Flying Needles Wind-Up (20)

Here’s some fabulous pictures from our Flying Needles Quilt Guild Wind-up, What fun!!

Apron Challenge:

Mystery Quilt Finalists

President’s Challenge

Thanks to all the ladies for participating in all of our wonderful events throughout the year, another year is finished and another year’s planning is in the works, Look out – we have some amazing things coming up next year!!!

Around the Net: New Sewing Machine Tool & Sponsorship (123)

So I’m gazing around the net and I come across Sheila’s Blog and she’s writing about this new gadget for our sewing machines…interest piqued?

It’s used to make perfect circles & curves and is supposed to be adaptable for all makes and models and years – can you say, bliss? Someone actually invented something so universal? Check out this site Just Curves as she is the inventor of this great gadget. I love piecing and I love piecing curves even more 🙂 Thanks for this!!

Don’t forget to sign up for our Quarterly Newsletter chalked full of all of the most exciting posts, new stuff that’s coming, classes, patterns and sew much more next one will be ready to send out in July.

Don’t forget to vote on our Block of the Months coming up this fall there as there is something for everyone and we need YOUR help deciding 🙂

Until next time, have a happy and creative day!!

 

Janome Horizon 7700 Review (entry 122)

Hi all, so the last couple of weeks I’ve been consumed with my new machine.  Grab a cappu and get ready for a good story….

So it all started May long weekend when Jeff and I went to Kelowna on a spur of the moment camping weekend.  One of my favourite shops in Kelowna is Linda’s Quilt Shop/Jims Vacuum Shop and as we were driving by they were having a huge tent sale on sewing machines…do we dare stop 🙂

So after stopping and spending over 3 hours questioning and trying the Janome Horizon 7700, I decided to take the plunge and buy it.  Thanks so much to Jim for all of his time and such a great deal.

Fast forward a week…. The machine arrived in the mail and I spent the next several days working with it and figuring out all the stuff I like and dislike.  As many of you know, I’ve always been a Husqvarna girl (Lily 555 was my 1st and Platinum 770 my 2nd) and so far I have to say there are quite a few differences between the machines.

I’ll start with the likes between this machine and my Husqy. 

  • Thread cutter – love it.
  • Stitch memory and recall the last stitch – you can set the stitch length and width and save it for next time you turn on your machine, in my case the 1/4″ needle position and length of stitch – love it!! Also, because this is the most popular stitch I use everytime I turn my machine on it goes to that stitch automatically.
  • So much quieter which is great for those long night watching TV and sewing.
  • The throat area is almost 11″ it’s amazing.
  • All the feet that I need came with it including the Accufeed Walking foot system – awesome as you don’t have to attached a walking foot contraption to the machine, you just add the special foot and connect the lever to the foot.

Dislikes:

  • 1/4″ foot guide came bent.
  • The precision of the sewing isn’t what I’m used to, I cannot control the foot pedal to sew nice and slow and continuous, the foot control isn’t as responsive as my Husqy. 
  • The feet when connected to the shaft are a very wiggly, this was something that truly bothered me ALOT so my hubby sat with me and added a piece of tape to the side of the shaft to add some padding now the feet fit nice and snug, phew.
  • My needle threader came broken, the needle in the machine was also bent.
  • Don’t like the tension on the presser foot, it’s so tight even on the lightest setting.
  • Dealing with Janome Canada Ltd. has been a nightmare !!!!!

So phoned the dealership in Kelowna where I purchased it from (Jims Sewing Centre) and discussed the questions with my machine with Jim Findlay like I’ve listed above as well as the broken threader. He said for me to take it to Sewing World here in Calgary and talk to them as they are a certified dealer. The warranty did I mention is for 17 years!! Amazing right? Well according to Steve Rice of Sewing World in Calgary the warranty is with the shop not the machine. So called Jim back in Kelowna and he says…no no the warranty is with the machine he said he would cover any costs that might be incurred with Sewing World in Calgary and people move all the time, bla, bla, bla so I decide to call Janome directly to find out exactly – BIG MISTAKE!!

“Oh, by the way, I did take my machine to Steve at Sewing World here in Calgary and he did check out and adjust the needle threader for me at no charge so thanks to Steve for that. He did explain again to me that the warranty is with the shop as Janome doesn’t reimburse for labour costs to the dealer even though the warranty card states that all parts and warrant are covered for the 1st 2 years.”

Anyway, it’s the end of the day last Friday and Lynn from Janome answers the phone, I kind of give her a run down of my situation and ask about the warranty card.  She preceded to tell me that she would be mad if she was Sewing World in Calgary and that she wouldn’t help me since I bought the machine from somewhere else! As you can imagine I was quite surprise by her response.  I said that people move all the time and need to get their machines serviced.  She told me that was not that type of situation… I told her that the warranty card says that I can go to any authorized dealer for warranty issues and questions.  She was so rude, and said that this was not the case and she didn’t have a warranty card in front of he, so she can’t comment.  I was so surprised by her lack of professionalism and rudeness… and because it was the end of the day there wasn’t anyone else there for me to speak to.  She said she couldn’t help me and that she would have someone contact me this week.  I also called the warranty number (assuming it went to the same office as Lynn’s) and left a message asking for someone to contact me from their warranty dept… it’s now Thursday and I haven’t heard a thing as of yet.

When I talked to Jim in Kelowna I was feeling so discouraged.  It has been such a bad experiance with Janome Canada Ltd (particularly Lynn) I’m considering sending my machine back just because of all of the discrepancies and contradictions with the warranty…they have a no return policy, of course!

I’ve been sewing on it a bit more this week and getting used to it – I do like it BUT I haven’t heard from anyone at Janome regarding either message about my questions and concerns… so frustrating!!

Have any of you purchased the Horizon 7700, do you like it?  Did you switch from another machine like Bernina or Husqvarna I’m curious to know what you think, likes and dislikes. I would also like to know if any of you out there has had a similar problem with warranty?

Thank so much for taking the time to read through this and leaving any advice or comments!!