Hi! I’m Amanda, a new Janome Canada Educator. 
As a part of my Educator role I have to learn about and try out a bunch of different machines! It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it! Janome sent me two machines to try, you may have seen my previous blog post about the M7 Continental! Janome sure did spoil me because they also sent me the Janome Memory Craft 550E!!!!! This is an embroidery only machine and is a major upgrade from the Janome 200E that I’ve been using the last few years.
My favourite part will always be opening the box! I know what to expect but that anticipation always gets me. I open up the top and I’m greeted with the largest embroidery hoop I’ve ever seen! It is massive! Think of all the things you could embroider in there! I’m fairly certain you can do the whole front of a shirt all in one go!
A few other doodads on the top of the styrofoam protection, a beautiful dust cover and manuals, instructional DVD and Embroidery Editor DVD plus the very important power cord and computer cable. Manuals may be a dry read but I tell you, this is where you unlock the full potential of your machine.
After removing the styrofoam layer I get to see the machine in real life!! Man, it’s big! So nice and white and look at all the accessories surrounding it! There are 3 more hoops! That means 4 hoops in total, a bag of accessories, cables (power and computer connection), a huge extension table and a few other little things.
Ok, can we talk about that display screen for a moment? That screen is a beautiful thing! AND it’s full colour! If you have ever used an embroidery machine with a monotone display you will understand my excitement for colour! The size alone of the display has me sold – Editing designs on there is going to be a breeze.
In the bag of accessories you will find a cute pair of scissors perfect for snipping threads, a high tension bobbin case, a few bobbins, 8 magnetic hoop clamps, a cleaning brush, some special bobbin cleaner, spare needles, assorted spool holders, an extra spool holder and two screwdrivers! All you really need to get started is some fabric, stabilizer and pretty threads!
I know I will start with a bunch of the built in designs but I want my first real project to be super fun!
If you have this machine, what would you want to stitch out first?
~Amanda