I love going to retreats. When I am at home, I am busy writing blogs/lessons and creating digitized machine embroidery designs and patterns for quilt layouts/blocks. I get my actual sewing accomplished at weekend retreats where I can have every moment of time dedicated to sewing my design ideas. Recently, while at a retreat, I looked around the room and noticed how many machines were the Janome brand of machines. What I noticed was not just the number of Janome machines but all the different models of these Janomes. I started on a quest to see what it was about the machines that the users loved.
The first machine I noticed was an embroidery only machine: Janome Memory Craft 300E model. (Currently Janome dealers can show the MC230E, MC450E and Mc500E as embroidery only models). I asked the owner of this machine what she liked about it and she said it has performed well over the years. It’s compact size makes it easily portable for retreats. She often brings this machine along with a regular sewing machine and sews on that while the embroidery machine is stitching away.
Janome MC 300E embroidery only machine
Another machine that had loads of people interested was the Janome MC 500E stand alone embroidery machine. This was was being used by a brand new embroidery enthusiast. It was great fun watching her absolute delight at being able to create designs and edit them directly on the machine’s edit screen. She was so excited when she remembered how to create something she had just embroidered. She lacked confidence when she arrived but was absolutely thrilled by the time the weekend was over. Other Janome machine users were watching her with interest and left the weekend considering purchasing the machine for themselves. Ease of use was one of the best features of this machine.
Janome MC 500E embroidery machine
The lady sitting across from the new embroidery enthusiast had an older model Janome MC 9700. She watched the new user of the Janome 500E with avid interest. She is in the market for a newer model embroidery machine. Although she has been happy over the years with her Janome MC 9700, she wants a machine with more/larger hoops to use. She asked loads of questions about what the features of the new Janome 500E were while still stitching merrily away with her Janome MC 9700. She was stitching key tags made of leather and backed with felt and the machine handled it with ease.
Janome Memory Craft 9700 embroidery/sewing machine
Another member of this weekend retreat group was piecing quilt blocks with her Janome Skyline S5. She is thrilled with all the features of this machine and the lighter weight of the machine. This makes it easily portable for classes away from home. There is a large selection of stitches and feet that come with the machine and the automatic thread cutter is always a welcome feature.
Another lady at the retreat has a Janome Horizon MC15000 Quiltmaker. This is an upgraded version of the version 2 of the machine. She loves all the new features and feet for the Janome Horizon MC15000 Quiltmaker. She was busy stitching with both the embroidery and sewing functions of the machine. She loved the large letter fonts she could edit into a design to personalize gifts she was stitching for her children.
Janome Horizon MC 15000 Quiltmaker
The lady sitting across from me used to have another brand of embroidery machine a long time ago. When it was time to upgrade to a machine that had larger hoops and also some sewing functions, she looked around and did her research before deciding on the Janome Memory Craft 11000. She loved the user friendly format of the machine and was able to quickly use all the sewing and embroidery functions. She spent the weekend working on in-the-hoop projects that also included a small bit of sewing. She was so proud of being able to create multiple projects in a weekend.
Janome MC 11000 embroidery/sewing machine
I was able to use a Janome Memory Craft 6700P machine at the retreat. I had not spent much time with this machine up to that point and I found it to be a dream to stitch with. While I was doing embroidery on another machine, I was merrily quilting away with the Janome MC 6700P machine. I loved the ease of being able to select a decorative stitch and was able to quickly change my upper thread tension and presser foot pressure settings to the level I like to work with. I used my AcuFeed Flex foot with the quilt guide arm attached and was able to quilt the entire quilt in just a couple hours. I loved the LED lighting on the machine.
Janome Horizon MC 6700P quilting/sewing machine
As an educator, I was constantly asked questions about how to use the machines by the participants. They were all thrilled with the features they were learning about and how the features of one machine were also found on other models of the machines. Janome was well represented at this group function and it was great to see both older and newer models of machines all sewing well.
You can trust in the quality of Janome built machines. The longevity of the machines being used at this retreat was easily seen by all members. (I think I saw some envy by owners of other brands of machines who were eyeballing the Janome machines!)
Janome Life 