New sewing machine - Janome Horizon 7700 QCP

The day has come. I finally decided to buy me a new sewing machine. 

Up to now I was sewing on a simple Singer Mercury 8280. The cheapest home sewing machine I could get those days (I payed for it about 100€) but when I was buying it, I wasn't even thinking about sewing quilts at all. I bought it, because what I wanted to sew were cat show curtains (I was going to cat shows with my two maine coons for about a year when they were younger). 

After a time I made my first baby quilt for a friend and learned new techniques on that little Singer machine. I think that for the prize, my Singer is working pretty well and I guess I did show, that to sew more complicated things you really do not need an expensive sewing machine. Well, indeed, an expensive sewing machine makes things easier (hey, I was finally buying me one ;) ), but with a bit of will you can achieve much using a usual one :)

The most challenging was the art quilt with geisha which I made for this year's Maine Quilt Festival and I finally realised that if I wanted to go further with making better art quilts I need machine with bigger throat and the variety of stitches. 

And here it is... my new 'baby':

Wreszcie nadszedl czas... Zdecydowalam sie kupic nowa maszyne do szycia. Do tej pory szylam na Singerze Mercury 8280. Kupilam go gdy zaczelam jezdzic z kotami na wystawy i potrzebowalam zaslonek do klatki wystawowej. Stwierdzilam, ze za cene nowych, gotowych zaslonek kupie sobie maszyne i sama sobie takie uszyje. I kupilam: najtansza maszyne dostepna wtedy na rynku (o quiltach nie mialam jeszcze zielonego pojecia kupujac tego Singera).

Czas lecial, w koncu dowiedzialam sie co to patchwork i uszylam pierwszy quilt dla kolezanki, a potem juz samo poszlo. Probowanie nowych rzeczy, nowych technik... dalam rade na tym malutkim Singerze. Pomimo wszelkich jego ograniczen, dalam rade. 

Najwiekszym wyzwaniem bylo uszycie art quilt'u z gejsza na tegoroczna wystawe w Aschaffenburg'u. Wtedy wlasnie sobie uswiadomilam, ze zeby isc dalej i sie rozwijac, musze zainwestowac w nowa maszyne, bo w tym momencie to wlasnie mozliwosci mojej obecnej maszyny mnie ograniczaja. Chcialam kupic maszyne z dluzszym ramieniem i ciekawymi sciegami. 

I oto ona:

Janome comes with an extension table. It's very usefull for sewing bigger pieces like art quilts or quilt tops or for quilting:

Do maszyny dolaczony jest stolik. Bardzo ulatwia prace z duzymi rzeczami jak art quilt'y i narzuty. Przy pikowaniu jest wrecz niezastapiony:

And here'e a little comparison with my old Singer. Janome has 28cm (11") long throat. Singer only 13cm (5"): 

A to dla porownania. Janome Horizon 7700 ma ramie dlugie na 28cm, a Singer tylko 13cm: