Yellow Brick Road?

Yesterday was cleaning and sorting day in The Sandbox.  Boy what a mess it was!  I could hardly walk in here.  I was also very uncomfortable to sit at my "desk."  Maybe the floor is sloped in that corner of the room?  It was killing my back.  Anyway, I lowered the desk (Ikea table with adjustable legs), which makes a huge difference, and turned it sideways.  So far so good.  I shoved some file and other cabinets around too and at some point must have broken a blood vessel in my finger.  It looks spectacular but doesn't hurt too much.  Something to prove I was working hard.  :-D

One of the reasons for cleaning up and reshuffling stuff is this!  Look what I get to test drive.  :-)  A Janome Horizon 7700.  Woohoo!  Ain't that something.

The machine and I spent the day feeling each other out.  After being a Bernina gal for at least 20 years, this is an interesting exercise.  I read the manual (yes I confess, I'm a manual reader) and watched the DVD and played around on some scraps and test quilt sandwiches.  The machine is a real joy for free motion quilting.

I also tried some piecing, and from what I'm reading on the Horizon 7700 Yahoo Group and in many other forums, I'm having the same issue lots of people have with the presser foot getting stuck on multiple thicknesses.  It's not easy to excuse Janome for this issue since, to me anyway, the basic premise of a sewing machine is to sew through multiple layers of fabric.  Without a fight.   I messed with the adjustments and got a bit better as I went.  The quarter-inch foot has a flange on it as your seam guide.  Which is fine, except that it's flexible. (?) As well as the design of the presser foot makes it kind of wobbly.  I think it has way too much play in it for real accuracy.  In contrast, the Bernina feet are rock solid.  I could get used to the thread cutter though!  I'll have to play around with some of the other fancy stitches and see how I go.  I also haven't tried the dual feed feet yet.  Bernina does a great walking foot so we'll see how Janome compares.

I completed four of the six blocks of month one of a LQS's mystery quilt.  Despite frustrations with the Janome, they are coming out the right size.  It's a row quilt and I want to finish the first two rows before the instructions for row three come out April 1st.  I wouldn't normally use yellow in anything but I decided to be brave and try it.  I think I like it.

It's going to be a lousy, chilly, rainy weekend.  So much for the 70 and 80 degree weather...sigh.  But maybe I'll get lots more sewing done.  :-)  And oh yes!  We're going to the James Taylor concert in Raleigh tomorrow night.  The news said he broke his leg and injured his shoulder last week skiing in Utah.  Should be interesting.  :-)