New Kid in Town

There'a a new kid in town!

That's my newest granddaughter that I haven't gotten to meet yet, but that's not actually the kid to which I was referring...

I was actually referring to MY new baby, a Janome Continental M7! I've never owned a Janome machine before, and I've heard mixed things about them. I've heard from lots of people who loved them, and a few people who hated them. But, I've learned that that's pretty universal about any machine brand. Sometimes I think it's more a matter of which machine you click with and feels intuitive to you, and not nearly as much about the machine itself. I've been looking at machines for a while, and when my longarm was still giving me fits after it came back from being serviced, I decided to look at something with a larger harp than my Bernina 440. I love my Bernina 440, but the larger harp Berninas were just out of my price range. I know people who hate Berninas too, and I've had two I loved. After reading everything I could find on the machines I had it narrowed down to, I decided on the M7, because really...13.5 inch harp???

I traded in my Tin Lizzie, and got this machine. It will do well in the Arrow Quilty cabinet I had the Tin Lizzie in. I've already ordered a new acrylic surround for this machine, and as soon as it arrives I'll be ready to quilt on it. For now I'll be doing some smaller stuff on it to get familiar with it. 

Today I was pretty busy doing other stuff, so all I got to do was make a bobbin and get it threaded, but I prepped some masks (SO over making masks) and I'll sew those up tomorrow on my new machine.

I actually got the machine late yesterday, but I made myself finish quilting the UFO that had been on the longarm and I was finishing on my Bernina. I've ripped out so much bad stitching on that quilt because of the longarm messing up that I don't even want to look at it anymore. Once I get the binding on, which will be another test for my new baby, I won't have to look at it anymore. 

I realized since now my biggest machine is a sewing machine and not a longarm, I can actually do all the big stuff on it (assembling quilts, borders, quilting, binding), and I could lower the backflap on my Bernina cabinet. Then I started thinking about how I liked the position of my Bernina cabinet better than where my Quilty cabinet was...and a total sewing room rearrange was happening.  I think I've got the furniture positions settled, but I had way too many projects out, and that stuff is everywhere, but I'll show you the rearrange anyway.

When you walk in the room the first thing you'll notice is my green Olivia cabinet with my Bernina 440 in it. The window in this room is really high because it's a basement, so I don't think I'll care that the machine is under the window. 

Turn to the right and you'll see my newly relocated Quilty cabinet with my new baby in it. I used to have one of the cube storage units horizontally under the window, but it needed to be moved, so now the matching units are together (and piled high with projects on top)

Turn to the right again, and you'll see the wall with three doors. I used to have my design walls against this wall, moving them as I needed to access places. The middle door is to a bathroom, but you can also access the bathroom through the hall, so I just blocked that door with my thread cabinet. Again, there's stuff all over the place, and I haven't hung the picture my sister made me up yet. The closet in this room has never had a door on it, but I'd like to get one put up. I plan to get an over the door ironing board hanger, and get my ironing board out of the way unless I am actually using it. I think I'm going to add a string to the back of the larger board I put on top of my ironing board, and hang it too. 

Rather than move my design walls all the time, I decided to clear this wall and put them against it. I haven't mounted them, and I'm not sure I'll bother. To get to the corner I'll have to move the rolling cart next to my Bernina, but that's simple enough. I dug out these blocks the other day when looking for something unrelated. I had planned to make a throw sized quilt set 5x6, but I realized these were the colors requested for one of the baby quilts I need to make, If I make two more blocks, I can get two good sized baby quilts from these blocks. I chose a fat quarter to make the extra two blocks from, and I might have enough extra silver squares to make both blocks. I haven't counted, but I think I do. I recently bought another bolt of Kona silver, so I can cut more if I need to. I just need to cut the sashing, and then I can assemble two baby quilts, one for a baby due in July, one extra baby quilt.  

The center of the room is empty because my vintage machine is set up in the living room. I did get rid of some stuff while I was rearranging, and with the green cabinet's backflap down, I have extra room anyway, so should I decide to move my vintage machine back downstairs there is plenty of space for it. I honestly didn't think I had enough space to have the design walls set up permanently, but I guess I actually did, I just needed to think about things differently. 

Now, for those of you who read my blog and have a longarm, I've got some stuff I am offering up to the first person who contacts me about it. 

I've got M sized bobbins, an open toe quilting foot, some Bobbin Genies and longarm needles. Since I no longer have a machine that uses them, I don't need them, and they were going to use my Tin Lizzie as a parts machine, so I didn't feel like I needed to include these extras in the trade in. First one to contact me gets them, and I'll even pay the postage!

*The longarm accessories have been claimed.