IT’S PICNIC SEASON! Part 1

This is Part 1 in a 2 part series giving more information about making one of the projects found in our Cross Canada Picnic Look Book – Summer 2017. In case you have not yet seen our Look Book, check out this post and this website for this  inspirational maker treat!

Notice the yarn couched with a serger in the ditches of the blocks and what a clever idea to cut up pool noodles for outdoor checkers!

Part 2 about this picnic blanket will be published next week so watch for more information on how Michael used his Janome serger and accessories to make this picnic blanket.

This Picnic blanket was made by Michael, our Janome Educator in Ontario for our Cross Canada Picnic Look Book 2017.  

Notice the embroidery on the blocks

Today Michael, Janome Canada Educator, covers how he embellished the picnic blanket with embroidery designs  using his Janome MC15000 as well as the quilting process using the same Janome machine:

“Janome has a fabulous array of specialty presser feet designed to help do any job quickly and easily with more satisfying results. The Free-Motion Couching Foot allows yarn or thin cord to be stitched in any direction or shape desired.

The yarn is fed through a notch in the back of the foot assembly which allows for even feeding and easy visibility.

On the Horizon Memory Craft 15000, the feed dogs are dropped with the simple touch of a button. One last check that the presser foot has been lowered and you’re off! Stitch in whatever direction, configuration you’d like. I simply followed the seam lines of my blanket, but the freedom of the Free-Motion Couching Foot is only limited by your imagination.

Quilting with the Horizon Memory Craft 15000

Quilting this whimsical and functional picnic activity blanket was quick, easy, and best of all, fun to do – all with the help of the Horizon Memory Craft 15000, Janome’s Top of the Line, 3-in-1 machine.

With the extra-special AcuFil hoop and heavy-duty magnets to hold everything in place, the quilt sandwich can be quilted directly in the hoop. YES! IN THE HOOP! Unlike traditional machine embroidery, there is no inner hoop to wrestle with.

The 11 inch throat space to the right of the needle can easily accommodate any size quilt, without having to tightly roll and unroll it as you work.

The AcuFil Tool software – part of the Horizon Link Software – which is included with the machine allowed me to flip, rotate and mirror my butterfly designs so they all can face and play together, just as the kids will do around the blanket to play a game of checkers.

Acufil embroidery designs – embroider and quilt your quilt at ONE time

Clasp stitching to quilt the “old fashioned way” – found in the Sewing Applications menu of the Janome MC15000

Since Summertime is all about ease, and getting thing done so there’s more time to kick back and relax, YES, Janome has an APP for that! Several Apps, in fact.

AcuDesign has hundreds of additional designs to edit, download and stitch out on your machine – including this adorable Lady Bug.

AcuMonitor lets me step away from my machine as it embroiders so I can multi-task and get things done quickly. I can set my IPad anywhere while it counts down the remaining stitches and indicates where on the design it’s stitching. There’s even a little chime which goes off to signal a thread break, so I can rush back to the machine to fix it and get stitching again without loosing precious time.

Another great time-saver is the selection of stitches for Quilting built-in to the machine.  There is a selection of 4 Clasp stitches which mimic the hand-tying Grandma used to do to secure the layers of her quilts.  I had my whole checkerboard secured in about the time it would have taken to hand-tie one row!  See pic above as well for the front of the picnic blanket. This is the back.

What better way to carry all the parts and pieces of the kid’s games than to whip up a coordinating tote so everything stays in one place?!

With only scraps left from the picnic activity blanket, this adorable tote was made in a few hours utilizing many of the fabulous features of Janome’s Horizon Memory Craft 15000.

I embroidered the name of the game on the bag with one of the 11 Fonts from which to choose, so everyone knows exactly what’s in it and, most importantly, where all the pieces belong after the games are over.

A row of cute little butterflies helps tip-in the AcuFil quilted butterflies on the picnic blanket and is just one of the many decorative stitches built-in to the machine.

A simple buttonhole, one of the 13 one-step buttonholes built-in to the machine, was used to draw yarn through the casing at the top of the bag. This seemed a perfect place to use the left-over pool noodles – yes, pool noodles, which were used to create the game pieces for the checkerboard. If the pieces happen to go missing, at least they’re easily replaceable”.

The whole picnic blanket – what a GREAT summer project!

Part 2 on the Janome Serger techniques used on this picnic blanket coming next week on Wednesday.