Who Needs a Man as Long as There are Art Supplies

 My uncle's immortal words live on.

 As you all may recall, I like Janomes. One of the things I have never liked about them is that they have a pretty small throat space (which, if blogger weren't mysteriously blocking random photos, you would see from the earlier post).

So about three years ago, Janome released the horizon 7700, which featured a colossal 11 inch throat space. It was also red and featured a wiener dog in its ads (which I'm pretty sure were made especially with me in mind cause I was like OMG it's stretched out JUST LIKE A WIENER DOG. Yeah. Janome's ad team FTW there).

Anyway since that time, I have repeatedly broken the 10th commandment over it and rued the day I decided to go to school instead of buying sewing machines.

So now that I am done wretched school, I can buy things that aren't tuition, textbooks or food. Just happened to decide to covet it again online a week ago and discovered that Northgate Sewing has it on HUGE discount and were also throwing in its special table. I think the model is probably being retired to make way for the 8900.

Anyway, I went down there on Monday morning (yes even though I worked that night) just to SEE IT. They originally had three machines and a display model. Of them, the display model alone remained. I bought it anyway. The sales rep was like oh you're interested in trying the machine? And I was like no I just want to buy it. Prolly the quickest sale they ever made. Because the table was already assembled the sales rep said he would deliver it for me that afternoon. Then I went home and tried to sleep but mostly laid in my bed squealing with delight.

Isn't it perty?? When he delivered it, the sales rep insisted on setting it up in the table. So while I was working, it basically occupied a third of the centre of the living room.  I had planned on putting the table in storage so that I could set it in the store room where it could sit forlornly with the other machines, but since he set it in the table mama decided to put it back against the wall, which I guess is its new home.

Yay its spot. Yeah it's basically sandwiched in there. What can I say, it's the crapartment. Space is at a premium. Between it and Gigantor, there is a lot of competition for attention.

The thing that the throat space facilitates is of course free motion quilting. So the first thing I tried today was a sampler of sorts. I definitely have to get a tension that works for me (it's on auto right now) but it worked okay. One thing I like is that the machine OPENS (the old Janome didn't). 

I already know that I don't like how squat it is; the working space is really short. I think that's a minor annoyance, but I used to quilt with my head on the machine occasionally (yeah, ergonomics pheh). You can see the shortness here. I have to have the presser foot down to change the foot because there are bars in the way otherwise; it's that short.  It'll take some getting used to; it feels like the machine is in the way of the visible space a little. I think it might also be the height of the table. I can open the machine and eliminate some of that, but no putting my head on the machine anymore.

Anyway fun times playing (less fun having the money come out of my account, but hey it's less than some other things...). And it's the same colour as my new phone. :) Holly suggested names and I am leaning towards Shemar. :P

On from the Emerald City

Pantone has declared emerald green to be the colour of 2013. It happens to be one of my favorite colours (and after a few years of blech colours like honeysuckle and tangerine, it’s about time to bring jewels back).

Coincidentally the Christmas play put on by the globe theatre this year was The Wizard of Oz (which as most probably know was originally titled The Emerald City). I read the stories when I was younger (it was a surprise to find the slippers were silver and the winged monkeys significantly less horrifically terrifying than in the movie--also getting PTSD again from the fact that the Broadview school library probably threw them AWAY without even making them available to book vultures Moores). Anyway, emerald was the colour of hope--the Emerald City in which the wizard resided was twice a destination of the original story, ostensibly the only way to get what one really wanted or needed. Or where people thought they got what they wanted or needed. As in real life, sometimes we find we’ve put our faith in a lot of humbug when the answer was ridiculously simple all along. Maybe it's just that we have a few extra things to learn by taking the scenic route a couple of times through Oz.

Given all of that, 2013 has been the emerald year for me long before Pantone decided to make it official. It is the final stop on a journey through a strange world full of the bizarre and sometimes scary; pressing on with the hope of something precious at the end of the road. And now I’m finally here, ready to find out what “arrival” really means.

As expected, it turns out the arrival is the beginning of a new journey. Suddenly possessing the spoils of the victory means you have to use them. What does it mean to realize one has what was wanted and how does one move on from victory to the realities of what that victory brings? Don’t really know, but I have a feeling I’ll find out--and I’ll probably be back again some day. Besides, though the “emerald” was originally a trick produced by wearing green glasses, eventually the stories spoke of it as a reality. At some point we really do arrive in the place we think we’ve been going all along. Little arrivals always remind us of the final one.

I called 2009 my silver year, not realizing that silver shoes may take you anywhere you want to go, but that means you have to go. It was all so simple and so difficult at once. And now here is my emerald year, the jewel to set in the middle of it all.

Now I just need a golden cap to control those winged monkeys. Mwa HAHAHAH...okay nevermind about that.