Knotty Problems

The Janome automatically knots the thread when you begin zig-zagging, but after almost two years, I finally realized that to keep the knot on the underside, you have to hold the BOBBIN thread.   Then you can cut the top thread short and pop the knot to the back by tugging the bobbin thread.  If you hold the top thread or no thread, the knot and the bobbin thread always pop up and look ugly.

Two or three thoughts:  why did it take me so long to figure this out, why did no one tell me this when I took a class on the machine, and why did Janome design it that way?  It requires some contortion, as you can see.  When you end the stitching, the machine knots the thread, and then the scissors tool cuts the thread and pulls the knot to the back.  Pretty slick.  Wouldn't it have been nice to pull the knot to the back at the beginning too?

No matter though.  I'm thrilled to have figured this out.  It improves the look of the stitching tremendously.

Not-So-Free Motion

The top of the French fabric quilt is done. As for the quilting, that remains to be seen. I just discovered Diane Gaudynski's blog, and that reminded me how much I like her encouraging, down-to-earth, extremely helpful book and all her suggestions for free motion quilting. So, inspired by that, I pull out another uncompleted guild thing, this one a Round Robin. My thought was: practice on the RR, and by then I'll be good enough to try the other one. This would be a first. I only free motion small things, or service quilts with an all over pattern.


So how's it going?

I did improve on the continuous curves. The last set isn't terrible, or rather less terrible.

Well actually, it is pretty terrible.

I was doing fine with the light, relaxed grip too, until I moved to the center of the quilt, and found that the big lever on the Janome that attaches the Accufeed foot catches on the quilt when you bunch it up to create the little "nest" to quilt on. Even worse, it catches on the safety pins.


GRRR. Bad design, Janome engineers! But I'm pushing on. I'm using very fine thread, so quilting stitches don't show on print fabric of the top, and wouldn't show on the back if hadn't used muslin; this piece will lie on a table, so it's perfect for practice anyway. I'm actually doing better at relaxing and following marks. But I'm not going to put the long arm quilters out of business, for sure! The jury is out on how that French throw will be quilted.

"Too Late Smart"

All the time I pieced those Lemoyne Stars, I used my Janome's quarter inch seam foot, but was unhappy with it. The flange makes it difficult to stitch close enough to a marking pin and the foot doesn't ride easily over bulky seam intersections. Finally, as I tried to do the last few stars for the outer border, I decided I'd had it. First I tried the regular foot (moving the needle), but although it went over seams easily, it has an unfortunately placed bar that makes it hard to stitch a Y seam accurately. Then I tried one if the applique feet, moving the needle position to 5.5. Perfect! I can see, I can stitch right to the pin, and I can go over bumps. So much better. If only I'd known that fifty stars ago! I don't know why I didn't. I used the applique foot on the Viking for piecing, but somehow, I thought I should be impressed with the fancy quarter inch foot on this machine. It's good for some things maybe, but not for this kind of block. Live and learn.

Inspired by Debra's wonderful homeless teen quilt project, I quilted a guild charity quilt that I put together back in November. It's nothing special, but it was a chance to practice free-motion on the Janome using the push button control rather than the foot pedal. The results are very good. It's by far the best free motion quilting I've ever done. It seemed to take much longer though because I set the speed at medium and so had to move the quilt rather slowly. Usually I sew fast and drag the quilt around, trying desperately to keep up so the stitches don't get tiny. Once I got used to the slower and steady pace, I liked it.

I also invested in a bobbin case specially designed for free motion stitching. I don't know what the difference is, but this too seemed to give good results. I used Superior Bottom Line thread in the bobbin, and there are no pops and pulls at all, even though the top thread was a different color and a heavier weight. I don't know if other machines have this option, but I think it was worth the money.

I think I've come to a decision on how to proceed with the red and white stars, but have nothing to show for the mental gear clashing that has been going on. Maybe by spring--

Speaking of spring: we're having the worst winter weather here in years. Day after day of single digit temperatures, wind, and the infamous lake effect snow. A break in the weather would be good!

And finally, if you haven't looked at the Cyber Fyber Exhibition web site, be sure to do that. The postcards and ATC's are worth a bit of time for browsing, and the invited artists' work is eye-opening. I'd love to see it in reality.

A Quick Quilt, and Janome Report

I pieced this baby quilt a while back as a break from the triangles, and quilted it Saturday to see how the new Janome works. I like the quilt: the colors, and the cheerfulness, and the simple block, which I saw somewhere and copied. I had a bunch of fat quarters in these stripes and polka dots, some designer and some JoAnn cheapies, but they have all gone together for a guild charity quilt.

I'm also happy with the meander with starburst quilting design from Machine Quilting by Sue Nickels. The starburst gives you opportunities to turn and move around the quilt smoothly. It also hides starts and stops well.

And the Janome report so far:

1. Free motion quilting: A The few extra inches under the arm make a world of difference, as does the large table I got as part of a promotion. And the little feature that brings up the bobbin thread with two clicks of a button is almost worth the price of the machine! I'm still not a great free motion quilter, but this was not only much easier, but also produced better results.

2. Straight quilting with the Accufeed foot and Accufeed Stitch-in-the-Ditch foot: B I couldn't see that it was better than a walking foot, and since the Accufeed thing has to be attached if you haven't been using it, it isn't any easier. To be fair though, I think I skimped a bit on the pin basting, and that may have been the problem.

3. Accufeed 1/4 Inch foot for sewing on binding: C- A mess. The flange doesn't make a clear guide, the design of the foot makes it hard to see the edge of the quilt, so my binding was actually less straight than usual, even with the wonderful Elmer's glue technique. Not only that, this foot requires a special needle plate, a real pain. I'm glad I found this out before I tried to bind an important quilt. I guess the regular foot might work better. I hope so.

(Added later) I owe the machine an apology. Turns out you have to move the needle to 5.5 to get the 1/4 foot to work right. I you do that, it's fine, a B+ at least.

4. Accufeed Stitch in the Ditch foot for second binding stitching: A Great! The little guide stays right in the ditch, and the stitching was fast and very accurate on the front. On the back where the less-than-perfect first line of stitching caused the binding to be an uneven width, the results aren't as good.

I'm looking forward to seeing what other tricks this machine can do, and I'm sure that practice and familiarity will smooth out some of the problems I've had.