I had the opportunity to try out this new foot on my Janome MC 9400 and I love it! The QR foot is integral with its own foot holder, much like the Janome HP foot, which makes it super quick to attach to the machine.
With the new upgraded software for the Janome MC9400, you won’t have to worry about damaging your machine if you have the automatic presser foot lifter engaged. The Janome MC9400 will now know when – and when not – to use that feature.
You’ll notice that the QR foot is thicker than your other presser feet and while it can sometimes be difficult to see where you are stitching, that isn’t the case with the QR foot. Janome has kept this in mind when designing the QR foot to ensure you have the best visibility possible. The QR foot has a U-shaped cut out at the front of it so you can easily see your stitching path, which is so very helpful.
When using the QR foot, you’ll need to use quilting rulers, not cutting rulers. You may not be familiar with quilting rulers, but long-arm quilters have been using these for many years. They are thicker than the acrylic rulers that you use when cutting with your rotary cutter.
When working with the QR foot to do ruler quilting, you must use these quilting or long-arm rulers. They must be at least ¼” thick to avoid having the ruler slide under the foot and damaging the needle and possibly your Janome MC9400, and you certainly don’t want to do that!
While there are many quilting rulers to choose from, I would suggest getting a straight edge ruler to start to see if you like to do this technique before you invest lots of money in purchasing a variety of quilting rulers.
Read more about the QR foot and see it in action on my blog.
Remember, ruler work takes times and practice (as does any new technique), so start off slow and give the new QR ruler foot for the Janome MC9400 a try.
Happy stitching from Kim Jamieson-Hirst, a Janome Artisan creating in Calgary, AB.