Quilting with the Circular Sewing Attachment on the Janome M7

If you’ve never played with the Janome Circular Sewing Attachment, it’s time to give it a try! I’ve enjoyed using this optional attachment to create intriguing designs with decorative stitches on my projects with other Janome models and even used it to create a cute hanging ornament (for details on this project, click here).

Hanging ornament made with the Circular Sewing Attachment

Recently I decided to use it on the Janome Continental M7 to add quilting to a wall hanging and it was so effective that I’m tempted to do a whole cloth project with it!

Wall Hanging quilted with the Circular Sewing Attachment

Before I get into the details of how I used the Janome Circular Sewing Attachment to add more interest to my project, I want to let you know which part number works for the Janome M7 as there are several different ones available. The Circular Sewing Attachment that works for the Janome M7 is part no. 202135007. For detailed information on how to attach the Circular Sewing Attachment to the Janome M7, click here.  Your local Janome dealer can provide information to you on the circular attachments which are available for our other Janome models.

Circular Sewing Attachment for the Janome M7

The project I was working on included raw edge appliqués made from crumb fabric. As this was a small project and there was lots of negative space around the appliqués, I decided to use the decorative stitches on the Janome M7 and the Circular Sewing Attachment to quilt the background first before adding the appliqués and additional free motion quilting. I traced the appliqué locations so I would know where to put them after the quilting was done. Quilting first made it so much easier as I didn’t have to dance around the appliqué pieces when quilting.

Appliqué locations marked (photo is after quilting is finished)

I didn’t want to use decorative stitches and circles on the entire piece. Although I could have done this, I wanted to use them in areas where they would really stand out. I decided to add quarter corner circles to the top and bottom corners of the project.

With the hundreds of decorative stitches available on the Janome M7, I had my work cut out for me to choose just a few of them. I did some practise stitch outs, adjusted some of the stitch widths and lengths and managed to come up with several different stitches that would work on this project.

For the top right corner of the project, I decided to do 2 quarter circles, very close to one another, using a straight stitch. I wanted these to be a few inches away from the corner and they were going to be a boundary to corral the free motion quilting that I wanted to add closer to the corner. I lengthened my stitch length and stitched these down. I chose some bumps and free motion quilted these in the top right corner. I loved the look of the double quarter circles that formed the edge of this part of the quilting.

The two closely stitched circles really helped to section off this part of the project

Now it was time for the bottom left side of the project. I had already chosen my decorative stitches and now had to decide their placement, Again, these were quarter circles and I spaced them about an inch away from one another. I only wanted to use the decorative stitches in this corner and didn’t intend to add any additional free motion quilting in that corner.

Decorative stitches formed quarter circles at the bottom

Now that I had finished adding the decorative stitches with the Circular Sewing Attachment, it was time to set up the Janome M7 to add the rest of the free motion quilting to the project and put on the appliqués. To see the entire process and the end result, click here.

I believe that many quilters think of the Circular Sewing Attachment only as a way to add extra embellishments to a project. Now I hope you’ll start seeing the possibilities of combining decorative stitches made with the Circular Sewing Attachment with free motion quilting.

Happy creating from Kim Jamieson-Hirst of Chatterbox Quilts, a Janome Canada Artisan in Calgary, Alberta.