used a gold colored ribbon 1 inch wide, rolled it 3-4 times and work a running stitches along the selvedge.
3. Pull the thread carefully to gather the ribbon so it will shaped like a flower. Secured the shape with a couple of stitches.
4. Prepare the leaf by folding an 1 inch wide green organdy ribbon so it shaped like pyramid and make a running stitches along the selvedge. Again pull the thread, gather it to shape it like a leaf, secured with a few stitches.
5. Carefully stick the flowers and leaves onto the clutch with some stitches.
6. Voila! My clutch is ready...

Perfect Giveaway this week :)

When sis Lia of Lia's Crafty Journey announced that the winner of her giveaway was me, I had never been happier. Not only because the giveaway were soo gorgeous (Alexander Henry's is among them!) but also included was a sweet note from her .

Can't say enough thanks to you sis Lia, these are perfect gift for a fabric freak like me, lol...

My, how many ideas I can get to work on these beauties... projects

!

(Almost) Always With RE

RE on the above title stands for Ribbon Embroidery.

You see, my first love in craft was with RE. I saw a beautiful ribbon embroidered blouse in a local mag, I called to ask the price which turned to be too much for my budget and lead me to learning all about those beautiful ribbon stitches, up until now. I learned it from books, AJ. Boesra's, Di Van Niekerk's, Chris Rankin's and Ann Cox's. After that, I bought many local ribbon embroidery books too (beside AJ. Boesra's) like Rosa Amalia's (which is my online friend here), Yossi Zulkarnaen's, Endang Rachminingsih's, and many more, for inspirations.

Whatever craft I made, I've tried to put ribbon embroidery in it, if possible, because not only I love the looks and doing it, but also I feel I owe my existence in the craft community to ribbon embroidery (Sounds too much, eh? Lol)

Now let's get to another story. Almost every crafter I know have an owl creation. I myself love the owl ever since I read Edward Lear's poem about "The Owl and The Pussycat" which I found both funny and cute. As the matter of fact, I made a pochette based on that poem.

As written above, almost every crafter I know have an owl creation. To the point where sometimes there are little bit of "clashes" where one "stole" other design, one claimed to be the best owl creator, and so on. While there is a strict rule between crafters that one can be inspired by others but NOT duplicating theirs (for commercial use), I think there's no problem if every crafter have an owl creation (of course, as long as it's not "pirated" pattern), the more the merrier . Now, I'd like to have one(s) too, but of course with my own rendition. Since I consider my self as a stitcher, these are my version of owl plushies:

To be honest, I was inspired by Aimee Ray's, but I'm sure, as you all can see, I'm not trying to be her . What do you think?

Being double now...

There are 2 reasons why I haven't updated my blog for such a long time...

1. My tweenie have become more and more attached to the fb now

2. I have a new job, an office job. So I'm doing double jobs now, office work 9 to 5, crafting afterward.

At first, I feel overwhelmed, because being a "single" parent, doing double jobs, it really is not easy. Hats off for those who've been doing this for quite a while ! Not only I feel handful, but also sad to leave my son at his grandparent's, sometimes alone at our place. For 13 years, I've been nurturing him, never leave him to anyone but hubby (and that's on veeery rare occasions!). But I have no choice...my inlaws are getting older, they often have to be treated at the hospitals because of their illness. Separated from my husband, turns out quite hard on financial, it's like funding 2 households. So I have to earn more than just what I usually get from my craft, if I want to have little money in the saving and for my son's lessons and extra activities.

Sew Loving it!

Last week my crafter friend mbak Dita of Cemprut who lives in Jakarta, came to Bandung to have a sock doll making workshop at Crayon's.

Of course I eagerly attended it, not only because she's one of my close friend on the net that I haven't meet in person, but also because I've never learn to make a sock doll before, I love to learn something new.

As I expected, at that workshop I met other crafters, I already knew some of them from the net but haven't got a chance to meet in person. I was so happy to find that the crafters are so friendly, down-to-earth and hilariously funny ! We laughed at our own jokes through the workshop session with our hands kept busy on the needles and threads.

The Cemprut's workshop at Crayon's Bandung

Unfortunately I had to go before the workshop's over. Nevertheless, I had fun and I especially loove to have & meet new friends (or old friends but "newly met") . I "sew" loving it!

Speaking of sewing, this month I've finished commissioned orders on "Love to Sew" bags. This time I designed it in form of pochettes. Not only "Love to Sew" actually, there is one pochette embellished with nothing but crewel and beads embroidery. They all have gone now to their new owners (thanks so much customers, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy making them ).

"Love to Sew" pochette in pink flowery canvas & brown faux leather

A New Place (again, sigh)

As written in my previous blog, I wasn't happy with the place I lived in Bandung.

No, not because it's an old house, it's just have not enough electricity to be use by 2 families and that other family who live there wasn't happy to share the house with me and my son.

So we moved again, still in Bandung city but this time we chose a house built specifically to let the rooms for rent, located not far from my parent's. There are 24 rooms and we rent 2 rooms which available. We like it here better than the previous one, alhamdulillah, obviously because each room have its own bath, enough electricity and it's quieter here, more plants and trees too.

Love the jasmines on the yard, always smell nice each time I pass it

Unfortunately our rooms are in second floor, so that moving in was quite exhausting.

But once it's over, I can slowly settle down and quickly back to my work .

My son in front of our rooms

Insya Allah, we're gonna be here for a while, I'm tired of relocating, unless it's to move to our own or to be live together again with hubby . Amiin...

Anyway, "Gigi" hijabs are back, now only pink, light brown and black colors are still available

"Gigi" hijab, sold as a set with below matching pin