Janome Free Motion Couching Foot Review

I was able to play around with the brand new free motion couching foot for my Janome today. I used up all of today's "quiet time" to do the stitching and shooting a few videos for you.

 I will say that the foot did not work well with the finer yarn that I wanted it for, so there's no way it will work for the Razzle Dazzle by Superior Threads, which is what I was hoping for. More info on its performance hopefully tomorrow. I hate to string you along, but my non-stitchy life is calling. It sounds a lot like, "Mom!"

I did try a really nice larger yarn with some sparkle, and it worked a lot better with this foot. Not perfect as you can see in the feather, but definitely better. So far I am not in love with the foot, but I think it definitely has something to add to my toolbox of creativity.

I will hopefully get the rest of the review, with videos, done for you by Wednesday. Hope you enjoy and please use the comments to leave questions on this foot or the technique and I will do my best to answer them.

Free Motion Couching on a Janome Part 3

Back in July of 2011 I wrote several posts on free motion couching, inspired by Leslie at MarveLes Art Studio and the wonderful free motion couching foot she had for her Bernina. Part 1; Part 2. I posted about creating a free motion couching foot for my Janome also, since there was no foot like the Bernina's for my machine.

On Wednesday, I visited a wonderful sewing machine shop that carries Bernina, Janome and Elna machines in Roanoke VA called Alpine Sewing Machine Co. While talking about the kind of sewing I do, the lovely Swiss accented proprieter mentioned the new foot from Janome that allows you to attach yarn or cord in free motion. I jumped on that foot like a starving dog on a ham bone! [Edited to add: Part # 202-110-006 for the high shank models]

I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I should this weekend. So far my main thought about this foot, which comes with two 'toes' for differing diameters of yarn, is why didn't they make it comaptible with the super-awesome convertible free motion quilting set? Maybe that's in the works?

For more information about free motion couching, go check out the older posts above, and Leslie's blog too. Leslie's most recent post was also about doing some free motion couching.

I'll post my results in the next few days!

[Edited to add:  Janome Free Motion Couching Foot Part 2  and  Janome Free Motion Couching Foot Review Part 3 of 3, plus the videos of Free Motion Couching Foot Review.

PS. A special thank you to Vivian for commenting today on my free motion couching foot 'hack' post and lighting a fire under me to post about this new foot.

Poured Out 2 Quilt Done

 Whew! Done just in the nick of time!

This quilt is the second in a series inspired by the combination of my church's logo and the experiences and emotions during my husband's successful battle with cancer. Those negative words in the background threatened to choke the life right out of me. If it weren't for God's love and grace poured out over us over and over, I don't know how we would have gotten through it.

This was another hard quilt for me to do because of the emotions behind it, but it seems as if my best quilts have a spiritual theme. That's why I have entered it into the Sacred Threads Exhibit. It's the first time I have entered anything into a show, exhibit, or competition. I hope that others are touched by it. I do want to do a more cheerful quilt next! I also hope my pictures are good enough to get the quilt into the exhibit. You really can't see all the detail, especially the quilted words on the jug.

I learn so much from each quilt I do. This has machine applique and of course, a ton of free motion quilting! I need to learn more about when to cut the background out from behind applique. I was afraid to do it so I didn't. The black showed through a bit on the jug and the cascade of water, mostly just at the needle holes of the stitching. I also need to mark the edges of the quilt so my feather plumes don't get cut off by the binding.

Quilt Craziness

Perfectionism and procrastination in the same person can have pretty interesting results......

Two days left! Gotta quilt!