"meet: My Machine!" blog hop

Welcome to my stop on the hop. I hope you are having fun getting to know everyone's machine.

The blog hop started on Sunday so I hope you are having fun! If you are new to my blog, I am located in the United Kingdom and I have been quilting for about 10 years and blogging for nearly 4. My first machine was an Elna 2007 that I bought when I started sewing/quilting. I bought an Elna because my Mum had had an Elna for about 30 years and was very happy with it. My Mum has always sewn lots of clothes etc. Because I was starting I bought a very basic model and I must say things didn't go smoothly at all. I had to send it back a couple of times because the thread was always getting caught when I was sewing giving me a mess underneath... I was told various things, like change your needles every hour, it is too basic for what you want to do, no there isn't any problem, etc... I must have been determined to do patchwork because however frustrating these never ending problems were, I continued! I exchange it after about one year for the next model up and things improved from there.

The Elna 3007 worked a lot better even if it was still pretty basic. Once I really got into patchwork, my Mum, who is a biased admirer of what I do, offered to buy me a bigger number for my 25th birthday. So just before my 30th birthday I got a belated birthday present in my Janome Memory Craft 6500P. This is a wonderful machine. It is very sturdy and it is a semi-professional machine so it does go fast! My husband always joke that I must be going over the speed limit! It has a great number of fancy stitches (which I don't use so much) and 4 Alphabets. And it has a wider throat than most machine which helps when quilting. I love the fact that you can wind a bobbin while you do something else. I also love the thread cutter on the machine, so convenient when my scissors have disappeared which happen so often. The quilting table and the accessory are so useful for me (walking foot, darning foot or free motion quilting foot). The 1/4' foot is unfortunately not perfectly accurate (and I think it is a Janome's problem) but it is easy to go around the problem by moving the needle slightly off-centre. This is by all means my favourite machine. It also has a knee lift that I almost never use. I suppose I haven't make it a habit to use it but people who use it always comment how great it is, maybe one day!

In addition to my 6500P, a few years ago I treated myself to another Janome machine the Jem Platinum 760. It is the little sister, a great compact machine which works a treat for quilting too and is much more portable. I mainly bought it because it was so much lighter and so compact that it was a more practical machine to take with me when going to a class. This machine has also been known to go on holiday with me, because after all it is very compact! It is a bit noisier and given the choice, I prefer to work on the big sister but I love both machine. What I miss the most on this machine is the thread cutter that I have on the other one! This one is pictured on the dining room table in front of the curtains I finished making last week-end!

My own word of advice if you are on the market for a new machine, please take the time to try them out with whatever type of work you are planning to use your machine for. Test it to the limit, take your own fabric/wadding samples with you, try different stitches, check what the stitches are like. I once had to use a Bernina in a class and I absolutely hated it. I know lots of quilters love Bernina but it just didn't work for me. I tried 2 during the class and it was a nightmare. I was so glad I found out before I went and bought a machine!

Also treat your machine well, have it serviced and professional cleaned every so often and don't forget to clean yourself occasionally. I don't change my needle as often as I should but that makes a difference too!
This topic is a must) Please tell us about your current machine - make, model, etc. (and if there's any story behind you obtaining it, etc.)

My machine is set up in the newly installed or in installation sewing room/office. I bought a table from IKEA a few years back, that was adjustable in height. I am tall so I needed a table which was high enough so I didn't put any strain on my back and neck and I use an office chair that can be adjusted too. My sewing room is never as tidy as I wish it was unfortunately but time is so short. Plus at the moment it is still a work in progress. I have a cheap fleece blanket pined to the wall which acts as a design wall, it is great because fabric sticks to it without the need for pins. You can see some BBC blocks and polaroids on there as well as an art piece from Miss Strawberry Shortcake that she did for Mother's Day.

I am storing my fabric in IKEA white boxes, organising the fabric by colour or theme.

I also have some baskets for my scraps, again organised by colours. And then I have a lots of different transparent boxes for my ribbons etc.

I store my coloured thread in a lovely wooden box with a vintage sewing machine on top that I found in a shop in... Center Parcs (!) a few years back. I had noticed it and DH encouraged me to buy it! So sweet.

And my rulers and scissors/cutters are on the wall. I have this gorgeous hoop that I received last year from the Hoop La La swap which holds everything sharp away from little hands!

Now if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would love to buy a Janome Horizon MCQ7700. It seems to be such a fantastic machine. Although realistically, I don't think I need a new machine... unless I got it for free of course! Thanks for your visit, I hope you have enjoyed your time with me and you'll come back again. If you want to tell us about your machine too, link up on Stacey's blog here

And don't forget to hop over to Carly and Patti's blogs where they will tell you more about their machines!
Carly @ Citric Sugar
Patti @ A Yankee in Queen Liz's Court
 See you soon!
Celine