Kim Jamieson-Hirst of Chatterbox Quilts (www.chatterboxquilts.com) is a Janome artisan and YouTube creator sharing quilting and fabric information each week on her channel (www.youtube.com/chatterboxquilter). For more information, and education, join the Chatterbox Quilts’ Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChatterboxQuilts/.
Last month (see janomelife 22 February) Kim created a simple spring appliqué project using the Janome Artistic Edge 15 Digital cutter and the Memory Craft 500E. The appliqué pieces were cut using the Janome Artistic Edge and then their edges were finished using the Janome Memory Craft 500E.
Here’s a more detailed look at how she created that project using the SimpleCut software that is included with the Janome Artistic Edge 15 digital cutter.
When doing a project like this, you need to create three files:
1. The original file
2. A cut file for use with the Janome Artistic Edge 15 Digital cutter
3. An embroidery file for use with the Janome Memory Craft 500E or other embroidery machine.
I started by creating my original file. To do this, I created a new file and, under “Tools”, chose “Insert Symbol”.
Under “Wingdings” I chose a flower design and clicked “Insert”. Psst! You can actually find interesting designs in the Symbols area, so take a look there for design inspiration.
I dragged my cursor out to create the desired size of my first flower. After closing the “Insert Symbol” menu, I copied this flower and pasted it two more times into my project for a total of three identical flowers. To make things a bit more interesting, I adjusted the width of one flower and the length of another.
I selected a flower, chose a colour fill for it from the “Palette” menu and then repeated this process, using a different colour, for each of the flowers. I moved them around until I was satisfied with my design. I selected all of the flowers and added an outline around each of them (I chose black to keep it simple). Shapes need to have an outline around them so you can add stitches to them: no outline, no stitches!
In the fill area (bucket icon) in Object Properties, I checked “Appliqué” and “Fabric Trim” in which area I chose “Pre-cut”.
I then selected the “Cutter presets” based on the type of fabric preparation I was going to use (Fabric backed with Fusible Webbing).
Once I decided on the final design, I saved the file by an easily recognizable name and this was my original file. I then needed to create the cut file to use with the Janome Artistic Edge so that it could cut out the flower shapes.
I created the cut file by opening the original file and saving it as the same name with the addition of the word “cut”. For this file I chose “Cut” under the Outline area in Object Properties. The Cutter presets remained the same as my original file.
To create the embroidery file which would be exported via USB memory stick to the Janome Memory Craft 500E, I saved the original file again with the addition of the word “embroidery” or “emb”. Rather than choosing “Cut” under the Outline area in Object Properties, I selected the desired appliqué shape and then chose one of the hundreds of stitches available in the Running Stitch or Satin Stitch categories for that shape.
For this project I chose different stitches for each of the appliqué shapes. Once I was satisfied with my stitch selections, I saved this embroidery file in a *JEF format (the Janome embroidery format) in the “Save as type” area.
I used the “Cut” file to cut out all the appliqué shapes on my Janome Artistic Edge. I uploaded the “Embroidery” file to the Janome Memory Craft 500E and stitched out the appliqué outlines, which showed me where to fuse the appliqué shapes. I was then able to “ask” the Janome 500E to finish he appliqué edges with the pre-determined stitches. The ability of the Janome Memory Craft 500E to adjust the needle position by teeny, tiny jumps was really helpful in positioning the needle exactly where I wanted the stitches to be placed on the appliqué pieces. I decided to use white thread for all of the stitching, which kept thread changes to a minimum (none at all!) and was really pleased by the final outcome.
While the project is now in an embroidery hoop – a hand one, not a machine one – I can always take it out, add some borders, and make it into a mini quilt.
I’ll then be able to quilt this project on my Janome Horizon Memory Craft 8900 QCP in no time. Loving how all my Janome machines work in perfect harmony!
Kim Jamieson-Hirst
Janome Life 