I remember not so many years ago that I would personally be the grateful recipient of at least 6-10 wall calendars each New Year. I have precisely 1 this year …and I don’t think it really counts as it was one that Janome was sending out to our dealers & I asked for one for the wall above my desk.
Embroider each month using your JANOME EMBROIDERY MACHINE. Use built-in alphabets in the Edit Mode of the Embroidery or digitize your own with either JANOME DIGITIZER MBX or ARTISTIC SEWING SUITE
Not really sure why so few companies give out calendars anymore? So much of our daily activities now being focused online? …..The electronic age of calendars etc on our smart phones? Companies spending their advertising $ elsewhere? But no matter as I have a great solution for us sewers!
What about kicking off 2015 with a calendar sewing project? Dream up a monthly “picture” page and then sew, applique, embroider, or embellish your own re-usable calendar. Don’t you think this would be a great way to practice new techniques? Try out ones that you have perhaps got a bit rusty with? enjoy the discipline of making a small new project each month? Use up scraps from the stash? (yes!)
Here is my January page:
My January “page” had its inspiration in a piece of winter holiday fabric. I fussy cut a section of fabric and used this as a backdrop to add some machine embroidery:
- The month name came first – of course.
- I added a machine embroidered snowman to the right of center
- and a tree with snow-laden branches to the left.
- A Blue border using more of the snowy sky fabric above the nature scene was added
- Binding was also the same blue snowy fabric.
- I chose not to add any extra quilting but I certainly could have done so. (had a time constraint…..what’s new?)
I decided to keep the calendar page smallish (try to stick to not more than 8×11 A4 sheet of paper) I know 2015 is going to get busy and it will be very difficult for me to keep up if I try to tackle a mammoth monthly project!
What do I do for monthly calendar dates? That’s easy: just google monthly calendars and take your pick from many styles available. Print them out (free) & attach applicable page to your completed mini quilt or embellished “page” .
How do I hang my calendar? I am a bad girl…..thumb tacks into the wall is my lazy way. But you certainly could add a mini sleeve on the back of each month’s “page” or fabric loops? Velcro onto a cardboard backing? magnets on your fridge? Any other ideas?
What do you think I might come up with for February 2015??? Please send us pics of what you come up with if you decide to “follow” us with a 2015 calendar.
Janome Life 
My question is this: I want to stitch out a calendar page. Just the month name, the letters of the days of the week and the numbers. No pictures, no embellishment. Just the page. Just like you tore it out of a paper calendar. What I then do is hand embroider a heart around the special day-the birthday the bably was born, the date the wedding took place, any important date. I have a Janome Memory Craft 11000. I have done it by building it line by line. And spending hours lining up the numbers to fit neatly underneath each other. Just like a regular calender. This (usually 8×8) piece of muslin is then sewn onto a onsie or a pillow. Any thoughts on how to to this and is there a template to purchase to make it eaiser? It’s a bear doing it completely manually!
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Hi Becky,
Thanks for your query.
My understanding is that you are doing this manually in sewing mode? Or maybe in embroidery mode but with multiple manual hoopings to line things up?
It would be SO much easier to do this all in our Janome embroidery software: digitize your grid for the dates, add numbers & anything else needed. A walk in the park to digitize an entire 8 inch square hoop – provided you have our embroidery software & know how to use it.
You might need to seek assistance from your local Janome dealer if you want to do it this way. Choose a dealer who is authorized to sell our software and can support you with the necessary lessons.
Happy sewing those onesies & pillows!
Liz
JANOME CANADA
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More the second paragraph. Embroidery mode, single hooping, the entire design is entered into memory and stitched out from there. In ‘one pass’ as it were. It’s the lining up of all the numbers perfectly. Even with the built in grid. Sounds like I need to digitize the thing. I know nothing about digitizing and I’m guessing that at some point each number-from 1-31- needs to be entered manually and lined up I don’t know if the machine is equipped to digitize. I will check with a local Janome dealer. The machine was inherited, and as such the original owner isn’t around to offer advice. Thanks
Becky Mack
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Hi Becky,
Good idea. Your dealer is theone to advise you about the software options and then lessons once you have purchased it.
Liz
JANOME CANADA
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Starting my project of the month. A great doable project each month.
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That is a cool idea with the calender, I have a question for you.. do you have a pattern for the top you had on when you were at Findley’s ? You wear it like a jacket,
Jo-Anne
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Hi Jo-Anne,
Glad you like the calendar idea.
I have several jackets I make on a regular basis:
Ann’s cardigan & Tank – The Sewing Workshop Collection
Nina’s jacket from Silhouette patterns
Jalie pattern # 2919 Pleated cardigan & vest
I have shown these in several blog posts – definitely have done 2 or more on Nina’s jacket. Look for post title called Irene’s jacket.
Liz
JANOME CANADA
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I have done 2 of these monthly calendars & they are so much fun to try new sewing & embroidery techniques. One was with paper & embroidery (it was a project in Designs embroidery mag a few years ago) and the other was with pages like you are doing, embroidering themes for each month. I encourage everyone to try it, especially those who are new to sewing/embroidery, as it is a good exercise in planning, practising in design placement & stabilizing fabrics & getting over the fear of trying new techniques.
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