There's a new addition to the family this year, the Janome 350E Embroidery machine. I have wanted one of these for a long time and was waiting for a used one to come in to my local dealer. However, due to my impatience and love of new-in-the-box, ta-da!
There is a lot to learn with an embroidery machine and I am a complete novice. I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around my quilting frame so there is not much time to learn even more!
I have done some test embroidery on an old napkin using a couple of the 100 built-in designs included with the machine. It stitches beautifully and worked right out of the box. I don't have any embroidery thread yet so I just tried it with some rayon I had in my stash. There was already a filled bobbin in the machine. I had to play with the tension a little and figure out where the design was going to stitch out, but it is a very user-friendly machine and I'm sure it has very powerful capabilities!
I've joined a couple of embroidery forums and, just like the quilting community, everyone has been so welcoming and forthcoming with tips, answers to my questions (and there are a LOT), suggestions, and inspiration! I can't wait to learn everything I can do!!!
I'm trying to not get over-whelmed and remind myself that I have my whole life to figure this all out. There is so much I want to do and create and I'm hoping that I will have more time to play and learn after next summer. Regardless, I'm very excited to add machine embroidery to my repetoire and until I get the hang of the complicated stuff I'll have fun monogramming everything in sight!
Here's my new girl in the workshop - she just fits on the last bit of counter space where my pressing board used to be (pressing has been moved to another room!) There are 2 examples of my test pieces including when I switched to metallic thread just to see what would happen. The 100 built-in designs are mostly florals but there are some nice quilt label borders and cute icons.
I managed to snag a 350E on eBay this past fall and am glad I did. Went online and bought lots of emb designs to stitch on holiday gifts. It's a workhorse of a machine. Enjoy!
Posted by: RJW | January 03, 2013 at 11:41 AM
Thanks, RJW! I'm so excited to really try it out! Feel free to message me any tips you've learned about our machine! :)
Posted by: Angie | January 03, 2013 at 03:26 PM
WHOA, it can do that fish and butterfly design? Those look crazy complicated! I'd love to have embroidery just to put my signature on my quilts but it looks like you will be able to do a ton with your new machine. :)
Posted by: Maureen | January 08, 2013 at 12:24 AM