Top-Stitching with my Janome MC 6700P

Since getting my new Janome sewing machine back in June, I've been enjoying getting to know it. I use the HP2 foot I bought extra like 95% of the time, and have gotten used to the remote thread cutter switch. I've even free-motion quilted a time or two!

But I tried something new while making the Nightingale Zipper Case that I just have to share. It involves sewing an 1/8" seam / basting / top-stitching. On the zipper case, I used it A LOT for basting, but especially for  all the top-stitching.

I watched a YouTube video by Chatterbox Quilts on How to Top Stitch with the Janome M7. Now that's a model up from mine, but it works the same. Start at about the two-minute mark. Basically, I left the HP2 foot on the machine, but switched out the needle plate from the 'normal' HP plate, to the straight-stitch plate. In doing so, the machine moves the needle so it'll go down in that 1/8" hole.

Like magic, it stitched really beautiful - and straight! - top-stitching, nicer and easier than I've done before. It did mean a lot of switching out needle plates when I was sewing seams vs. top-stitching, but it was so worth it, and with the one-step needle plate feature, it was quick to switch back and forth. Anyway, I've already been using this feature on another project, and am appreciating it so much. Let me know if you have the same machine and have used this feature too - or not!

Hello Janome MC 6700P

For a while now, I've been mulling over trading in my brother Innovis QC1000 that I've had since 2010. Pretty much replaced by my JUKI  TL-2010Q in 2016, I've mostly used it for sew-ins, as a back-up, or when I wanted to quilt with its serpentine stitch. It's been ages since I've been 100% happy with it, thus the JUKI purchase. Honestly, though I've been happy with so much about the JUKI, lately I haven't been completely content with the quilting. Or is it my quilting? Not sure. All I know is stitches aren't always consistent, and feeding of the fabric layers isn't even. 

Long story, short, last Monday when I was picking up my JUKI from service, I took time to check out the Janome Memory Craft 6700P. Several years ago, I had sewn on a friend's Janome all through an out of town retreat and thought it sewed like butter. And though that particular machine is no longer made (and way more than I needed), the clerk when I dropped JUKI off the week before suggested the 6700, so I'd been researching it. What I was really interested in was that AcuFeed Flex Layered Fabric Feeding System. With a 10" throat space (larger than both the JUKI and brother), the Janome also had three areas of lighting, the necessary (to me) needle-threader, two different quarter-inch feet, an independent bobbin-winder (similar to the brother) and that serpentine stitch I like. I was tempted.

So I initiated conversation about the price and maintenance plan, and contrary to what I'd been told the week before, it was now 1/3 off due to the shop's moving sale. No more consideration was necessary. That elusive 'better' quilting quality made me want to try it. So I've had it a week, and I like it very very much. I've made a baby quilt, and the quilting (and piecing and binding) quality met my hopeful standards. Obviously I need more time on it - and larger quilts - to share a valid opinion, so I'll be back at some point with more of a review. And I'm not saying goodbye to my JUKI, especially for piecing and bags (and ??), but I'm going to spend a little time getting to know the Janome, and then we'll see.